It’s quiz time, and here’s your starter for ten. Which 18-year-old hottie home-breaker, as the European tabloid press is calling her, recently made the immortal statement: “I want to be a showgirl. But I’m also interested in politics. I am flexible.”
Yes, it’s Noemi Letizia, the teenager at the centre of a divorce suit launched against 72-year-old Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi by his wife, Veronica Lario. Reading the interview that young Noemi gave to the Corriere del Mezzogiorno newspaper (“I often sing with Papi Silvio at the piano, or we do karaoke”), it’s hard to know who to feel more sorry for – Lario, Noemi’s ex-fiancé Gino Flaminio, or the entire 60m Italian people. Read more






Gideon Rachman and his FT colleagues debate international affairs on