French reaction to the Kate Middleton shots has been much more muted. Paul Ackermann, editor of the Huffington Post in France, says, "Over here, it's not really the pictures that people are interested in" — they're mainly interested in how Brits will respond. And columnist Guy Birenbaum told HuffPo, "The 'Royals' naked? Who cares, right? In any case, I do not care."

Some in France are criticizing the decision to run the photos — one columnist writes that "respect for privacy is obviously an abstract concept for the management of Closer." But so far, there seems to have been far less outcry about semi-nude photos taken of a woman sunbathing at a private house than there was over images of a clothed man taken in the course of his arrest for a serious crime. The debate over whether perp walks prejudice juries and the public is worth having, but it's surprising that a country that thinks photographically documenting arrests is an outrage is so unconcerned about invasion of privacy.

Of course, Closer may not be especially concerned with Dominique Strauss-Kahn's privacy either — the tabloid was the first to break the news that his wife Anne Sinclair was planning to divorce him. Closer may be more interested in generating gossip than in the ethics of either perp walks or topless pics. But Pieau's statement still rings a bit hollow: if the Middleton photos were really so unremarkable, why did she see fit to publish them?