Berlusconi and "The Bachelor"

We're big fans of ABC's long-running hit reality show, "The Bachelor"--since, that is, our son Bennett Graebner began sculpting the program's story lines as Supervising Story Producer. And so we were intrigued, pleased, amused, and shocked when Columbia University journalism professor Alexander Stille, writing in the The New York Review of Books, figured out that Silvio Berlusconi's bizarre performance in office was straight out of reality TV, and specifically, "The Bachelor."

"Berlusconi," writes Stille, "has transformed the political life of a major nation into a kind of reality TV show in which he is star, producer, and network owner: he is the ultimate "Survivor," who will lie and cheat to kick others off the island as well as 'The Bachelor,' distributing roses to a group of beautiful young women."


Well, we've heard he distributes more than roses, but that aside, we wondered if Mike Fleiss and the folks who produce and cast the show would consider
the Italian premier as their next Bachelor.
Silvio could be the first married Bachelor, or wait until the divorce proceedings initiated by his wife had run their course. By that time Vienna Girardi might be available. We think he'd find her irresistible.

Bill