Puntz |
|
| Girls! Girls! Girls!
Fonte: The New yorker
LETTER FROM ROME about the scandal surrounding Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Writer notes that Berlusconi is no stranger to scandal, having survived some seventeen criminal trials without ultimately being convicted. When, in January, the prosecutor’s office in Naples indicted Berlusconi and issued a report depicting Italy’s state TV network, RAI, as an enormous casting couch that Berlusconi used to grant favors to aspiring actresses and to try to bring down the government, it had no impact. Briefly discusses Berlusconi’s victory in last spring’s election. He has installed in the parliament, and even in his government, a number of former starlets who had gained fame in his TV empire. Mentions Mara Carfagna, a former Miss Italy contestant who worked as a showgirl on Berlusconi’s TV stations before entering parliament. Also mentions Michela Vittoria Brambilla, another former Miss Italy contestant who is the Undersecretary for Tourism, and Mariastella Gelmini, the minister of education. Berlusconi has also installed in the new parliament three of his criminal-defense attorneys. Berlusconi talks openly about sex and does little to hide the fact that he has had a face-lift and hair transplants. Writer talks to Umberto Scapagnini, Berlusconi’s personal physician. Scapagnini believes that Berlusconi’s biological age is actually fifteen years younger than his chronological age. Tells about Berlusconi as a pioneer of private television in Italy and his role in changing the national culture by introducing sex to television. Berlusconi didn’t mind using his TV contacts to advance his standing in the political world. Discusses the criminal investigation at the heart of the recent scandal. Quotes wiretaps of Berlusconi in conversation with Agostino Sacca, the former head of the drama division of RAI. In this period, Berlusconi was trying to overturn the center-left government of Romano Prodi, which was sustained by a one-vote majority in the Senate. Describes how Berlusconi had pushed an electoral reform that gave party leaders almost total power over who can run for parliament. Tells about Berlusconi’s involvement with a TV news reader named Virginia Sanjust di Teulada. Sanjust subsequently got her own show on RAI and her ex-husband, Federico Armati, who worked for the country’s intelligence service, got a highly desirable transfer but was later demoted after he and Sanjust became embroiled in a custody battle. Armati insists that Berlusconi gave his ex-wife considerable sums in cash—something that Berlusconi’s lawyers deny, insisting that their relationship was purely one of friendship. Briefly discusses the weak political opposition to Berlusconi and Italy’s economic decline in the years that Berlusconi has dominated the country’s politics.
The New Yorker’s archives are not yet fully available online. The full text of all articles published before May, 2006, can be found in “The Complete New Yorker,” which is available for purchase on DVD and hard drive. Many New Yorker stories published since December, 2000, are available through Nexis. Individual back issues may be purchased from our customer-service department at 1-800-825-2510.
To search for New Yorker cartoons and covers, visit the Cartoon Bank.
torna su
Keywords :
Berlusconi Silvio(Prime Minister)
Italy Italians
Scandals
Politics
Sex
Sanjust di Teulada Virginia
Armati Federico |
|
| | |
