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Showgirl ‘has video of Berlusconi’
The former model who claimed to have been paid to attend parties at the PM's residence now says she has bedroom footage
Patrizia D'Addario, the Italian showgirl who nearly became a Euro MP, as reported on The First Post yesterday, now claims she has secret video footage of herself with Silvio Berlusconi in his bedroom at the Palazzo Grazioli, the prime minister's official residence in Rome.
As a result of her claim, the 42-year-old who at one stage was invited to stand in the recent European Parliament elections for Berlusconi's People of Liberty party, has been described by a senior Italian government figure as a high-class prostitute.
The former model and TV presenter had already told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that she had audio tapes of two visits to Berlusconi's residence. Her new claim to have shot video is being investigated by police.
According to a report in the Times, D'Addario says the video shows her standing in front of a mirror with the prime minister's bedroom in view. The scene includes a framed photograph of Berlusconi's estranged wife, Veronica Lario, who sued for divorce after his friendship with the 18-year-old aspiring model Noemi Letizia emerged.
D'Addario says she made the recordings "so that nobody could deny I had been there".
The allegations that D'Addario and other women were paid to attend parties at the Palazzo Grazioli and at Berlusconi's holiday villa in Sardinia came to light because of an investigation into two brothers, Giampaolo and Claudio Tarantini, who run a hospital supply company. It is claimed they paid the girls to attend parties as part of a bid to win contracts.
As reported yesterday, D'Addario says she was offered €2,000 to go to a party at the Rome residence, but because she didn't stay the night the fee was cut to €1,000. She now claims that on a second visit, she did stay the night and shot the video.
Berlusconi, 72, continues to dismiss the allegations as lies. Alfredo Mantovano, the deputy Interior Minister, says the stories are part of a plot to bring down the prime minister. ·
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Surely it's better to have an out-and-out scoundrel like Berlusconi who at least demonstrates some panache and zest for life, than the pasty-faced, self-serving, hypocritical weasels we have for politicians in the UK.
I don't even know why Italians, majority of whom are Catholics, continue to elect serial adulterer like Berlusconi. The man cannot even control his household. Shame on eratic Berlusconi.