The eyes of Caligula and the mouth of Marilyn Monroe

We were talking of a very wicked blonde. I said to the Anglicised and Anglophile Romanian lawyer that Mitterrand's famous remark applied to her too - he said Mrs. Thatcher had 'the eyes of Caligula and the body of Marilyn Monroe'. The lawyer, who admires Margaret Thatcher greatly, said he found it hard to believe that Mitterrand said that - the Marylin Monroe bit - and I tried to explain that, though in my twenties Mrs. Thatcher was far too old for me to be interested in her as a woman, she was a very attractive woman for her age with wonderful legs and a very impressive torso -  much the most appealing of the 20-odd women MPs England had in that far-off era. 

In those days, I agreed with Giscard, who said of Mrs. Thatcher, 'I don't like her as a man or as a woman.' I have changed my opinion since.


It occurs to me now that it is impossible to like a woman as a man. But is it possible to like a certain kind of man as a woman? Yes, which is why women often like camp or homosexual men.


Actually I got it wrong. Mitterand is supposed to have said the eyes of Caligula and the mouth of Marilyn Monroe. And according to the very reliable Charles Moore her official biographer what he really said was  ‘the voice of Marilyn Monroe and the eyes of Stalin.'