Clearly, opposites attract. Just consider the marriage between incoming Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his wife Miyuki. While Hatoyama, head of the upstart Democratic Party of Japan, is largely viewed in Japan as one of the duller members of a fairly colorless profession, Miyuki, an inspirational speaker and former actress, is literally out of this world. She has recently written a book in which she revealed that her soul has traveled via UFO to Venus — a planet she described as "an extremely beautiful place" and "very green." She also confessed to eating the sun ("Like this: yum, yum, yum. It gives me enormous energy") and hanging out with Tom Cruise (in a previous life, when Cruise was apparently Japanese). Hatoyama, who harbors ambitions of starring alongside Cruise in a movie one day, knows exactly what she'll say to him when they cross paths on set. "He would recognize me when I see him and say 'Long time, no see!,'" she told a TV talk-show host earlier in the year.
Though Imelda Marcos may be best known for her extensive collection of shoes, gowns, and jewelry, there was much more to her. The former beauty queen married then-Philippine Congressman Ferdinand E. Marcos, who would become the country's 10th President in 1966. And Imelda, whom Marcos appointed to various positions in government, was a polarizing figure early on; in 1972, an assailant, Carlito Dimahilig, tried to stab her to death during a televised award ceremony.
The current Secretary of State served as a distinguished First Lady in the 1990s. But, according to respected journalist Bob Woodward, Hillary has held imaginary conversations with the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi as a means of therapeutic release. The claims came in Woodward's 1997 book The Choice and were apparently backed up by Clinton herself, who admitted in her nationally syndicated "Talking It Over" column that she'd "talked" to Roosevelt about the role of a First Lady. "She usually responds by telling me to buck up, or at least to grow skin as thick as a rhinoceros," noted Bill Clinton. Considering she went on to become elected twice as Senator from New York, run for President and serve as Secretary of State, it's advice she has no doubt taken to heart.
Leave it to the French to have a First Lady who in most other countries would be on posters hung in teenage boys' bedrooms. The Italian music star and former supermodel has famously declared that she's "bored by monogamy." She has also disguised her voice when going out shopping to avoid being recognized (a ploy that must only work on the blind), had an affair with Rolling Stone Mick Jagger (which contributed to Jagger and Jerry Hall getting divorced) and has appeared in nude photos and sex tapes — both of which were subsequently stolen. The latest rumor about France's First Lady, whom President Nicolas Sarkozy married in early 2008 just three months after divorcing his first wife Cécilia, is that she has been cast in the next Woody Allen movie.
It's been said that Betty Ford's impact on American culture may be far wider and more lasting than that of her husband, President Gerald Ford. Nevertheless, the woman once dubbed the country's Fighting First Lady by this very publication did have some quirks. In addition to being open about the benefits of psychiatric treatment, she spoke with compassion about marijuana use and premarital sex. (The First Lady wasn't shy with her opinions on marital sex either, once saying that if she were to be asked how often she and the President had sex, her response would be, "as often as possible.") And along the closed corridors of the White House, she was known to do the Bump (a dance fad of the 1970s), wear a mood ring and chat away on her CB radio. Her handle? First Mama. There was a darker side to Ford, of course, which came to a head in 1978 when her family staged an intervention to make her confront her battle with alcoholism and dependence on pills. Four years later, after her recovery, Ford founded the California addiction-treatment center that continues to bear her name.
In 1988, former Reagan chief of staff Donald Regan revealed in his memoir For the Record that Nancy had regularly consulted an astrologer during the 1980s after her husband was wounded in an assassination attempt. More recently, she told Vanity Fair that, "It sounds strange, but ... I see Ronnie. At nighttime, if I wake up, I think Ronnie's there, and I start to talk to him. It's not important what I say. But the fact is, I do think he's there. And I see him." Then President-elect Barack Obama fanned these particular flames when, during his first press conference after winning the 2008 election, he said that's he'd spoken to all his living predecessors but "didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any séances." Obama quickly apologized "for the careless and offhanded remark."
First lady Mary Todd Lincoln — who has been cited as the most eccentric American First Lady of all time — is said to have held occult gatherings in an attempt to communicate with the dead, including the Lincolns' son Willie, who died during his father's first term. What's more, she claimed to have psychic abilities and swore that she had foreseen her husband's election. If only she had warned him not to attend Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865. Abraham Lincoln
To say that Iceland's First Lady, the Israeli-born Dorrit Moussaieff, has a mind constantly whirring with ideas is underplaying it ever so slightly. Just a handful of exports and specialities she'd like to make Iceland known for: Omega3-oil pills, genetic testing, LazyTown (the children's TV show), knee operations, spas, bottled water and lamb. And that's saying nothing of the disused airbase she apparently stumbled across and now wants to transform into a store for art collections. Moussaieff doesn't hold back when it comes to her opinions either. The global economic crisis that left Iceland effectively bankrupt has now, according to Moussaieff, made the country "good value"; she dismissed the mass closure of several Icelandic retail outlets, telling the Times of London earlier this year that she believed "only one shop has closed down." She also told the paper that "You could say I despise politicians." Presumably that doesn't include her husband, President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson.
Elizabeth Virginia Wallace Truman was known as Bess and has been widely quoted when it comes to the ghosts of Presidents past stalking 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. "I'm sure they're here," her husband, President Harry Truman once complained, "and I'm not half so alarmed at meeting up with any of them as I am at having to meet the live nuts I have to see every day." Bess, the story goes, once opened the door to a knock and reported seeing Abraham Lincoln standing there. "What can I do for you, Mr. President?" she apparently asked. With that, Lincoln sensibly vanished.
Former British Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher's better half, Denis, often courted controversy during her 11-year tenure. Months after Thatcher's election in 1979, and as apartheid was in effect, Denis defended a British Lions rugby tour of South Africa. "We are a free people, playing an amateur game," he barked, "and we have the right to play where the hell we like." When news broke of Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982, Denis later recalled "looking at the Times Atlas of the World to find out where the bloody hell they were." But when it came to food, his tastes were somewhat blander: he liked soups, corned beef and baked beans on toast and once sent back his poussin to the kitchen with these words ringing in the waiter's ears: "I want you to take it away, kill it and cook it." As for drink (and it's fair to say that Denis liked one), he would refuse ice as it "diluted the alcohol." Cheers!
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