Silvio Berlusconi and ‘Putin’s Bed’

On Nov. 4, 2008, when the world was waiting for the results of the American presidential election, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was bedding down Patrizia D’Addario, a sexcort from Bari. But before the two got down to business, he suggested they both shower. “Wait for me on the big bed if you finish first,” he said. “The Putin one.” Berlusconi was referring to the big four-poster bed adorned with a hand-sewn quilt the Russian prime minister had given him on a state visit. How sweet, cooed D’Addario, who was secretly taping the pre-coital conversation. Tapes of Berlusconi’s pillow talk came to light during an investigation into charges that Giampaolo Tarantini, a Berlusconi associate, was a sort of pimp for Italy’s political elite. Tarantini says he arranged for at least 30 women to attend various events at Berlusconi’s Roman villa. Many of the escorts were paid in advance should the prime minister choose to have sex with them. Knowing of his interest in women, Tarantini explained, “I brought him girls who I presented as my friends, keeping quiet about the fact that they were paid.” Berlusconi has often bragged that he has sex three or four hours a night. D’Addario called him a “toro” (bull) and said that they didn’t sleep a wink. Berlusconi does not deny that he had sex with D’Addario and other women, but he says he did not know knew that these women were paid for their services. “I have never paid for a woman,” he says. “I’ve never understood what satisfaction one gets if there is no pleasure of conquest.”