Escort Patrizia D'Addario says Berlusconi party was ‘like harem’

Silvio Berlusconi faced mounting pressure to come clean about his private life yesterday after revelations that he entertained about 20 women, including two lesbian escort girls, until dawn during a private party at his house in Rome.
Patrizia D’Addario, the Bari prostitute who claims to have recorded footage that proves her encounters with the Prime Minister, gave more details of her first meeting with Mr Berlusconi, saying: “It felt like a harem. And there was only one sheikh. Him.”
She also spoke of the “strange burglary” in which her underwear, computer and the dress she wore to the party were allegedly stolen from her home days after she told a friend of the secret recordings.
It is understood that the video recordings, taken on her mobile phone, show Ms D’Addario in the Prime Minister’s bedroom. She claims that the four-poster bed with white drapes and duvets were given to him as a present by his friend Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister. A Kremlin spokesman denied that Mr Putin had ever given the Italian leader a bed.
A total of 19 women have now been questioned by prosecutors investigating an alleged prostitution ring run by Gianpaolo Tarantini, a Bari businessman.
One of those questioned, Barbara Montereale, 23, had her car set alight outside her home in Modugno, Bari, at about 5am yesterday. Police said that the Honda Jazz had been doused in a flammable liquid and destroyed.
Under the headline “Rivers of Cocaine” La Repubblica also reported yesterday that prosecutors had found evidence of frequent drug use at parties held by Mr Tarantini, 34.
Mr Berlusconi has dismissed the allegations surrounding the sex scandal as rubbish, and insisted during an interview earlier this week that he had nothing to be ashamed of. There is no suggestion that he knew of drug use at the parties in question. At least five parties at Palazzo Grazioli, his residence in Rome, and two at Villa Certosa, his luxury villa on the Sardinia coast, are under investigation.
However, in what appeared to be his first concession since the scandal triggered his wife to petition for divorce, Mr Berlusconi admitted yesterday that he had erred in allowing some guests to his parties but said that he would not change his ways.
“Some of my dinners have certainly been entertaining. I am a great entertainer,” he said. “I made mistakes over some guests, and they made mistakes in bringing other guests.”
Asked if that meant he would moderate his behaviour he replied: “I will not change. Italians want me as I am, my popularity rating is 61 per cent.”
In an interview yesterday Ms D’Addario, 42, repeated allegations that her house had been robbed last month. Among the stolen items, she claimed, were her computer, music CDs, her underwear and all her Versace dresses, including the one she wore to Palazzo Grazioli, where she met Mr Berlusconi for the first time in mid-October.
She said: “It was a very strange burglary. It happened in May, a few days after I had confided in a [male] friend that I had recordings of my encounters with the President.
“It scared me, and I began to understand.”
She also described her first experience of a party hosted by Mr Berlusconi, 72, during which the billionaire showed his female guests a long film of his meetings with foreign leaders, lavished them with butterfly trinkets and danced to Frank Sinatra singing My Way.
She dismissed claims that the Prime Minister did not know her. “I, unlike Silvio Berlusconi, remember every detail. When I arrived it would have been around 10pm. I took the lift. I went down a long corridor that opened into a room where I found there were already many girls. Others arrived later. In total we were around 20.” They were all Italian and some she recognised from television, she said.
“I was struck by one particular thing. While most of us were wearing short, black dresses — mine was Versace — and light make-up, two girls who were always together had long trousers. I learnt that they were two lesbian escorts who always work in a couple.”
On meeting the Prime Minister, she said, Mr Belusconi told her “how lovely you are”, adding: “He wanted me to sit next to him in the room with couches, where they put on a really long video. It showed his meetings with international leaders, meetings, a crowd that was singing, Meno male che Silvio c’e’ — Just as well we’ve got Silvio. All the girls at that point shouted, Ola!”
On entering the dining room the girls found a long table covered with colourful butterflies made with tissue paper and tulle. “They were butterflies everywhere, on the table centrepiece, on the candelabras. I got butterfly indigestion.”
She claims that the three-course dinner went on till dawn. “It was constantly interrupted by songs, dancing, jokes. Berlusconi also used a story to talk about me. He looked at me and said: “I know of a girl who no longer believes in men. I will make her believe. I will take her in my private jet.”
Then they slow-danced to My Way, she said. “We danced very close. And he doesn’t remember my face?”
Ms D’Addario has already claimed that she was paid €1,000 (£850) by Mr Tarantini to attend the party. She alleges that she did not receive more “because I did not stay”.
She declined to elaborate on her second visit to Palazzo Grazioli on November 4, the night of the US presidential elections. Ms Montereale, 23, who was also entertained by Mr Berlusconi that evening, claims that Ms D’Addario did not return to the hotel room they were meant to be sharing. She also says Ms D’Addario confided the next morning that she had had sex with Mr Berlusconi.
Yesterday the escort confirmed only that that Mr Berlusconi invited her to breakfast. “But it wasn’t in the dining room. It was something more intimate,” she said.

Lucy Bannerman in Bari - From The Times - June 26, 2009