Introducing...Filippa Reinfeldt

Who is she and why is she famous?

Filippa Reinfeldt is a successful local politician and Sweden's new 'first lady'.

Right. And why is she in the news?

Because she has just done a Christmas photo shoot for Amelia magazine that has rubbed some people up the wrong way.

Like who?

Well, a columnist for one of the main papers described her yuletide penchant for bun-baking as 'Christmas porn'.

What, like Santa Claus kissing mommy before going back up the chimney? That kind of thing?

No, I think it was meant more metaphorically, like an orgy of all things Christmassy. Though the column did mention that the pictures show her 'steaming with Christmas eroticism, wearing her apron and bearing almond mussels.'

Her almond mussels? Is that some sort of a code word?

No, it's a dessert. She's very particular about her almond mussels. One year she left her brother-in-law in charge of them and ended up with crullers instead.

She ended up with what? Have we switched languages all of a sudden?

We certainly have not. A cruller is a sort of deep-fat-fried bun in the form of a coil or a twist. A lot of people know that without having to be told.

All right, no need to get snotty. She has a very striking smile, doesn't she?

She does. One commentator rather cruelly referred to it as her 'Knutby smile'.

What's that?

It's the kind of smile you get from a member of a Christian sect just before they kill you because God told them to.

Well I think it's kind of nice. Why is she so happy?

She has had a very satisfactory career for one thing. Until the election she was mayor of the Stockholm suburb of Täby, where she is enormously popular. While her husband was off becoming prime minister, she led the Moderate Party to a landslide victory in the couple's home town. Now she has just started her new job as a leading county councillor in Stockholm.

They sound like a busy couple, the Reinfeldts. Do they have any kids?

They do indeed. Three little Reinfeldts have seen the light of day so far. Filippa once admitting that love-making was one of her main vices.

Oh really? What other vices does she have?

She reads Tom Clancy and Patricia Highsmith novels like they were going out of fashion. She also likes listening to the music of Per Gessle, the male member of Roxette. And she is strongly rumoured to have dated E-Type in her youth.

E-Type? Is that a blood group or a person?

Now now, be nice! E, or Mr Type to you, is the undisputed king of Swedish Eurodance.

So why didn't their alleged relationship last?

Maybe Filippa devised a Christmas bun test. With his shaved head and reliable ways, Fredrik definitely has something of the almond mussel about him. Mr Type, on the other hand, with his musician's lifestyle and Michael Bolton hair, is a clear cruller. When you look at it like that, the prime minister was always going to get to pull the cracker.