Hollande’s alleged lover’s Oscar nod

Julie Gayet, the actress reported to have had an affair with president François Hollande, has been nominated for the French equivalent of an Oscar — for playing a super-sexy vamp.

Gayet has played a leading role in the soap opera that has gripped France for weeks. But it is as supporting actress in Bertrand Tavernier’s Quai d’Orsay, a comedy about life at the French foreign ministry, that she has been nominated for a Cesar, the most prestigious prize in French cinema.

In the film, Gayet plays the role of a mini-skirted adviser to the minister, who is not shy about using her seductive powers and suspenders to get what she wants.

Gayet’s affair with Hollande was revealed this month by Closer magazine in a scoop that prompted the president to end his long-term relationship with Valerie Trierweiler.

It is not known whether Hollande, 59, has continued his liaison with Gayet, a respected character actress who has appeared in more than 70 films and is also an activist for the president’s Socialist Party.