A divorce that could cost him $65m a year. A kiss-and-tell book by a prostitute containing a detailed account of the night she alleges she spent with him. Oh, and let’s not forget the two ongoing corruption trials. It is difficult to know how Mr Berlusconi finds the time to run a G8 country like Italy.
And its even more tricky for some outsiders to understand how Italians can find it acceptable that a man with quite so many clouds hanging over his head should run their country.
Yet they do. Silvio Berlusconi has had brushes with the law throughout his career, but the reality is that Italians just don’t seem to care. They don’t care about the accusations of corruption, the alleged meetings with prostitutes and the obvious conflict of interest that arises when the prime minister controls most of the country’s media. Italians may complain about Mr Berlusconi in private, but when it comes to voting, they have repeatedly elected him as their leader.
This may seem like a contradiction, especially in a country that houses the Vatican, and where the prime minister himself often courts the powerful Catholic vote. But Italians are pretty disenchanted with their politicians, and Berlusconi seems like the best among a bad lot.
And there’s respect there too. He is the embodiment of the dream life that his TV channels have been showing for decades: the glitz, the half-naked dancing girls, the opulence. He’s been selling Italians that lifestyle for years, and they’ve bought it. So, no surprises then, that the Italian edition of Rolling Stone magazine voted Berlusconi "Rock Star of the Year" for his lifestyle.
Editor Carlo Antonelli said Berlusconi's exploits put those of real rock stars in the shade, and that "Rod Stewart, Brian Jones and Keith Richards in their prime were novices compared to him."
I can’t help but feel that Berlusconi might be as pleased to be on the cover of Rolling Stone as he was walking side by side with Barack Obama, the US president, during the G8 summit. He has, of course, denied the allegations made against him. But he has admitted that he is no saint.
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