It would be a cliche and unkind as well to call this "Beauty and the Beast" or "Princess and the Frog" although those terms spring to mind when thinking of the very long term relationship (don't call it an engagement, at least yet) between Hong Kong and international film actress and producer Michelle Yeoh and Formula One honcho and former Ferrari CEO Jean Todt. At least twice Todt has announced that they were engaged to be married; each time Yeoh denied that was the case. While both of them are very successful, Michelle Yeoh is an ethnically Chinese citizen of Malaysia. She is tall, elegant and athletic, much in demand by fashion houses the world over to wear their outfits at the world's most publicized film festivals, charity galas and fashion shows. Jean Todt is a Frenchman whose father was a Polish Jew who came to France to get away from the Nazis. He is short, inelegant and might be paid by men's clothing designers not to wear their lines in public.
Todt is highly thought of in the world of motor racing. He took over the moribund Ferrari F-1 constructors team and put it back on top of the standings. Ferrari rewarded him by making the CEO of the entire company, a position he left in order to campaign for and be elected as president of FIA, the world-wide governing body of F-1, the richest and most watched racing operation in the world.
I have long been intrigued by this odd couple from different cultures, continents and professions and have been collecting bits and pieces of information and images. Below are very recent pictures from the Fall/Winter collection of Robert Cavalli in Milan featuring the two of them in the front row.
An oddly framed but effective shot from the other side of the runway:
In case anyone was wondering who interested the photographers:
All images from Zimbio.
Well if Jean Todt can attract Michelle Yeoh, then there's hope for all of us! Unless the $$$ is a factor. :P
ReplyDeletePairings like this seem like proof that homo sapiens are not immune to the general primate principle of food for sex: i.e., the males tend to fixate on sex (and prefer healthier, more beautiful partners) whereas the females fixate on which partner can better provide them with food (and other creature comforts that, in the human world, one needs money and power and such to come by)!
ReplyDeleteA number of years ago one of the auto blogs said that a Todt and Yeoh romance/relationship showed how unfair the universe was. I will have another post on some of the response but the reaction from men went from disbelief to deep anguish. One auto blogger wrote that it showed conclusively that a benevolent god didn't exist.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Michelle Yeoh is or has been short of cash and while Jean Todt is a successful executive he is from a middle class family. Compared with the vast wealth of her first husband, Dickson Poon, he is on his uppers.