‘Berlusconi wants teenage lingerie model to be MP’

September 26th, 2009 LONDON - Months after claiming that she was paid to sleep with Silvio Berlusconi, Bari prostitute Patrizia D'Addario made her first appearance on national television in Italy. The interview, which D'Addario gave to Spanish daily El Pais in July, was broadcast in Italy by the Left-leaning talkshow AnnoZero, on state television RAI.

September 26th, 2009 LONDON - Michelle Obama appeared to be keeping her distance from controversy-hit Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the opening reception for the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. The US First Lady was said to have met the politician with a classic US-European impasse with President Barack Obama in the middle.

September 12th, 2009 LONDON - Responding to the sex scandal engulfing Silvio Berlusconi, Umberto Bossi, the key coalition partner in the Italian PM's government, said he believed Mafia had orchestrated all the dirty activities. "I think everything has been put in place by the Mafia," Bossi, the leader of the Northern League, said as he arrived at an event in Pian del Re in the north of the country.

September 3rd, 2009 LONDON - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has declared himself a "Superman". While praising his achievements in office and replying back to his critics and estranged wife, Veronica Lario, the 72-year-old said: "I'm not ill.

August 8th, 2009 LONDON - Despite drowning in scandals involving prostitutes and kinky parties, Silvio Berlusconi insists that he has nothing to feel sorry for and "no skeletons in his closet". While responding to apparent criticism from his daughter, Barbara, the 72-year-old premier said he had "no skeletons in his closet and cannot be blackmailed by anybody", reports The Telegraph.

July 6th, 2009 ROME - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in an interview published Monday, has denied the existence of photographs whose publication could further embarrass him as he prepares to host a Group of Eight summit later this week. Berlusconi was reacting to a report by the London-based Sunday Times that a series of photographs taken at the premier's luxury Sardinian villa would surface ahead of the G8 summit, which begins Tuesday in L'Aquila, Italy.

June 28th, 2009 LONDON - Silvio Berlusconi has blasted an escort girl's claims that he slept with her. Italy's billionaire prime minister was accused by Patrizia D'Addario, 42, a former actress from Bari in southern Italy, who claimed that the 72-year-old had sex with her on the night of November 4, when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, at Palazzo Grazioli, Berlusconi's Rome residence, reports The Times.

June 21st, 2009 LONDON - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is facing pressure from the Catholic Church and the ruling coalition following a flood of allegations about his involvement with a teenage underwear model and escort girls, a British newspaper reported Sunday. ...The patience of Mr Berlusconi's supporters is being stretched to breaking point - and they have been joined by the Catholic Church in warning that the lurid allegations are gravely, perhaps fatally, damaging to his standing, the Sunday Telegraph said.

June 13th, 2009 LONDON - Antonello Zappadu, the photographer whose controversial photos of topless young women bathing in Silvio Berlusconi's Sardinian villa appeared in a Spanish newspaper, has hinted that there are more pictures to come. In his first interview with a British newspaper, Zappadu has revealed that the unseen pictures show guests at Berlusconi's private paradise of Villa Certosa, and some snaps include a "mock marriage" between the Italian Prime Minister and a woman in her twenties.

June 5th, 2009 LONDON - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's long and profitable friendship with medial mogul Rupert Murdoch is apparently over, as he has accused the latter of ordering negative stories about him. "I don't want to be nasty, but the episode of VAT on Sky created a rift with Sky and Murdoch which has been followed by a series of highly critical articles about me," the Independent quoted Berlusconi as saying on one of the three private television channels he owns through his company Mediaset.

June 4th, 2009 LONDON - Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister at the centre of a media storm since his wife Veronica Lario publicly questioned the nature of his relationship with an 18-year-old aspiring model, has dismissed any talk of resignation. "Giving up has never crossed my mind.

May 10th, 2009 LONDON - Noemi Letizia, the 18-year-old accused of being at the heart of Silvio Berlusconi's divorce, has claimed that the Italian prime minister will launch her into a career in politics. Letizia, who affectionately calls Berlusconi "Papi", came under media glare after Veronica Lario, the Italian leader's wife, announced their divorce with the words, "I cannot be with a man who spends time with under-age women".

March 24th, 2009 LONDON - Queen of Pop Madonna's alleged toyboy lover Jesus Luz has claimed that he did not cheat on her with a lingerie model as his mother was close by. Luz agreed that he danced with model Luciano Costa at a party in his native Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but affirms she is just a 'friend', reports the Sun.

March 18th, 2009 LONDON - Madonna's alleged toyboy beau Jesus Luz may have invited trouble after being spotted getting cosy with a younger lingerie model at a party. The Brazilian model, who first met the Queen of Pop last December at a photo shoot that saw them posing lovers, was recently seen thinning out the distance with Luciana Costa.

February 9th, 2009 LONDON - Russian model Natalia Vodianova has turned a designer with the launch of her lingerie collection. She will now design a new line 'Natalia pour Etam' for the French brand Etam.