Berlusconi: "I Don't Pay For It"

Addressing his most recent scandal—the hooker-fucking one—Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told Chi (the Italian equivalent of People which, you will not be surprised to learn, Berlusconi owns) that "I have never paid a woman. I never understood what the satisfaction is when you are missing the pleasure of conquest."

Berlusconi also again denied frolicking with a buxom teenage model and expressed his anguish over his most recent wife's intention to divorce him. Meanwhile, Berlusconi's party did fairly well in local elections held over the weekend, suggesting that the latest scandal will not result in his ouster.

In a remarkable essay in the Times of London, Sarah Vine blames the situation on Italy's warped version of feminism:

Like many of his countrymen, Berlusconi genuinely believes himself to be special and therefore invincible. It is a pattern that repeats itself all over Italy. From a young age, it is clearly understood that men and boys are uniquely favoured. But although they grow up believing themselves to be supreme beings, the reality is not so straightforward.

A male child is still cause for great celebration in Italy and as children, young boys are allowed to play while their sisters tidy the bedroom. They subsequently grow into charming layabouts, frittering away their time on street corners, in bars and restaurants, talking the big talk, showing off to each other and whistling when a pretty girl walks by. What they don't concern themselves with is domestic drudgery; statistically, Italian men do less housework than almost any other males in Europe – except for Latvians. Like a Ferrari, the Italian male is bred for speed rather than for efficiency.

And what about the role of Italian women? At its heart, Italy is one of the West's few remaining matriarchal societies, a country where women, far from being the helpless, exploited victims of a sexually predatory male supremacy, are at the core of everyday decision-making. From family-run small businesses to international fashion empires, women in Italy are as powerful and successful as they are elsewhere, if not more so. They just go about it differently.

Still, there are faint glimmers that this time Things Might Be Different. Italians are said to be increasingly fed up with the series of embarrassments, not so much for what Berlusconi did, but because he's making Italy a laughingstock in front of the rest of the world. (Why they should have suddenly realized that now is a subject for a whole other story.) A series of excerpts from the Italian media appended to the Times article, which you should really read in full, show a disgust that is starting to exert itself in coherent ways. Will it be enough to end Berlusconi's career? Who can tell? You know how frigging crazy the Italians are.