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Giuseppe Cacace / AFP - Getty Images
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at a recent soccer match between Parma and AC Milan at Ennio Tardini Stadium in Parma on March 17, 2012.
ROME – Among the many derogatory nicknames Silvio Berlusconi’s detractors came up, one was "Burlesconi," a way to emphasize his propensity for gaffes and tendency to adopt sexist and inappropriate humor.
But as usually happens with the flamboyant former Italian prime minister, truth is stranger than fiction.
On Friday Berlusconi, 75, made a rare appearance at the trial in which he stands accused of having sex with an under-aged prostitute known as “Ruby the Heart-Stealer” during one of his now infamous “Bunga Bunga” parties, sex-fueled revelries that allegedly took place at his private residence in Milan.
And suddenly, burlesque had a lot more to do with him than his detractors could have ever dreamed of.
While the trial officially started at the end of last year, it has already offered a fly-on-the-wall peek into Berlusconi’s scandalous private life, with lurid details revealing an impressive partying lifestyle that would be trying for a man a third his age.
On Monday Imane Fadil, one of the models who was invited to Berlusconi’s “elegant dinners,” as he called them, testified in court. She said that she personally saw women dressed as nuns don their habits and crucifixes before they jumped on a pole where they performed some very unholy dance moves.
Another model, Fadil said, wore a mask of Ronaldinho, a famous soccer player from AC Milan, the Italian team owned by Berlusconi, before she kicked off her skirt down to her G-string.
Witness: Italian ex-PM Berlusconi hosted strippers dressed as nuns
Gifts from Gadhafi
On Friday, the former prime minister, and currently still the leader of the biggest political coalition in the Italian lower house of parliament, clarified once and for all some of what happened.
Speaking to journalists in Milan's High Court after the hearing, Berlusconi described what he saw in detail. "I remember seeing a woman dressed as a policeman, one as a nurse and another one as Father Christmas ... those were dresses that I received as presents from Gadhafi," Berlusconi said. (See a video published on the website of Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper. He's speaking in Italian).
"[Gadhafi] gave them to me when I went to Tripoli for an expo on Libya's fashion. I saw those dresses and told him I liked them, so he sent them to me," he said.
A little later, he again spoke with journalists, this time outside the courtroom in Milan. “They were dressed up, some as policemen, but it was only a burlesque contest.”
He insisted that the girls were guests of innocent dinners dominated by an atmosphere of joy, serenity and conviviality.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi promised Tuesday to resign after parliament passes economic reforms demanded by the European Union. NBC's Richard Engel reports from Rome.
“Sometimes,” he specified, “the girls would follow me to the house theater room,” a room formerly used by his sons as a private discotheque.
“Women are exhibitionists by nature,” Berlusconi said. “And if they work in show business, they are even more exhibitionists. They like putting up shows and they decided to compete in a burlesque show.”
When asked if he was a judge of the show, he replied: “No, but I watched with interest. I had a lot of fun, and will continue to have fun.”
(See video of Berlusconi’s comments to journalists outside the courtroom. He’s speaking in Italian).
And there is the irony of it all.
While the admission by any current or former prime minister of a European country that they held a burlesque contest with half-naked women dressed as nuns and policemen would be enough to end their political career shamefully, Berlusconi seems somehow different. His list of alleged felonies, including sex scandals, tax frauds and abuse of office, has now become so long that confessing to organizing a strippers competition, at the end of the day, seems not so bad.
The trial continues, and with more revelations expected from witnesses, the former prime minister’s private life will soon be stripped naked. Nothing more appropriate, for a man dubbed Burlesconi.
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and he is Charlie Sheen's real father.
Do you suppose the Secret Service will provide protection for him ? They can change their name to the Victoria's Secrets Service !
Che importa?
Trash...just like so many world leaders and people of influence.
What's the rub with him? What's wrong with enjoying himself... folks'd'vepreferred he mirrored Mussolini?
How would you like to be one of his friends and have to explain to your wife about going to Silvio's " to play cards" and hang out?
I'm sure the wife was hanging out and playing cards in the bedroomw with someone who likes to call ''all in".
"Ruby The Heart Stealer"
Hey media, got nothing else to do but write about this non consequential garbage? This is not news, mind you!
He had and enjoyed - too funny cannot help laughing - viva Italia. How many remember when a stripper was elected few years ago.
la ciccolina( unsure about spelling), I remember. From porn to moral leader, hey people do/can change.
It's just plain fun to say "Bunga Bunga." Say it with me... Bunga Bunga...
hey vglance,I must agree it does sound fun to say bunga bunga, however lest we not forget it is not cool to be the mother or father of a child. or the.CHILD..having adult relations with a powerful supposed dignitary, I am a model and have been caught in my fair share of compromising situations with wealthy,powerful men, it's very seducing and sneaky before you know it your knee deep in somthing real and very bad. So bunga bunga just try to keep it legal.
Ok just the girls... Ok.. good now just the boys...
Just one more creepy politician using their money and connections to cover their a**.
Does this old guy really believe he is attractive to an 18 year girl?
Major ICK factor there and there is not enough money in the world to ever make him look good. Both in terms of the physical or in terms of character.....he is one silly man.
I doubt he harbors any illusions about how he looks to an 18 girl. But I am quite sure that his power, money, and circle of friends are all very appealing to an 18 year old prostitute.
I doubt he gives a rats a$$ what the girls find attractive or how they're really feeling. As long as they're willing to pretend they like him, or pretend to enjoy themselves, it's fine with him.
Heck, you think ANY guys at strip clubs care if the girls really like them? They're paying them good money to pretend to like them. Strippers treat trollish, fat, gross men exactly the same as they treat athletic, attractive men. They hold their nose, put on a fake smile, and do their job.
Do we expect too much in believing our leaders are held to a higher standard? They are running countries.
I wonder what would happen to our "illustrious" politicians if there could be an expose' ? I think we would find a lot of John Edwards, JFKs and on and on! You can't mix work and pleasure. They don't belong together, not in everyday life, whether a worker, an executive or a politician! The gunsights are larger for politicians and shouldn't be! They are supposed to be our servants that we elect, but that is no longer true. They are selected by the corrupt corporates and then, without choice, are elected to office by the voters! NOW THAT'S REAL CORRUPTION! These are the REAL CRIMINALS, not the petty stuff that goes on behind the scene!
Vote STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC, the lief you save may be yours & your children!
Do you have a child named Lief? Good Nordic name that. Only a moron votes straight ANYTHING.
tr rose II; I wouldn't vote democratic if that is all that were running for office. Just look at the last 4 years and be honest with yourself as to the kind of progress Bobama is making with all of his promises. End of story.......................
I find it fascinating that with all of our domestic problems, factories gone, textile mills gone, unemployment, homeless people, multi-generation welfare, etc., we are concerned about the sexual proclivities of another countries leader.
Lighten up! Berlusconi is fantastic. I wish we had some guys like him in the US, instead of the moralistic pricks we have got now!
@200motels;
I may feel a little different towards Berlusconi than you, but I agree with your point that the U.S. is filled with moralistic pricks. So much of America is hung up on sex, versus Europeans which have a more open and relaxed view of it.
I do not, in any way,condone that any politicians use their position or their countries monies for their pleasuring purposes, but I certainly think that anyone doing what they want to do in the privacy of their own home is their own business.
The moralists in America, many times, have turned out to be the ones that are hiding gay relationships (which I have no problem with), I just have a problem with the fact that they are hiding them and then talking about how gays are ruining America. Then there are the moralists that will tell others that they are going to Hell if they sin and, behind the curtain, are molesting every little child that they can.
??? What is the big deal? Who really gives a sh*t if some 75 year old sausage grinder is banging 20 year old strippers? Really now...don't we have better things to do than scrutinize some old guys pussy habits? Christ, I'm clapping my hands for the old guy. I'm surprised he can still get it up!
200Motels
I agree, at least he fesses up to enjoying unlike the pricks here nothing more revolting than, yah our politicians likes sex only with the electorate screwing us with their "morality"
Yoweee! PER IL GUSTO,SILVIO!
All of us DECENT american christians are AGAST!But,this is how the powerful men of the old countries have fun.They don't care what you think.Look at how most of your old Italian Popes had fun!Or,look closer to home,we've got DEMS who will do a snake if you hold it straight,and GOP'S ??The biggest room in any republican mansion is the closet!They need space for their B&D mistress,and to play"Nude in the dark"with the local cub scout troop!
If Silvio invited some congressmen to his parties,you KNOW we'd have an investigative inquiry commission junket jetting to Italy in a minute.
For one, not all Democrats like snake and for two, snakes don't have to be held straight either. Still "yes" but straight no.
Hey, if you have watched the Borgias he is actually quite "pontifical". From my time in Italy I would say he behaved like many Italian men only dream of behaving.
Obama could get a pass on this kind of low morals stuff if he too was capable of running a country and fullfillling his promises to get the economy going, save peoples homes and jobs, balance the budget, start paying off the debt, save social security and medicaid, close Guantanemo, and get us out of Afghanistan, and raise our status in foreign policy areas. Instead he has paid off the huge banks and insurance companies, bowed to tyrants, apologized to despots, threw billions down green rat holes, and is breaking all of us not yet broke. He had better not foray into this type of behavior, because he has failed on ALL of the above. I won't vote for him again.
Americans today, now have their backs to the wall, WE THE PEOPLE, need a change from the atypical two party paradigm that has besieged Washington since the inception of The Federal Reserve System, in 1913. Clearly, Ron Paul will be the Next President.
Simply and honestly,
Dr. Paul is simply reminding us of our God given rights that we were born with as Human Beings, hence thereby requiring from our virtues within each of our souls, prudent clarity, and focus in our logic, by:
• REDUCE the size of over bloated government,,
• ADDRESS the rancid pork barrel infestation of lobbying for political favors within the beltway, an over 5 billion dollar a year activity.
• ADDRESS our global military presence (and the exorbitant billions of spending that go with it),
• The constitutional redressing of States rights.
• RETURN of the gold and silver backed dollar.
• ELIMINATE worthless printing of the present inflated fiat Federal Reserve Currency.
• END the illegal presence of the neither Federal , which there are no reserves, because they print currency out of thin air then bill the taxpayer for it, to END THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK !!!
• CUT $1 trillion in federal spending his first year in office.
• ELIMINATE five federal departments and return power to the states;
• BALANCE our out-of-control budget in only three years.
• FIGHT gun grabbers, Big Labor, and the reckless spenders at the Federal Reserve each time they try to ram through another power grab.
• MAINTAIN a fighting force that is second-to-none while refusing to surrender our national sovereignty to carry out the UN's decrees.
If Ron Paul is elected, he would have the moral authority and the mandate to have a zero rate tax rate, which would bring in an influx back to America, of prosperity, un be known to any economy, in essence, the complete opposite of what we have now.
Remember now, for 140 years before 1913, America did exactly that. Wake up people and THINK about what you have just read.
Seriously... We are talking about sex, and strippers and leaders being silly. And you have to come in here and tell us about Ron Paul who is politically invisible. What a kill joy....
If I had this guys libido I would be one happy camper! and to heck with the press! LOL
So much for the saying from the Naked Capitalist Bible, 'with wealth comes wisdom'.
All I could say, is if I were at one of these Bunga Bunga parties, I would have NUN of this
In the U.S., a politician like Berlusconi would have a political life expectancy measured in milliseconds.
Europe is different from the U.S.
So tell me, since they're both in Rome does the Pope have any comment concerning this matter? Especially since he has disturbing comments pertaining to American women choosing abortion over bringing a physically or mentally incompetent child into this world.