He's an eloquent German conservative with perfectly gelled dark hair and she's a slim, attractive mother who has campaigned for years for parents and schools to act against child sex abuse. Meet Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the German defence minister, and his glamorous wife Stephanie, who are being hyped up in parts of the German media as the future first couple to lead Germany.
Commentators say Guttenberg, 38, lacks the necessary power base and experience in Germany's party system to make a grab for the chancellorship - but that has not diminished his stellar popularity or weeks of fascination in the media about the couple's doings.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine, an opinion leader among German conservatives, was last week discussing the chances for Guttenberg if there were an ouster of Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose poll ratings keep slipping amid perceptions she is out of touch and indecisive. This week, the liberal news magazine Der Spiegel had the couple on the front cover with the legend "The Fabulous Guttenbergs: Twosome for the Chancellery" and some airbrushing to resemble an early 1960s image of US President John F and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
Guttenberg has denied such ambitions and described the whole discussion as "bizarre" and "poppycock." "In the business of politics you must never get the feeling that you are a star. You just damn well get on with your job," he said. Guttenberg's pro-enterprise political philosophy is barely touched when the defence minister appears on the TV talk shows.
His huge following is largely about style, as Michael Greven, a political science professor at the University of Hamburg, points out. "One reason for his rise is the colourlessness and dullness of all the other politicians we've got," said Greven in an interview. "By comparison, he's a model of modernity, glamour and unstuffiness."
Both the Guttenbergs come from aristocratic families and always look perfectly turned out, whether in formal attire or casuals. "What's notable is that he is not only followed on the political pages, but also by the gossip and people media, and therefore a much broader section of the public is aware of him," said Greven.
"He's good looking, a baron, got a pretty wife and he does an okay political job." In another country that might all be unremarkable. "But in the German political world he is dazzling," he said. After spells picking up a law doctorate, becoming an army officer, writing for a newspaper and managing the family's building supplies business, he entered parliament in 2002 and was appointed economics minister in February 2009.
Moving to defence, he has been assigned a kind of mission impossible: slashing the 250,000-strong armed forces by up to one-third while keeping soldiers and pro-defence conservatives happy. He has consistently led recent surveys of the "top 10" German politicians by ZDF public television.
Stephanie zu Guttenberg has developed a high-profile career of her own, as president of the German section of Innocence in Danger, a group that publicises ways of protecting the under-aged from sex predators. This summer she launched a co-written advice book, Don't Look Away, explaining to parents and teachers how to spot sexual abuse.
She has come under some criticism for being a guest on a low-brow TV channel's sensationalist "reality" series where alleged paedophiles are exposed with the help of concealed cameras. Greven says it would be a mistake to confuse the defence minister's public impact with his actual standing in the halls of power, not least because he belongs to the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union (CSU) which is separate from Merkel's party.
Every chancellor ever hoisted into power by the two-party alliance has come from majority Christian Democratic Union (CDU). "So much would have to change before the Christian Democrats would make a man from the CSU the chancellor," Greven said. Nor has Guttenberg ever had to win over the swing votes at the centre which make or break German governments.
The CSUleader and premier of Bavaria state, Horst Seehofer, said last week that reports that Guttenberg might be after his job were "mush." Officials quickly pointed out that the Bavarian constitution reserves the premiership to persons 40 or older. Guttenberg's 40th birthday is not till November 3 next year.
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