Cécilia Sarkozy, the new star in the firmament of G8 spouses, played truant from an earnest German lecture programme yesterday and flew home to Paris from the summit.

Although French sources emphasised that President Sarkozy’s wife had always intended to leave early, her flight raised questions about the future of the most pointless part of the summit protocol.

For years the long suffering wives (and husbands) of G8 leaders have been treated as up-market WAGs. Unlike footballers’ wives they are not allowed to raid boutiques but instead are paraded in front of porcelain collections and Gobelin tapestries in a strained attempt to kill time.

This time Top Spouse Joachim Sauer – husband of Angela Merkel – decided to change all that and treat his guests to a heavyweight lecture by the head of the Max Planck Institute on demographic change.

Professor Sauer is a quantum chemist (doctoral thesis: “Quantum chemical investigations of active centres and absorptive interactions of SiO2 and Zeolith surfaces”) who has been tipped as a future Nobel laureate.

His new Big Idea was to recognise that first ladies have brains, not just hairdos. Indeed some of them are more than a match for their husbands intellectually. Flavia Prodi, of Italy, is a professor, Laureen Harper of Canada studied philosophy, Laura Bush has a BA and a Masters in library science, Cherie Blair has a highflying legal career, Ludmila Putina studied Romance languages and German. Even Mrs Sarkozy studied law before dropping out to model for Coco Chanel.

Her absence has dismayed the press. “She was the undoubted star,” said a breathless German television commentary, as she attended the initial G8 dinner at a rural estate on Wednesday night. “And not just because she is the newcomer to the Wives Club.”

Until now presidential and prime ministerial spouses have gritted their teeth and done the bidding of their protocol chiefs, even put on fancy dress. Cherie Blair’s first G8 summit in Denver – ten gallon Stetsons and cowboy boots with spurs – is remembered as a low point.

Now Cécilia rather than Professor Sauer may have shown the way forward: not to raise the intellectual content but simply to peel off when the going gets hard. It may be the beginning of a revolt.

Times recommends

• Live fashion advice: how to dress for Christmas day
• British Fashion Awards: Kate Moss on British fashion
• 12 party beauty tips