“On television, the Italian penchant for adorning soundstages with skimpily clad, surgically enhanced showgirls has radically metastasized, spilling over from game shows to all forms of entertainment, including the nightly news. But feminist grumblings only exploded into public debate in recent weeks after reports emerged that [media magnate and Italian president Silvio] Berlusconi … was grooming a stable of TV starlets for the political arena.”