Sarko Uses Footstool to Measure Up to Obama

At 5 feet 5 inches, Nicolas Sarkozy seems to feel a bit stature-challenged—so at the recent D-Day tribute, he used a 6-inch footstool, in addition to his elevator shoes, to hold his own against Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, the Daily Mail reports. Sarko “knew he was appearing on the same podium as far taller world leaders, and would have looked ridiculous” without it, says a French TV source.

"You'd barely have been able to see his hair bobbing up and down," the source adds, while the Mail can't resist noting that Sarkozy is even shorter than the famously diminutive Napoleon—who the paper reports was 5'6"—and that French first lady Carla Bruni, herself no slouch at 5'9", is incessantly chided for wearing flats to avoid towering over her husband.

(More Nicolas Sarkozy stories.)