Could Barbara Montereale's revelations break Silvio Berlusconi's grip on power?

As the Italian prime minister's political allies start to edge away from him, revelations from another starlet have pitched him further into crisis.

She is 23, beautiful and ambitious. And if her story turns out to be true, Barbara Montereale may yet prove to be the young starlet who brings about the downfall of the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Montereale is the latest in a succession of young women who have come forward to testify to the private entertainments enjoyed by Berlusconi at his residence in Rome and his holiday villa in Sardinia. For just over a month, ever since the prime minister's wife, Veronica Lario, publicly accused him of "frequenting minors", the Italian media have revelled in tales of squads of handpicked showgirls, models and actresses flown in for summer parties and risqué evenings at the Villa Grazioli in Rome. The stories, complete with paparazzi photographs of topless women and a naked former Czech prime minister, have suggested a world whose inhabitants were living on the edge of moral propriety. But yesterday's interview with Montereale in La Repubblica, in the wake of his much-questioned friendship with an 18-year-old model, Noemi Letizia, may convince many ordinary Italians that a line has been crossed. According to Montereale, last November she travelled with Patrizia D'Addario, a former model and escort, to a dinner in Rome hosted by Berlusconi, and then to Berlusconi's Sardinian retreat, Villa Certosa, in January. For making the Sardinia trip, she was paid €1,000 by hospital equipment vendor Giampaolo Tarantini, who is now under investigation by Bari investigators for abetting prostitution.

Continue ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/21/berlusconi-italy-barbara-montereale