Posted on 05/08/2008 6:46:16 PM PDT by PotatoHeadMick
It is not the sort of appointment Gordon Brown would make to his cabinet.
But then Mr Brown is no Silvio Berlusconi, playboy and man of ostentatious political gestures.
The Italian prime minister, long known for his fondness for pretty women, has named former topless model and beauty queen Mara Carfagna as equal opportunities minister in his new cabinet.
Miss Carfagna, 33, turned to politics after a career on TV following her sixth-place finish in the 1997 Miss Italy contest.
She has also posed topless and semi-naked for photoshoots but has always underlined her family values and stressed none of the pictures were "erotic".
Mr Berlusconi, 71, named her as one of four women ministers in his cabinet, which was officially installed yesterday.
The others are Stefania Prestigiacomo (environment), Maria Stella Gelmini (education) and Giorgia Meloni (youth).
At an awards dinner last year Mr Berlusconi told Miss Carfagna, who is single, that if he wasn't married he would "gladly marry" her.
His wife Veronica sent a letter to a national newspaper demanding he apologise for embarrassing her - which he duly did.
A law graduate from Salerno University, Miss Carfagna worked for Mediaset - Mr Berlusconi's TV company - where she appeared on several programmes before becoming an MP.
She has refused to talk of her modelling career but in an interview once said: "I am a bit of a prude and I found getting undressed in front of a camera not a pleasant experience."
Speaking of her appearance in Miss Italy she said: "That competition makes you as a woman, it matures you.
"All that stress, that desire to win, it makes you understand who you are."
Mr Berlusconi's People of Freedom party won a powerful mandate in last month's election.
All boobs are NOT equal!
Do men actually find an ass that size attractive? For real?
There’s room in my cabinet for her anytime!!!
GAWD I love Italian women.
“Mara Carfagna, a former beauty queen who posed topless, is now a minister.”
Now I ask you, is that a classy government or what? Even better, not one televangelist will fulminate about this in an effort to depress otherwise bon vivant Italians!
They gotta put it somewhere! ;-)
His wife Veronica sent a letter to a national newspaper demanding he apologise for embarrassing her - which he duly did.
As long as it wasn’t created by Dunkin Donuts.
Her ass ain’t the greatest, but the complete package is pretty nice.
That’s just what I was thinking, Lizavetta. My punctuation, however, was different from yours. My thought was punctuated thus:
Do men actually find a behind that size attractive? For real?!!!??!!???!?!!!!
Highly qualified.
But hers indeed appear to be equal, fair and balanced.
Survey says 6.5. Must be an Italian thing.
Surely you jest.
Only REAL men do. Wow.
I do. I thinks she’s stunning from head to toe. She’s got curves in all the right places. Perfecto!
I love Italian women.
Maybe it's just the camera angle but it looks out of proportion huge to the rest of her.
Topless, but certainly not bottomless.
I’m thinking that picture is ‘modified’. Somebody posted a picture of her in a black skirt somewhere upthread where she’s looking over her shoulder. She’s even sticking it out a little. In that picture, it’s a behind. In the other picture, it’s a VW beetle. You can’t get a Beetle into a skirt.
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