Wax Obama Tours Eiffel Tower

By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 29, 2009 2:33 PM CDT
Wax Obama Tours Eiffel Tower
The life-size wax model of President Barack Obama is shaded from the sun during its presentation near the Eiffel Tower in Paris today.   (AP Photo)

Complete with new gray hairs and two bodyguards, a wax version of President Barack Obama took a trip to the Eiffel Tower today. The hot summer sun threatened to melt the fake president's face, prompting helpers to shade him with an umbrella. The statue then traveled to Paris' Musée Grevin wax museum, where it will stand as part of a heads-of-state display alongside renditions of Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, and Vladimir Putin.

Sculptor Eric Saint Chaffray had never seen Obama in person. "The main difficulty is making it without meeting him, from press photos," he said at the statue's unveiling. He evidently did a good job—the resemblance was so uncanny that some tourists stopped for a photo opportunity. "It looks really cool," said one American. "Everyone was joking that he was actually here and that we were gonna take pictures with him." (More Barack Obama stories.)

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