Berlusconi Flirts. His Wife’s Fed Up. Read All About It.

[DueBaci]

Very interesting article in the NYTimes. I'll just put a few tidbits below.. and the link so the you may read it in it's entirety.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/world ... ?th&emc=th

________________________________________


" ROME, Jan. 31 — “Dear Editor,” began a letter published Wednesday on the front page of La Repubblica, the newspaper that Silvio Berlusconi hates most. The scalding letter demanded an apology from Mr. Berlusconi for flirting publicly — and it was signed by his wife.

...

It turns out that the 70-year-old former prime minister, whose own heart now beats with a pacemaker, attended an awards ceremony last week and was overly friendly with two young and beautiful guests.

“If I weren’t already married, I would marry you right now,” he told one, according to Italian news media accounts. To another, he said, “With you I would go anywhere.”

“These are statements I consider damaging to my dignity,” wrote Veronica Lario, 50, who has been with Mr. Berlusconi for 27 years. His remarks could not be “reduced to jokes,” she said.

“To my husband and to the public man, I therefore ask for a public apology, not having received one privately.”

Feminists called it an overdue rallying cry for Italian women like Ms. Lario, who has endured years of supposed infidelity (and no end of sexual remarks,

...


Then, in early evening, Mr. Berlusconi, who can never be counted out, wrote his own open letter, released by Forza Italia, his political party.

“Your dignity should not be an issue: I will guard it like a precious material in my heart even when thoughtless jokes come out of my mouth,” he wrote. “But marriage proposals, no, believe me, I have never made one to anyone.

“Forgive me, however, I beg of you, and take this public testimony of private pride that submits to your anger as an act of love. One among many. A huge kiss. Silvio.”

...


Beppe Severgnini, one of the most discerning commentators on Italian mores, quickly churned out a column for Corriere della Sera summing up its import.

“The man is a walking oxymoron, but it has not stopped him from working his way up,” he wrote. “Why? Simple: because he embodies the Italian dream of being everything, of pleasing everyone (and indulging himself in everything), without giving up anything.”

Perhaps all marriages are mysteries on some level, but the drama also shed light on one of Italy’s most visible but ambiguous couples. They met in 1980, when he was a budding, and married, builder and she was a beautiful B-movie actress appearing in a play in Milan. He saw her on stage, the story goes, and fell deeply in love.

He left his first wife, they married and had three children (he already had two). He grew richer, entered politics in the mid-1990s, and the two seemed somehow together yet increasingly apart. No small amount of his public persona was linked to his constant, earthy joking about women and his mastery of them, amid rumors that monogamy was not among his virtues.

“I lost my hair because I had too many girlfriends,” he once said (he has since had implants).

...

Maria Latella, an Italian journalist who wrote a biography of Ms. Lario, recalled that during Mr. Berlusconi’s first term as prime minister, in 1994, a newspaper article appeared saying that every day he sent flowers to someone.

He contended they were to his wife. But Ms. Latella noted that Ms. Lario had sent the newspaper a brief letter saying that, in fact, she never received flowers from Palazzo Chigi, the prime minister’s official residence.

“She considered it humiliating that flowers sent to another person were attributed to her,” Ms. Latella said. “It shows the character of the person.”

Ms. Lario also spoke candidly in the biography, saying that she rarely saw Mr. Berlusconi but that she considered their marriage stable and herself “the perfect kind of wife for the kind of man Silvio is.”

“He can concentrate on himself and his work knowing his wife won’t create a fuss if he’s away from his family,” she said in the biography.

As fate would have it, on the very same day that Ms. Lario fired off her letter, Mr. Berlusconi echoed his wife’s comments, now possibly void, in an interview he gave, also to Ms. Latella, for her magazine, A.

“Veronica has always been a total passion,” he said. “When we met I lost my head for her. And she has been a marvelous mother.

“She has never made me look bad, never — while the wives of certain other politicians...,” he said, trailing off his thought. “And then she is so indulgent. What more could I want?”

[kaycarley]

Thanks Duebaci. Fascinating article on many levels. Whatever you think of him Mr B. is larger than life and good entertainment value.

[Michelle]

Alot of the world seems to be entertained by his antics - I wouldn't like to be a member of his family though!

[DueBaci]

ummm... I know what you meant KayCarley.. but, just for the others...

the Mr. B she is referring to ... is the one in the article.
(not OUR Mr. B )

although... OUR Mr. B ... could be considered larger than life... and good entertainment value ...

in an entirely different way though !

[kaycarley]

Errrrr yes. Thank you for clarifying that DueBaci. I think any comparison stops there!

[jackyd]

Thank you DueBaci for the article.

[westsiderny]

Tanto rumore per nulla...

[Yakima]

reading that artical made me think men are just little boys always getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar.......but dont we just love em??????

[DueBaci]

forse soltanto una parola è necessaria per la spiegazione della lettera dalla Veronica al suo marito:

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