Too pretty and too sexy for Italian television
Even this features two girls, usually dressed in a small top, even smaller skirt and knee-high boots, who dance on the desk at regular intervals. These two 'Veline', as they are known in Italy, will soon to be replaced. Even finding their replacements has become big business. Last time round more than 10,000 girls applied. This time, as before, they will be auditioned throughout the summer and the auditions form their own show, which is broadcast every night after Striscia la Notizia. The show will naturally pull in even more ratings and sponsors for Canale 5, another of Mr Berlusconi's channels.
'Vulgar dances': Over on state TV Rai, even the presenter of an entertainment programme - which covers the progress of the Serie A football league every Sunday afternoon - often struggles on camera to stay in her incredibly low cut tops. And, like many programmes on Italian television, she kicks off with an obligatory song, accompanied by a troupe of usually scantily-clad dancers. Emanuela Rossi, 23, now works as a TV presenter, but until last year she was a dancer on another Rai variety-type show where the outfits were usually on the skimpy side. "Initially I was a bit frightened and embarrassed because they were really short outfits, very exposing," she said. But that was nothing compared to some other programmes, she added. "In some transmissions there are indecent clothes, like the one where the dances were really vulgar - and in this context it was very trashy. "But if it's a funny, entertaining setting which isn't vulgar, I accept the revealing clothes," she said.
"Terrible lack of ideas': Men in many countries would surely be more than happy to see so much flesh on show on their screens - but why do Italian channels offer so much more than those in other countries? There are two reasons, according to Professor Michele Sorice, who teaches History of Radio and Television at Rome's main university. "On one hand the TV variety programmes come largely from Italy's show tradition, which has always featured half-naked dancers," he said. "On the other hand it comes from a terrible lack of ideas," he added. But things could soon start to change. Mr Sorice believes viewers are already sick of these programmes. Surveys show they watch, but criticise them harshly. "I think even Italians are a bit bored with always seeing undressed women on the television," Mr Sorice said. "The proof of this is in the fact that the biggest hits on Italian TV in recent months have actually been the period dramas."
HOWARD STERN VS. OPRAH
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American tabloid magazine reported that on March 18, millions of
Americans watched an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show,
during which an O, The Oprah Magazine writer described in
jawdropping detail, the latest fads in teen sex. Viewers learned
that a "tossed salad," had little to do with healthy eating, but
instead referred to oral sex to the anus. The guest went on to
describe "rainbow" parties -- gatherings at which a gaggle of
lipstick- wearing girls provide oral sex to one or more males. For
this, declares shock jock Howard Stern, 50, Oprah should come
under the same scrutiny as he has over his notoriously raunchy
broadcasts. Since 1990, the Federal Communications Commission has
levied fines, totaling close to $2 million, against Howard's show.
And on Feb. 23, Clear Channel Radio -- which had aired Howard's
gabfest on six of its stations -- dropped Stern for content it
considered "indecent." To prove his point, Howard aired the recent
Oprah segment on his radio show March 19 -- only to have
WXRK-FM New York station manager Tom Chiusano cut the explicit
description. "You bleeped it?" Howard shouted at Chiusano. "But it
was on Oprah!" The incident has left Howard fuming because
he reportedly believes Oprah, also 50 -- who has discussed sex and
featured former porn star Traci Lords in the past -- is
beyond reproach. Author Larry Sloman, who collaborated with Stern
on his book Private Parts, tells Star: "Howard's
show is tame compared to some of the graphic discussions on
Oprah. But the FCC doesn't have the guts to take on a black
woman who has single-mindedly willed herself an all-American
icon." His frustration with the FCC at an all-time high, Stern has
threatened to quit radio all-together, or move to satellite radio,
which the FCC doesn't regulate. But Oprah's racy segments haven't
gone altogether unnoticed. An FCC official, who asked to remain
anonymous, tells Star that the government agency has
received "a number of complaints" about Oprah's show in recent
weeks. Still, that's little consolation for fuming free-speech
advocate Howard, who on March 19, told his listeners, "They are
never going to fine Oprah because she is the darling of the
world!" But Robert Hilliard, co-author of Dirty Discourse: Sex
and Indecency in American Radio, tells Star that shows
like Oprah's pass muster because they inform, not titillate. One
of Oprah's former colleagues adds, "When was the last time Howard
did anything good for anybody? Oprah is always doing good things
for people."