Former topless model joins Berlusconi's cabinet as Italy's equalities minister

Daily Mail ^ | 9th May 2008 | NICK PISA

[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.

[Grizzled Bear]

And she owes it all to Pasta (a wink to Sophia Lauren).

[airborne]

Unnnngggghhhh!!!!

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Many Italian/Mediterranean women tend to be very curvy in the hips and thighs. The classic hour-glass figure. She's got it. So did Sophia Loren, another Italian bombshell that makes me weak in the knees.

[airborne]

Do men actually find an ass that size attractive? For real?

Not me, particularly, but variety is the spice of life!

[wtc911]

Circa 1980 I was in Elaine’s in NYC and Sophia walked in.....with Woody Allen! True story.

[wtc911]

I dated a girl built like that for a year or so...I called it the Ponderosa.

[VOA]

Do men actually find an ass that size attractive? For real?

Yes.
At least since primitive man was in "the quest for fire".

As one of those awful bearers of a "Y" chromosome, and just speaking
for myself:
young males first obsess over the female bustline,
THEN they start noticing female derriere.
And finally graduate to an appreciation of the proportions of
the total package if they are lucky/wise.
Physical, personality, and at least modestly stable.

I also suspect the male appreciation of the female derriere
is tied with the subconcious drive to find a mate that's healthy
and fertile.
And a little "junk in the trunk" says "she's got the goods".

But for the guys that prefer the slimmer models..."to each his own"!

[Proud_USA_Republican]

How’d she look?

[Old Professer]

I’ve never heard it put better than when I overheard a conversation that went like this; “A stiff d**k has no conscience...”

[PzLdr]

INNOCENT! With NO explanation needed!

[ChildOfThe60s]

What happened? Every other picture I have seen of her, her breasts appear quite natural. They look hideous in this picture.

[JRios1968]

VIVA ITALIA!!!!!

[woofie]

If those are hideous breasts I am Fidel Castro

[wtc911]

Very classy, like a Contessa. Of course she was fifty plus, wealthy and famous. I would like to have seen her at 27.

I ran in circles that put me in the same room as a boatload of film celebrities for a couple of decades. Some I recall...Vanessa Williams - just simply the 'prettiest' girl I ever saw, Racquel Welch - remarkably charismatic, Julie Andrews - luminescent, Diana Ross - a skank (with major attitude), Debra Winger - plain to the point of being almost un-noticable, Whoopie - Fugly (inside and out)...oh, and our FR favorite, Susan Sarandon - tiny with huge tits and wrinkles (on her face) that made her look twenty years older.

[Charles Martel]

Maybe it's just the camera angle...

Bingo. She's actually well-proportioned.

[fish hawk]

Definitely an Italian butt.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

At 19. Amazing......

[wtc911]

In a word...wow.

[nomorelurker]

Vanessa Williams is very good in ERASER. Her do you know the password scene is one of my all time favorites in an otherwise cheesy movie.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

No insult intended, but:

Wouldn’t you like to wop that thing?

The two best gifts from Italy:
a beautiful Italian woman and a pizza!