Word: berlusconi
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First, his furious wife Veronica Lario accused him of frequenting "underage females," specifically a leggy blonde from Naples named Noemi Letizia, after local papers revealed last month that Berlusconi had attended the girl's 18th birthday party and showered her with expensive gifts. Two days after the aggrieved spouse made the charge, she asked for a divorce. The Prime Minister stated publicly that he'd known Letizia only through her parents, and the father declared his daughter "chaste," saying Berlusconi was an acquaintance he had made through local politicians. But the center-left daily La Repubblica and opposition leader Dario...
Amid the nervous laughter of his aides and reporters, Berlusconi, a Cheshire-cat grin widening across his face, brought up the question himself about le minorenni following the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers in Rome. No, he insisted, there was nothing piccante (spicy) or "more than piccante" in his encounters with anyone underage, and he'd sworn so on the heads of his own children. Berlusconi insisted that he would have "resigned immediately" if he had been guilty of any of the aforementioned spiciness with someone under the age of consent. That, he said, was all he would...
Some journalists say this could be the Berlusconi equivalent of Bill Clinton's "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" moment - a fact-checking challenge to investigators throughout Berlusconistan and a spur to even more debate and speculation about the Prime Minister's private life. But at the same time, the potential for scandal just might help Berlusconi keep his popularity high by giving him center stage in a public arena that ever more resembles The Jerry Springer Show (or a Fellini film...
...many magistrates who persistently investigate his business dealings; and, as of late, he has boasted of his Casanova charms, publicly swooning over a former showgirl turned politician, Mara Carfagna, whom he appointed his Minister of Equal Opportunity last year. (His trusted ally Umberto Bossi referred this week to Berlusconi's reputed use of Viagra...
...Whenever Berlusconi reaches a new high - or low - I make a point of checking with veteran La Repubblica columnist Filippo Ceccarelli. "Even if you think he's a scoundrel," says Ceccarelli, "a scoundrel creates attraction, popularity. There's a reason people go to see movies about figures like him. When the electorate is really just an audience, he continues...