Italian PM denies prostitute's claims

updated 7:35 p.m. ET June 24, 2009

ROME - A high-end prostitute says she has proof she spent the night at Silvio Berlusconi's Rome residence after a party that allegedly featured the prime minister's wisecracks, his cabaret crooning and a bevy of sexy women.

Berlusconi denied the claim, but there are signs of trouble ahead for the Italy's longest-serving prime minister: Prosecutors are examining images Patrizia D'Addario allegedly took of his bedroom and telephone recordings of him allegedly sweet-talking her — and the Roman Catholic Church is warning the "limits of decency" have been breached.

A defiant Berlusconi — sometimes referred to as the "Teflon" prime minister for his ability to escape controversy — says he has nothing to be sorry about.

But the scandal engulfing Berlusconi over his purported fondness for young models and starlets shows no signs of letting up. With newspapers competing for the last tawdry detail, Italians are taking a new look at the life of the man they voted into power three times and finding a very different Berlusconi than his carefully manicured image.

On Wednesday, Berlusconi launched a new tourism campaign for Italy, saying the country needed to rehabilitate its image internationally because its reputation had been tarnished by his recent personal scandals and a garbage crisis in Naples last year.

The most recent accusations against the prime minister come just a few weeks before he hosts President Barack Obama and many of the world's leaders at a G-8 summit in earthquake stricken L'Aquila.

"There is nothing in my private life that I should apologize for," Berlusconi told the gossip magazine Chi, which he owns, in the issue on newsstands Wednesday.

"I have never paid a woman. I never understood what the satisfaction is when you are missing the pleasure of conquest," the 72-year-old premier was quoted as saying.

'Now I do the talking'
Until the interview, Berlusconi had simply dismissed as "garbage" and a smear campaign reports that an acquaintance of his had recruited three women, and paid two of them, to attend parties at his residences.

To break the silence and address the accusations directly, the premier chose a popular magazine that is part of his Mondadori publishing house.

On the cover, above a headline reading: "Now I do the talking," a smiling Berlusconi sits on a lawn, his one-year-old grandson at his side. In other photos inside, the premier is seen surrounded by his grandchildren and children, and in one, he's playing at the piano with grandson Alessandro, dressed in a sailor suit.

The photos offer a stark contrast with the image of Berlusconi depicted in recent weeks by Italian newspapers: a rich and powerful flirt who liked being surrounded by pretty women while he boasted of his visits to the White House, cracked jokes and sang songs.

"There must be limits," said Famiglia Cristiana, an influential Catholic magazine that is distributed in parishes across Italy. "Those limits of decency have been exceeded."

"Those who have power, even with wide popular mandate, cannot claim they are in ethics-free territory," the magazine said in an editorial this week.

Famiglia Cristiana was the second Catholic publication to criticize the premier. The newspaper of Italy's bishops conference, Avvenire, urged Berlusconi to respond to the accusations last week.

Wearing a wire?
The scandal began weeks ago when the premier's wife, Veronica Lario, announced she was divorcing him. At the time, she voiced outrage at his selection of young starlets and showgirls for European Parliament elections and condemned his attendance at a birthday party for an 18-year-old girl, to whom he gave a gold and diamond necklace.

The woman at the center of the current scandal, Patrizia D'Addario, described by her friends as a high-end prostitute from Bari, told Corriere della Sera newspaper that she was paid euro1,000 ($1,400) to attend a party in October 2008 at the premier's residence in Rome, and then returned Nov. 4 and stayed the night.

She told Corriere she wore a recording device during her time with Berlusconi — recordings that have been turned over to prosecutors in Bari. The prosecutors are investigating a local businessman, Giampaolo Tarantini, who is accused of recruiting and paying the women.

Corriere also reported that telephone taps also uncovered an escort ring catering to wealthy businessmen spending weekends in the posh Cortina alpine ski resort, but Berlusconi was not linked to that.

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