Foolocracy’s favorite Prime Minister, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi, is at it again. His list of antics is long. He has escaped conviction on a dozen corruption charges. Earlier in the year, he brought out the army to combat garbage and protect dumps in Naples. He selected three attractive women in their thirties to be cabinet ministers (including a former showgirl). He denied accusations that he pressured a government television station to give jobs to attractive actresses. Finally, just weeks ago, he refused to talk about rumors that one of the female minister’s (the ex-showgirl, of course) performed oral sex on him. On top of it all, he is Italy’s richest person.
Now it seems Silvio is going prudish on us. In the press room at the Prime Minister’s palace is a reproduction of an eighteenth century Giambattista Tiepolo painting. A woman’s breast is exposed. Being that the painting is in Italy that should not be a big deal. What country has more nude statues and paintings? In many of them, we are not talking about breasts or buttocks, but fully exposed genitalia.
Yet the Tiepolo painting was too much for the Berlusconi administration. It seems that Berlusconi’s head hovered around the bared nipple whenever the press’ cameras flashed. Thus, Berlusconi underlings, concerned about his image, stealthily used a few brushstrokes to drape the woman’s gown over the offending nipple.
Yes, there are some poor, overworked fellows taking care of Berlusconi’s image. Someone needs to tell these people that if it is Berlusconi’s image they are trying to enhance, they need to do a lot more than hide a woman’s nipple on a classical painting.
Of course, Berlusconi has deniability for the dastardly act. It happened without his knowledge…sure. Berlusconi picked out the painting; he is the richest man in Italy; he is the Prime Minister. Does he expect the world to believe that his underlings would act on their own without asking him? However, it is odd that we can hear denials about painting over the bare nipples–but regarding the oral sex with the Minister of Equal Opportunities, he seems unusually quiet about that.
