Spotlight:

A TANGLED WEB1 Barbara Montereale (right)in what she says is Berlusconi'sRome residence 2 NoemiLetizia with diamond necklace, agift from Berlusconi 3 VeronicaLario now seeking a divorce fromBerlusconi 4 Vi l la Certosa ThePM's Sardinian mansion

Silvio Berlusconi

Briefing

HEN THE c-8 suunalr BEGINS INItaly on |uly 8, it will undoubt-edly garner a flood ofattention

for its host. But while Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi was planning to baskin the results of his bold, last-minutedecision to switch the site of the meet-ing from La Maddalena on Sardinia toLîquila, the central city still reelingfrom April's deadly earthquake, it is thestories ofBerlusconi as a party guy thatare capturing the imagination.

Since April, the coverage ofthe7z-year-old billionaire mogul turnedpolitico has read like something betweenan airport romance novel and soft porn.On April 26, Berlusconi showed up at ther 8th birthday party of leggy Neap-olitanblond Noemi Letizia with the eift of adiamond necklace. Within t*ó d"yr,Berlusconi's wife of zo years, VeronicaLario, announced she wanted a divorce.claiming that her husband "frequentsunderage females."

The subsequent media storm hasrained an almost daily shower of gos-sipy tales upon the Italian public. Onfune 5, Spanish daily ElPaispublishedphotographs that showed topless womenand a nude man partying at Berlusconi'sSardinian villa. And then there was theinvestigation, later dropped, into allega-tions that he d used a government air-plane to flyin youngwomen and showbiz

performers for private functions.But the latest Berlusconi tidbit is

potentially the most damaging. On funer7, investigators in the southern city ofBari confirmed theywere carrying out acriminal investigation into allegationsthat businessman Giampaolo Tarantinihad hired prostitutes to attend severalBerlusconi bashes, although Berlusconihimself is not under investigation.

On |une 17, one of the women,Patrizia Dîddario, told the Milan dailyCorriere della Sera that she was paid sev:eral thousand euros to attend two dinnerparties at Berlusconi's Rome residencelast fall and that she stayed the nieht ofNov. 4. She says she secrltly made"audiorecordings during the parties, whichshe turned over to prosecutors. Two dayslater, a friend of D Addario's, BarbaraMontereale, told newspaper La Repubblicathat she, too, was paid to attend theNov. 4 party, but left after dinner.Montereale described her friend as aprofessional escort and said DAddariohad told her she'd had sex with Berlus-coni at the party. In interviews since,DAddario has neither confirmed nor de-nied Montereale's account. Tarantini toldItalian news agency ANSA that he onlyreimbursed the women for their traveÍand expenses, and that Berlusconi didn'tknow about the payments.

Berlusconi says he has done nothingwrong and is simply a victim of a hate-filled press and opposition that wantto bring him down with "trash" and"gossip." It's possible, ifthe investigationinto the prostitution allegations cJme toany embarrassing conclusions, that Ber-lusconi might have to step down, open-ing the way for a caretaker governmentheaded by someone like Bank of ItalyGovernor Mario Draghi or EconomyMinister Giulio Tremonti. But don tcount Berlusconi out yet. Perennial chal-lengers like parliament SpeakerGianfranco Fini on the riqht and formerPrime Minister MassimobAlema on theIeft, have largely lost credibility in theface oftheir opponent's political savvy.Italian politics is beginning to look like aseason of Celebrity Survivor.And not onlyis Berlusconi the reigning champion of

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thisreality show, he is also its executiveprooucer.-BY IEFF TSRAELY I

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