Italian premier Berlusconi with his wife, Veronica Lario
When Veronica Lario announced recently that she is going to divorce Silvio "papi" Berlusconi, she said she could no longer stay with a man who "frequents minors."
Berlusconi's eye for younger women is well known. A couple of recent developments likely helped to convince Ms Lario to go public with her intention to seek a divorce.
Berlusconi's People of Freedom coalition has considered putting up a group of women candidates for the European elections in June. A number of these individuals are best known for a certain tabloid fame and good looks. They include a former Big Brother contestant and Miss Italy contender. This offended Ms Lario, who described the choice of candidates as "shamelessly trashy."
The other source of friction was the attendance of the 72-year old premier at the 18th birthday party of an aspiring actress and model, Noemi Letizia.
Ms Letizia recently revealed that she calls the premier"papi" (Daddy). Her father is a friend of Berlusconi, so it could be described as a term of endearment. It also came to light that the premier presented Ms Letizia with a gold necklace and pendant for her birthday.
Noemi Letizia
with an autographed photo of "papi"
with an autographed photo of "papi"
Whisperings about what else, if anything, might have been going on appear to have prompted Berlusconi's office to try and get ahead of speculation by releasing a set of photos showing the premier at the birthday party in question.
The pics show a rather wooden looking "papi". Except for the first photo in the group, there are no trademark flashes of the pearly whites - just a rather insipid smile.
The pics have a doctored look. As a Guardian article points out, a good number of web commentators have their suspicions about the photos:
"... Italian-language blogs and forums were today alive with doubts as to their authenticity. La Repubblica's website said Berlusconi's image appeared to have been pasted into at least three of the photographs."
In one group shot an outsize hand resembling a large anaemic crab, is perched on or slightly above, Berlusconi's shoulder. The position looks unnatural and when the hand is magnified it looks even less convincing.
Close up of the odd looking hand:
In other pics a much younger looking, wrinkle-free premier looks as though he has been teleported into position with the same rather sickly smile frozen on his face. You half expect to see a speech bubble with "Beam me up Scottie."
In two of the pics it's like looking at clones - his facial expression and smile appear to be close to identical in both pictures.
The photos were released presumably to reassure the concerned that nothing untoward was going on at Ms Letizia's party The photos themselves are real enough. They were taken by the premier's own photographer. But the 'enhancements' certainly make them more entertaining.
Repubblica here for the the full set of pics.
You can also link here to a Guardian article that discusses some of the doubts that have been raised about the photos.
