Unfortunately for Italy’s Richest Man And Its Former Prime Minister It Was A Slow News Day So When Oggi Magazine Ran All Those Paparazzi Pictures Of What It Calls “Berlusconi’s Harem” It Made Global Headlines, Big

Philip M. Stone April 19, 2007

Italy’s Oggi Magazine on Wednesday ran several pictures of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi walking hand-in-hand with a couple of 20-somethings, there was a shot of a couple more, each sitting on a knee, and his left hand looks suspiciously as if it is under one girl’s sweater, and there was a red-head whom he seemed to appreciate perhaps the most. Those pictures would be political death for politicians in many countries but in Italy they could easily get him re-elected!

The gossip media are all into how Veronica Berlusconi is going to take to such pictures of her 70-year-old media mogul husband in such form at their Sardinian summer palace. It’s not the first time this year that she, 20 years younger than her husband, has had problems with his roving eye and she showed last time she knows how to handle her man – by using the very media that he himself uses so well to his own advantage.

A couple of months back Mr. Berlusconi told a glamorous star at a TV awards program that if he wasn’t already married he would marry her and that he would go anywhere with her. Mrs. Berlusconi was not impressed. She wrote a very public letter to a newspaper demanding an apology. Within a couple of days he issued a very public “I beg you, forgive me” apology – he said that was an act of love -- and he explained that he had just been playful and irreverent with the star.

ftm, being the serious media journal that we are, will leave such considerations to the glossies that handle those things best, but there is an interesting media story behind these new pictures, spread over 12 pages, that is well worth exploring.

The pictures were snapped on Easter Saturday by paparazzi (trespassers as Berlusconi’s lawyer called them). Text accompanying the printed pictures declared, “In the gardens away from the family gaze, the former prime minister relaxes in the company of five beautiful young women. The atmosphere is intimate, friendly, and relaxed as if they know each other of old. The Cavalier (It’s a long story, but just accept that is Berlusconi’s nickname) is in fine form and showing the vitality his doctor has often repeatedly discussed in the past.”

The ladies are said to be employees of Berlusconi’s MediaSet TV empire, including the red-head who apparently had been a participant on the reality show “Big Brother” shown on one of his MediaSet networks. Why Berlusconi invited the ladies to his luxurious Sardinian Villa Certosa situated high atop a cliff with magnificent views has not really been explained, but his spokesman explained, “There is nothing to hide. The magazine has chosen to make mischief.”

Berlusconi is said to be “irritated” by the photos and he has his lawyer in on the act. “Oggi chose to publish only images in which the host is shown in the company of female guests, avoiding highlighting the presence of other guests,” lawyer Niccolo Ghedini complained. A lawsuit is threatened -- under Europe’s Princess Caroline landmark privacy law decision is not a former prime minister granted privacy in the comfort of his own home when he is not on official duty?

And the incident does beg the fair question of where in the pictures are the approximately 200 people who work at Berlusconi’s villa (especially when he is there) -- where are all the bodyguards, other guests, etc. Could it be some very expeditious photo cropping?

“If the bodyguards, police or gardeners kept themselves at a distance, there’s not much I can do,” declared Oggi chief editor Pino Belleri.

But whether other people were milling around or not, Belleri did have one valid point. “What is certain is that pictures of Putin, Bush, or Blair slipping their hand under the T-shirt of a girl don’t exist.”

Berlusconi spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti puts a completely innocent façade on the entire incident. “You can see the photos are playful and everyone is smiling. He is just showing some people his wonderful gardens, the statues, and fountains.  There is nothing to hide, everything is in the open – a short distance away were his bodyguards and the gardeners and other employees who didn’t want to be in the photos. The magazine has chosen to make mischief by publishing only the photos of Silvio Berlusconi with the women.”

But those who follow the Italian political scene know well that coverage like this doesn’t just happen – politics is involved in everything. Consider that Oggi, a so-called family magazine with 700,000 circulation, is owned by RCS Media which also owns Corriere della Sera, Italy’s best selling and most widely read newspaper.  The group have never been that friendly with media rival Berlusconi, nor his right-of-center politics.

So it was no accident that Corriere della Sera on the day before Oggi’s publication, ran a big spread on the upcoming magazine scoop. The country was primed.

On the other hand last month a huge hue and cry went up when Oggi did not publish pictures it had showing Silvio Sircana, spokesman for Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s center-left government, talking to a transsexual prostitute from inside his car. The pictures eventually ran in other newspapers. Sircana called the incident “a moment of stupid curiosity”.

Il Giornale newspaper, owned by the Berlusconi family, summed up this week’s Oggi pictures as, “a story of a little political vendetta.”

Berlusconi lost his premiership last April to Romano Prodi. Not only are their politics opposite, but so are their lifestyles. Prodi lives modestly – no sea cliff palace -- and according to his tax returns earned just €89,514 ($120,000) last year. Berlusconi’s tax return showed he earned 313 times more than Prodi.

Which left it to Corriere della Sera to have the last word. "Prodi won the 2006 elections, but in income declarations there was no contest."

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