As many in the world focused on international climate talks and an attack on the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, France remained transfixed by the news that a beloved and aging French rock star known as the French Elvis was in a medically induced coma in a Los Angeles hospital. Long-awaited news about President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to invest in universities and new businesses received far less coverage in most news media than the news about the singer, Johnny Hallyday. Even Le Monde, one of France’s most serious newspapers, weighed in with an editorial bemoaning the rocker’s illness, saying it...