[karajorma]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26010033/

The government cover-up that Italians are whispering about these days has nothing to do with politics. Instead, it's about a missing nipple.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's staff have altered a reproduction of a famous 18th-century painting by Giambattista Tiepolo to cover an exposed breast on full display in the press room in the Palazzo Chigi, the prime minister's palace.

Nude artwork rarely offends in Italy, home to innumerable classical nudes in painting and sculpture. But this particular bare breast, in Tiepolo's "Time Uncovering Truth," was the backdrop for press conferences and often caught on camera.

Aides decided to repaint the woman's gown to cover the offending nipple.

"It was an initiative by those on the presidential staff who look after Berlusconi's image," his spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti, was quoted telling the daily Corriere della Sera.

"That breast, that nipple ... it ends up exactly inside the frame captured by TV news stations at press conferences."

Hang on a sec, the nipple is a problem that needs to be dealt with but this is okay?

[Janos]

Italy seriously has like the second worst politicians in Europe. I cannot think of who are worse, but I am certain they do exist, so I'm just taking precaution.

[Ford Prefect]

Hang on a sec, the nipple is a problem that needs to be dealt with but this is okay?

Do you see a nipple in that video?

Checkmate.

[Mars]

If Bush did that at least he'd be a little amusing... and at least the one in four people who still approve of him would finally be able to agree he's an idiot. (from what I guess of those 1 in 4, they'd take this kind of thing very seriously.)

[BloodEagle]

You and Bush should get a room. 

---

Hang on a sec, the nipple is a problem that needs to be dealt with but this is okay?

That is incredibly disturbing.

[Mars]

You and Bush should get a room. 

Hmmm...  I just don't think we'd get along

[karajorma]

Two men enter. One man leaves! Two men enter. One man leaves!

[NGTM-1R]

It's even more amusing when you realize that Europeans rarely faint at the sight of boobs...

[Flipside]

People were focussing on the wrong tit.