Photo a Big Problem for Petite Prez

French President Nicholas Sarkozy is often compared to Napoleon. He's fiery, has a beautiful wife and wants to rebuild the country's image. There's something else he has in common with the French emperor, as CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports.

It was a short photo-opportunity that's turned into a long story. Something about French President Nicholas Sarkozy's visit to an auto parts plant in northern France didn't measure up.

None of the workers in the white coats chosen to stand around Sarkozy was taller than the French president, who's listed in the program as five-foot-five and is known to be a little vertically sensitive. Sarkozy surrounded by shorter people does not happen often - and this wasn't an accident.

The President's aids are accused of busing in workers who satisfied one small criteria: size. When one worker was asked if she was chosen for her size, she replied, "oui."

Sarkozy's office says the idea they shrunk the audience is stretching the truth, but the French public has become used to their president's attempts to gain stature.

Sarkozy's ex-model wife - the five-foot-nine Carla Bruni - often wears flats in his presence, while he wears the heels in the family.

Sharing a stage with other world leaders can produce its own vertical challenges. At the D-Day commemoration this year, Sarkozy rose to that challenge by standing on a box.

"He's really obsessed about his look. And also during the last summer, he spent a lot of time on dieting because he was a bit fat and when you are fat and short, it's a problem," said RTL Paris Correspondent Jerome Godefroy.

There is precedent in France for the little man accomplishing big things. The last one who managed it, Napoleon, had a complex named after him.