Barbra Streisand performed her first concert in France this week, and was awarded with an honorary medal of the Legion Of Honour by new president Nicolas Sarkozy. He told the singer "You are the America that we love. Women like you ... do a lot to bring our two peoples together."
It's the first time he's bestowed the honour, ordinarily reserved for French citizens but sometimes awarded in an honorary capacity to foreigners. Streisand told Sarkozy that he reminded her of former US presidents Bill Clinton and John F Kennedy, because of the way that they "appreciated art, and recognised the importance of the arts in the world".