A far-right French politician is suing one of Madonna's ex-boyfriends for nearly $55,000—all because of an unflattering selfie taken on an airplane. Jean-Marie Le Pen—whom the Telegraph labels a "veteran xenophobic firebrand"—is miffed that the now-viral photo of him snoozing away in his airplane seat may have helped cost his daughter, Marine Le Pen, and the National Front party she leads, the win in French regional elections in December, the BBC reports. Dancer Brahim Zaibat, who used to date Madonna, snapped the pic and posted it on Dec. 12 on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, along with the caption: "Knock out [the National Front] tomorrow by going to vote. Preserve our fraternal France!!! #Iloveit." The photo took off on social media—it's already garnered more than 195,000 likes on Facebook—and the timing couldn't have come at a worse time for Le Pen: The French elections were the very next day.
Per the Telegraph, polls suggested the National Front could potentially win up to four of the country's 12 regions—but it ended up taking exactly zero. And Zaibat admits that he captured Le Pen in mid-snooze a couple of months before he posted it but scheduled its release "for maximum effect," the paper notes. In his breach of privacy suit, Jean-Marie Le Pen is seeking not only the $55,000, but also an apology on social media and $10,000 per day that Zaibat doesn't apologize after the ruling. "Do you find it normal to be photographed while asleep on a plane? The court will decide," the elder Le Pen told French website Rue89, via the Telegraph. Zaibat's Madonna link isn't a gratuitous mention, either: During her 2012 world tour, the singer beamed a video during her concerts that showed an image of Marine Le Pen with a swastika on her forehead and Hitler's eyes, the paper notes. (Here's what France's own Donald Trump had to say about Muslims.)
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