So what if HTC were to announce its own multi-touch device -- based on the lovely Elf -- just days before the iPhone's release?

ENGADGET: Is HTC's "major announcement" a multi-touch device?

Mr Dumas has insisted that he did not know Ms Deviers-Joncour's role as an Elf lobbyist during their affair.

BBC: French ex-minister spared jail term

El Hadj Omar Bongo, the president of oil-rich Gabon exposed in 1997 during France's notorious Elf Aquitaine bribery scandal, was a private banking client dating back to 1970.

FORBES: Private Banking: R.I.P.

The glue that melds Applixware Office's features together into coherent applications is an object-oriented macro programming language called ELF (Extension Language Facility).

CNN: Review: Applixware Office 5.0 for Linux

"I knew Zooey's music from Elf, " recalls Ward, referring to the songs her shop-clerk character sang in the Christmas comedy starring Will Ferrell.

NPR: Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward as She & Him

Deschanel, who's dabbled in jazz cabaret and sung on the occasional film soundtrack, has starred in such movies as Elf (you might remember her in-the-shower rendition of "Baby, It's Cold Outside") and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

NPR: Zooey Deschanel, Tuning Up with She and Him