ITALY: Mr Silvio Berlusconi's alleged plastic surgery may have been far more extensive than the modest "nip and tuck" he allegedly had around his eyes.
If a report yesterday in Italy is to be believed, the Italian prime minister had something closer to a complete facelift.
The weekly news magazine L'Espresso claimed yesterday to have solved the riddle that has been dominating Italian gossip in bars, restaurants and party HQs for the last three weeks.
Namely, where is Mr Berlusconi and what has he been up to since he was last seen in public, nearly one month ago on December 23rd? In a brief summary of an article due to appear in today's edition, L'Espresso claimed that the Prime Minister's unusual disappearance from the public spotlight was down to extensive plastic surgery.
Citing no sources, L'Espresso reported that Mr Berlusconi underwent plastic surgery at the Ars Medica clinic of Gravesano, near Lugano, Switzerland on December 28th.
Californian surgeon Dr Bryant Toth, aided by California-based Italian Dr Renato Calabria, reportedly carried out a three to five hour long operation on the 67-year-old prime minister, giving him an extensive facelift that saw not just the area around his eyes, but his face and neck also "touched up".
"The prime minister made a radical choice and asked for a facelift and a nice touch up to wrinkles on his neck," the left-leaning magazine said.
Speculation that the prime minister's disappearance might have been due to plastic surgery first emerged last week when one of his doctors, Dr Umberto Scapagnini, mayor of the Sicilian town of Catania and a member of Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, told Turin-based daily, La Stampa, that Mr Berlusconi had had some "plastic surgery around the eyes". Dr Scapagnini may well have made those remarks in order to quash speculation that the prime minister was in fact seriously-ill, perhaps having suffered a recurrence of the prostate cancer for which he was operated on seven years ago.
Unconfirmed media reports in recent days also claimed that the prime minister has not only undergone a facelift but has also subjected himself to a radical diet and exercise regime that has seen him lose 22 lbs.
Ever image-conscious, Mr Berlusconi may have felt the need for a new look with which to campaign in this spring's European elections. A number of recent opinion polls suggest that Mr Berlusconi's popularity is currently on the wane.
In a recent edition, L'Espresso carried a poll which claimed that if European Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, were to stand in the European elections he would receive 48.8 per cent of votes as opposed to 32.3 per cent for Mr Berlusconi.
Throughout his 10-year-long political career, Mr Berlusconi has been obsessively watchful of his public image.
Newspapers and TV channels have been discouraged from using photos or TV sequences that were less than flattering.