Word: showgirls
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From his first concert series at the International Hotel in 1969 until his death in 1977, Elvis was Las Vegas. Glammed up in sequined duds that would make a showgirl or Liberace envious, he pleased his aging audience, singing his early hits that once had the musk of sexual revolt but by then were golden oldies. And while he redefined Sin City's notion of a headliner show, the town changed Presley as well. At the end, the kid from Tupelo, Miss., may have been more Vegas than Elvis...
...heart of Berlusconi's culture is the velina, or showgirl, who is served up to Italians every day, like pasta. Some veline merely stand mute while male presenters talk. Some give on-air lap dances to chat-show guests, as did one earlier this year to Inter Milan coach José Mourinho. Others play the funny little games producers devise, posing as table legs, or braving cold showers in tight dresses. Some simply strip: Mediaset's homepage recently featured a clip of a blonde clad in a black garbage bag, slowly lowering it to reveal her breasts. Degrading? Undoubtedly...
Playing the Game Increasingly, the velina is a political player as well as a sexual one. Though just 18, Noemi Letizia - whose relationship with Berlusconi spurred feverish speculation in the Italian press this summer - knows how the game works. "[I want to be] a showgirl," she told an Italian newspaper. "I am interested in politics, too ... I'd rather be a candidate for the Chamber of Parliament. Papi Silvio would take care of that." Last year, Berlusconi formalized the politics-showgirls link, appointing Mara Carfagna, 32, a former velina and topless model, as his Minister for Equal Opportunities. This summer...
There were no Cirque du Soleil acrobats pirouetting around the ceiling. No celebrity red carpeteers. No Happiest Mayor - a nickname for Las Vegas gladhander Oscar Goodman - cavorting about his city, a showgirl on either hip. Just a day when economically troubled Sin City began offering thousands of jobs to people hungry for them...
...photo op of voting in Italy, predictably, featured a showgirl. Noemi Letizia, the leggy 18-year-old at the center of a would-be scandal that has dominated Italy's campaign season, was followed by a pack of paparazzi as she cast her first-ever vote in Naples on Sunday. Donning designer sunglasses and accompanied by her parents, Letizia presumably sided with Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition, though both she and the Italian Prime Minister have repeatedly denied anything "spicy, or more than spicy" (as the PM put it) to their mutual affinity...