Umberto Eco

Born	(1932-01-05) 5 January 1932 (age 80) Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy
Era	20th / 21st-century philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Semiotics
Notable ideas	The "open work" ("opera aperta")
Influenced by James Joyce, Jorge Luis Borges, Charles Sanders Peirce, Immanuel Kant, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Theodor W. Adorno, Antonio Gramsci, Jean Piaget, Franz Kafka, Charles Baudelaire, Luigi Pareyson, Benedetto Croce, Arthur Conan Doyle
Signature

Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross (born 5 January 1932) is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist. He is best known for his groundbreaking 1980 novel Il nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose), an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory. He has since written further novels, including Il pendolo di Foucault (Foucault's Pendulum) and L'isola del giorno prima (The Island of the Day Before). His most recent novel Il cimitero di Praga (The Prague Cemetery), released in 2010, was a best-seller.

Eco has also written academic texts, children's books and many essays. He is founder of the Dipartimento di Comunicazione at the University of San Marino, President of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici, University of Bologna, member of the Accademia dei Lincei (since November 2010) and an Honorary Fellow of Kellogg College, University of Oxford.

Biography[link]

Eco was born in the city of Alessandria in the region of Piedmont in northern Italy. His father, Giulio, was an accountant before the government called upon him to serve in three wars. During World War II, Umberto and his mother, Giovanna, moved to a small village in the Piedmontese mountainside. Eco received a Salesian education, and he has made references to the order and its founder in his works and interviews.^[1] His family name is supposedly an acronym of ex caelis oblatus (Latin: a gift from the heavens), which was given to his grandfather (a foundling) by a city official.^[2]

His father was the son of a family with thirteen children, and urged Umberto to become a lawyer, but he entered the University of Turin in order to take up medieval philosophy and literature, writing his thesis on Thomas Aquinas and earning his Laurea in philosophy in 1954. During his university studies, Eco stopped believing in God and left the Roman Catholic Church.^[3][4] After this, Eco worked as a cultural editor for the state broadcasting station Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) and also lectured at the University of Turin (1956–1964). A group of avant-garde artists, painters, musicians, writers, whom he had befriended at RAI (Gruppo 63), became an important and influential component in Eco's future writing career. This was especially true after the publication of his first book in 1956, Il problema estetico in San Tommaso, which was an extension of his doctoral thesis. This also marked the beginning of his lecturing career at his alma mater.

In September 1962, he married Renate Ramge, a German art teacher with whom he has a son and a daughter. He divides his time between an apartment in Milan and a vacation house near Urbino. He has a 30,000 volume library in the former and a 20,000 volume library in the latter.^[5] In 1992–1993 Eco was the Norton professor at Harvard University. On May 23, 2002, Eco received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Eco is a member of the Italian skeptic organization CICAP.^[6]

Works[link]

Studies on medieval aesthetics[link]

In 1959, he published his second book, Sviluppo dell'estetica medievale (The Development of Medieval Aesthetics), which established Eco as a formidable thinker in medieval philosophy and proved his literary worth to his father. After 18 months' military service in the Italian Army, he left RAI in 1959 to become the senior non-fiction editor of the Bompiani publishing house in Milan, a position he occupied until 1975. Eco's work on medieval aesthetics stressed the distinction between theory and practice.^{[citation needed]} About the Middle Ages, he wrote that there was "a geometrically rational schema of what beauty ought to be, and on the other [hand] the unmediated life of art with its dialectic of forms and intentions", the two cut off from one another as if by a pane of glass. Eco's work in literary theory has changed focus over time. Initially, he was one of the pioneers of "Reader Response".^{[citation needed]}

Literary criticism[link]

During these years,^[which?] Eco began seriously developing his ideas on the "open" text and on semiotics, writing many essays on these subjects, and in 1962 he published Opera aperta (translated into English as "The Open Work"). In it, Eco argued that literary texts are fields of meaning, rather than strings of meaning, that they are understood as open, internally dynamic and psychologically engaged fields. Literature which limits one's potential understanding to a single, unequivocal line, the closed text, remains the least rewarding, while texts that are the most active between mind and society and life (open texts) are the most lively and best—although valuation terminology is not his primary area of focus. Eco emphasizes the fact that words do not have meanings that are simply lexical, but rather, they operate in the context of utterance.^{[citation needed]} I. A. Richards and others said as much, but Eco draws out the implications for literature from this idea.^{[citation needed]} He also extended the axis of meaning from the continually deferred meanings of words in an utterance to a play between expectation and fulfilment of meaning.^{[citation needed]} Eco comes to these positions through study of language and from semiotics, rather than from psychology or historical analysis (as did theorists such as Wolfgang Iser, on the one hand, and Hans-Robert Jauss, on the other).

Studies on mass media and mass culture[link]

From the late '50s till the late '60s, before his semiotic turn, Eco engaged in studies on mass media and mass culture, which were published in various newspapers and journals.^[7] According to some^[who?] these studies were influential although he did not develop a full-scale theory in this field.^{[citation needed]}

His short 1961 essay Fenomenologia di Mike Bongiorno (Phenomenology of Mike Bongiorno, on the most popular quiz show host, Mike Bongiorno), received much notoriety among the general public, and has drawn endless questions by journalists in every public appearance by Eco; it was later included in the collection Diario minimo (1963). His book Apocalittici e integrati (1964) analyzes the phenomenon of mass communication from a sociological perspective.

In 1967 he gave the influential lecture Towards a Semiological Guerrilla Warfare,^[8] which coined the influential term "semiological guerrilla," and influenced the theorization of guerrilla tactics against mainstream mass media culture, such as guerrilla television and culture jamming.^{[citation needed]} Among the expressions used in the essay, are "communications guerrilla warfare" and "cultural guerrilla."^[9][10] The essay was later included in Eco's book Faith in Fakes.

Semiotics[link]

Eco co-founded Versus: Quaderni di studi semiotici (known as VS among Italian academics), an influential semiotic journal. VS has become an important publication platform for many scholars whose work is related to signs and signification. The journal's foundation and activities have contributed to the growing influence of semiotics as an academic field in its own right, both in Italy and in the rest of Europe. Most of the well-known European semioticians, among them Eco, A.J. Greimas, Jean-Marie Floch, Paolo Fabbri, Jacques Fontanille, Claude Zilberberg, Ugo Volli and Patrizia Violi, have published original articles in VS. Articles by younger, less famous scholars dealing with new research perspectives in semiotics also find place in almost every issue of VS.

Action in anthropology[link]

Eco receiving the honoris causa degree in architecture at the University of Reggio Calabria from rector Alessandro Bianchi

In 1988, at the University of Bologna, Eco created an unusual program called Anthropology of the West from the perspective of non-Westerners (African and Chinese scholars), as defined by their own criteria. Eco developed this transcultural international network based on the idea of Alain Le Pichon in West Africa. The Bologna program resulted in a first conference in Guangzhou, China, in 1991 entitled "Frontiers of Knowledge." The first event was soon followed by an Itinerant Euro-Chinese seminar on "Misunderstandings in the Quest for the Universal" along the silk trade route from Canton to Beijing. The latter culminated in a book entitled The Unicorn and the Dragon, which discussed the question of the creation of knowledge in China and in Europe. Scholars contributing to this volume were from China, including Tang Yijie, Wang Bin and Yue Dayun, as well as from Europe: (Furio Colombo, Antoine Danchin, Jacques Le Goff, Paolo Fabbri, Alain Rey)^[11]

In 2000 a seminar in Timbuktu (Mali), was followed by another gathering in Bologna to reflect on the conditions of reciprocal knowledge between East and West. This in turn gave rise to a series of conferences in Brussels, Paris, and Goa, culminating in Beijing in 2007. The topics of the Beijing conference were "Order and Disorder","New Concepts of War and Peace", "Human Rights" and "Social Justice and Harmony". Eco presented the opening lecture. The following anthropologists gave presentations: from India (Balveer Arora, Varun Sahni, Rukmini Bhaya Nair); from Africa (Moussa Sow); from Europe (Roland Marti, Maurice Olender); from Korea (Cha Insuk); from China (Huang Ping, Zhao Tinyang). Also on the program were scholars from the domains of law or science: (Antoine Danchin, Ahmed Djebbar, Dieter Grimm).^[12] Eco's interest in East/West dialogue to facilitate international communication and understanding also correlates with his related interest in the international auxiliary language Esperanto.

Novels[link]

Eco's fiction has enjoyed a wide audience around the world, with many translations. His novels are full of subtle, often multilingual, references to literature and history and his dense, intricate plots tend to take dizzying turns. Eco's work illustrates the concept of intertextuality, or the inter-connectedness of all literary works. Eco cites James Joyce and Jorge Luis Borges as the two modern authors who have influenced his work the most.^[13]

Eco employed his education as a medievalist in his first novel The Name of the Rose (1980), a historical mystery set in a 14th century monastery. Franciscan friar William of Baskerville, aided by his assistant Adso, a Benedictine novice, investigates a series of murders at a monastery that is to host an important religious debate. The novel contains many direct or indirect metatextual references to other sources, requiring the detective work of the reader to 'solve'. The title is unexplained in the book. As a symbol, the rose is ubiquitous enough to not confer any single meaning.^[14] There is a tribute to Jorge Luis Borges, a major influence on Eco, in the blind monk and librarian Jorge of Burgos: Borges, like Jorge, lived a celibate life consecrated to his passion for books, and also went blind in later life. William of Baskerville is a logically-minded Englishman who is a monk and a detective, and his name evokes both William of Ockham and Sherlock Holmes (by way of The Hound of the Baskervilles). Several passages describing him are strongly reminiscent of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's description of Sherlock Holmes^[15][16] . The underlying mystery of the murder is borrowed from the "Arabian Nights". The Name of the Rose was later made into a motion picture starring Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham, Christian Slater and Ron Perlman which employs the plot rather than the philosophical and historical themes from the novel.

In Foucault's Pendulum (1988), three under-employed editors who work for a minor publishing house decide to amuse themselves by inventing a conspiracy theory. Their conspiracy, which they call "The Plan", is about an immense and intricate plot to take over the world by a secret order descended from the Knights Templar. As the game goes on, the three slowly become obsessed with the details of this plan. The game turns dangerous when outsiders learn of The Plan, and believe that the men have really discovered the secret to regaining the lost treasure of the Templars.

The Island of the Day Before (1994) was Eco's third novel. The book, set in the seventeenth century, is about a man marooned on a ship within sight of an island which he believes is on the other side of the international date-line. The main character is trapped by his inability to swim and instead spends the bulk of the book reminiscing on his life and the adventures that brought him to be marooned.

Baudolino was published in 2000. Baudolino is a knight who saves the Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates during the sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade. Claiming to be an accomplished liar, he confides his history, from his childhood as a peasant lad endowed with a vivid imagination, through his role as adopted son of Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, to his mission to visit the mythical realm of Prester John. Throughout his retelling, Baudolino brags of his ability to swindle and tell tall tales, leaving the historian (and the reader) unsure of just how much of his story was a lie.

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (2005) is about Giambattista Bodoni, an old bookseller specializing in antiques who emerges from a coma with only some memories to recover his past.

The Prague Cemetery, Eco's 6th novel, was published in 2010. It is the story of a secret agent who "weaves plots, conspiracies, intrigues and attacks, and helps determine the historical and political fate of the European Continent." The book is a narrative of the rise of Modern-day antisemitism, by way of the Dreyfus Affair, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and other important 19th century events which gave rise to hatred and hostility toward the Jewish people.

Selected bibliography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Umberto Eco

• Official Website from the Scuola superiore di studi umanistici
• Porta Ludovica: An extensive Umberto Eco resource.
• Umberto Eco Wiki - wiki annotation guide to Eco's works
• Lila Azam Zanganeh (Summer 2008). "Umberto Eco, The Art of Fiction No. 197". Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5856/the-art-of-fiction-no-197-umberto-eco. 
• Website on Umberto Eco
• Audio: Eco talk at UC Berkeley (1982): "From Aristotle to Sherlock Holmes" (online audio recording)
• "We Like Lists Because We Don't Want to Die" interview by Susanne Beyer and Lothar Gorris.

v t e Works of Umberto Eco Novels The Name of the Rose Foucault's Pendulum The Island of the Day Before Baudolino The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana The Prague Cemetery Non-fiction The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages The Open Work Misreadings Apocalypse Postponed The Middle Ages of James Joyce The Absent Structure Faith in Fakes: Travels in Hyperreality A Theory of Semiotics Il Superuomo di massa Dalla periferia dell'impero Lector in fabula The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts Sette anni di desiderio Postscript to The Name of the Rose Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language De Bibliotheca The Limits of Interpretation Interpretation and Overinterpretation The Search for the Perfect Language Six Walks in the Fictional Woods Incontro - Encounter - Rencontre Belief or Nonbelief?: A Dialogue Five Moral Pieces Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition Serendipities: Language and Lunacy How to Travel with a Salmon & Other Essays Experiences in Translation On Literature Mouse or Rat?: Translation as negotiation Turning Back the Clock: Hot Wars and Media Populism On Beauty/History of Beauty On Ugliness Dall'albero al labirinto: studi storici sul segno e l'interpretazione The Infinity of Lists Confessions of a Young Novelist Manual Come si fa una tesi di laurea Books for children The Bomb and the General The Three Astronauts The Gnomes of Gnu

Jeremy Paxman
Paxman in September 2009
Born	Jeremy Dickson Paxman (1950-05-11) 11 May 1950 (age 62) Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
Residence	Stonor, Oxfordshire
Nationality	British
Education	MA (St Catharine's College, Cambridge)
Alma mater	Malvern College, St. Catharine's College
Occupation	Journalist, news presenter
Employer	BBC
Salary	£1,040,000 (2006) per annum[1]
Television	Newsnight University Challenge
Spouse	Elizabeth Ann Clough (?-present)
Children	2 daughters, 1 son
Parents	Keith and Joan Paxman
Relatives	Giles Paxman (brother)

Jeremy Dickson Paxman^[2][3] (born 11 May 1950) is an English journalist, author and broadcaster. He has worked for the BBC since 1977. He is noted for a forthright and abrasive interviewing style, particularly when interrogating politicians. His regular appearances on the BBC2's Newsnight programme have been criticised as aggressive, intimidating and condescending, and also applauded as tough and incisive.^[4] He is also the question master of University Challenge, succeeding Bamber Gascoigne when the programme was revived in 1994.

Early life[link]

Paxman was born in Leeds. His mother, Joan, born 1920, was a housewife.^[5] Paxman is the eldest of four children and has two brothers, one of whom, Giles, is the British Ambassador to Spain (having previously been ambassador to Mexico), and a sister, Jenny, a producer at BBC Radio.

He was brought up in Yorkshire and Peopleton, near Pershore, Worcestershire. In 1964, he went to Malvern College^[2][6] and read English at St Catharine's College, Cambridge,^[7] where he edited the undergraduate newspaper Varsity.^[3][8][9] While at Cambridge, Paxman was briefly a member of the Labour Club.

Paxman was the subject in January 2006 of an episode of the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?.^[5] The documentary concluded him to be descended from one Roger Packsman, a 14th century politician from Suffolk who had changed his name to Paxman (man of peace, "Pax" translates from Latin as peace) to impress "the electorate." His maternal grandmother was born in Glasgow, Scotland. The programme generated much publicity prior to its transmission by displaying the usually pitiless Paxman teary-eyed on camera when informed that his impoverished great-grandmother Mary Mackay's poor relief had been revoked because she'd had a child out of wedlock.^[5][10]

Career[link]

Journalism[link]

Paxman joined the BBC's graduate trainee programme in 1972. He started in local radio, at BBC Radio Brighton. He moved to Belfast, where he reported the Troubles. He moved to London in 1977. Two years later he transferred from the Tonight programme to Panorama. After five years reporting from places such as Beirut, Uganda and Central America, he read the Six O'Clock News for two years, before moving to BBC1's Breakfast Time programme.

Newsnight[link]

Paxman became a presenter of Newsnight in 1989.

On 13 May 1997 he spoke with Michael Howard in what became the programme's most notorious interview. Howard, who had been Home Secretary until thirteen days earlier, had held a meeting with Derek Lewis, head of the Prison Service, about the possible dismissal of the governor of Parkhurst Prison, John Marriott. Howard, having given evasive answers, was asked by Paxman the same question – "Did you threaten to overrule him [Lewis]?"  – a total of twelve times in succession (14 if the first two inquiries worded somewhat differently and some time before the succession of 12 are included). Howard did not give a direct answer, instead repeatedly saying that he "did not overrule him", and ignoring the "threaten" part of the question.^[11] Later, during a 20th anniversary edition of Newsnight, Paxman told Howard that he had simply been trying to prolong the interview since the next item in the running order wasn't ready.^[12] In 2004 Paxman raised the subject again with Howard, by then leader of the Conservative Party. This time, Howard laughed it off, saying that he had not threatened to overrule the head of the Prison Service.^{[citation needed]} Secret Home Office papers^[13] released in 2005 under the Freedom of Information Act failed to corroborate this.

In 1998, Denis Halliday, a United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, resigned his post in Iraq, describing the effects of his own organisation's sanctions as genocide.^[14] Paxman asked Halliday in a Newsnight interview, "Aren't you just an apologist for Saddam Hussein?"

Later that year Paxman won a Royal Television Society award.

In 2003, Prime Minister Tony Blair opted to make the case for the invasion of Iraq via questions from a TV studio audience, mediated by Paxman. The programme is chiefly remembered for the fact that Paxman asked Blair if he and U.S. President Bush prayed together. Blair replied, "No, Jeremy. We don't pray together."^[15]

During the 2005 General Election some viewers complained to the BBC that Paxman's robust questioning of party leaders had been rude and aggressive.^[16] There was criticism of his five-in-the-morning results interview with George Galloway. Referring to Oona King, whom Galloway had just defeated, Paxman asked more than once whether he was proud of having got rid of "one of the very few black women in Parliament."^[17] An exasperated Galloway cut the interview short. Paxman later made a taped guest appearance on the Celebrity Big Brother reality TV show challenging Galloway to a follow-up session "with or without your leotard" (Galloway, a Big Brother contestant at the time, had in an earlier much-publicised stunt during the show dressed up in a leotard).^[18]

Paxman's brusque manner is not restricted to political interviews. When Newsnight's editor decided to broadcast brief weather forecasts instead of financial reports he openly ridiculed the decision: "And for tonight's weather – it's April, what do you expect?".^[19] The financial reports were re-introduced after a few weeks. In a Radio Times poll of 3,000 people in 2006, he was voted the fourth "scariest" TV celebrity.^[20]

Other TV work[link]

Paxman has presented the weekly TV programme review Did You See?, You Decide and, most notably, since 1994, University Challenge, bringing him the distinction of "longest-serving current quizmaster on British TV."^[21] He presented on BBC America and BBC World a weekly compilation of highlights from the domestic edition of Newsnight from February 2008 until shortly after the 2008 U.S. election, when the American programme was cancelled. The programme is still aired on BBC World.^[15][22][23]

In April 2006 The Sun claimed that Paxman earned £800,000 for his Newsnight job and £240,000 for presenting University Challenge, bringing his TV earnings to a yearly total of £1,040,000. This was one of a series of BBC salary leaks in the tabloid press that prompted an internal BBC investigation.^[24]

Beginning on 15 February 2009, his four part documentary The Victorians aired on BBC One. The series explores Victorian art and culture.^[25] From 27 February 2012, the BBC is broadcasting Paxman's series Empire, examining the history and legacy of the British Empire. This programme had its fifth and final episode broadcast on March 26 2012 on BBC One.

Books[link]

Paxman's first book, A Higher Form of Killing (1982), written with then BBC colleague and friend Robert Harris, arose out of an edition of the Panorama programme they had made together on biological and chemical warfare. In a revised 2002 version they asserted that Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons. In 1985 Paxman published Through the Volcanoes: A Central American Journey, an eyewitness account of people, places and politics. Friends in High Places: Who Runs Britain? (1991) was the result of numerous detailed interviews with the powerful or highly influential, what used to be called The Establishment. Paxman's The English: A Portrait of a People (1999) was not the first of his books to be greeted with wide critical acclaim. The Political Animal: An Anatomy (2003), again based on extensive interviews, examines the motivations and methods of those who constitute the author's professional prey: Westminster politicians. The otherwise-republican Paxman's On Royalty, which entailed the cooperation of Britain's royal family, became by the time it was published in 2006, to his own surprise and somewhat to the surprise of others, a defence of the country's constitutional monarchy. His recent books have been big sellers. His book, The Victorians: Britain through the Paintings of the Age, published in 2009, was accompanied by a BBC documentary series. In his introduction, Paxman acknowledged that the Irish writer Neil Hegarty had played a significant role in editing the book and bringing it to completion. Paxman was praised by academics and figures in the publishing industry for acknowledging Hegarty's substantial contribution. Paxman stated that since all television is a "collaborative exercise", it was "rather silly for this book - which accompanies a television series - to appear with only one name on the cover."^[26] Paxman's most recent book is a study of the British Empire, Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British.^[27][28]

Radio[link]

Paxman presented the flagship BBC Radio 4 show Start the Week from 1998 to 2002.

Paxman and the BBC[link]

While John Birt was Director General of the BBC, the British press from time to time reported Paxman's criticism of his boss. The former, suspected at first to be an outsider brought in by a hostile government to supervise the BBC's break-up and ultimate sell-off, in turn publicly questioned the confrontational approach, as he saw it, of certain TV and radio interviewers. This was seen at the time as coded criticism of Paxman himself and of his BBC colleague John Humphrys.^[29][30]

On 24 August 2007 Paxman delivered the MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.^[31] In it he was critical of much of contemporary TV in Britain. He expressed concern that as a consequence of recent production scandals the medium was rapidly losing public trust. Speaking of prime minister Tony Blair's criticism of the mass media at the time he left office, Paxman asserted that often press and broadcasting may be "oppositional" in relation to the government of the day this could only benefit democracy. Those Reithian goals, to "inform, educate and entertain," still remained valid. Paxman took the opportunity to dismiss as "inaccurate" the attribution to himself, which was, in fact, Louis Heren^[32], of the oft-quoted "Why is this lying bastard lying to me?" as the supposed dominant thought in his mind when interviewing senior politicians. He called on the television industry to rediscover a sense of purpose.

Awards and honours[link]

In 1996 Paxman received BAFTA's Richard Dimbleby Award for "outstanding presenter in the factual arena." Two years later he won the Royal Television Society's Interviewer of the Year Award for his somewhat notorious Newsnight interview (see above) with Michael Howard, as well as the Broadcasting Press Guild's award for best "non-acting" performer. He got another Richard Dimbleby Award in 2000 and was nominated for the award in 2001 and 2002. He won the Royal Television Society TV journalism presenter of the year award in 2002 and 2007.

Paxman was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Leeds in the summer of 1999 and in December that year received an honorary degree from the University of Bradford.^[33] In 2006 he received an honorary doctorate from the Open University. Among those at the ceremony were three members of the Open University's 1999 University Challenge team. Paxman is a Fellow by special election of St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and an Honorary Fellow of his alma mater, St. Catharine's College, Cambridge.

Personal life[link]

Paxman in 2007

Paxman lives with his partner Elizabeth Ann Clough in Stonor, southeast Oxfordshire. They have three children: Jessica, and twins Victoria and Jack. He supports Leeds United and his favourite players are Billy Paynter and Robbie Rogers, he also enjoys fly fishing in his leisure time.^[34] He is vice-chairman of the Wild Trout Trust conservation charity. He is also a patron of the charity Sustrans.

When, in his twenties, Paxman unsuccessfully applied for the vacant editorship of the venerable Labour-supporting weekly The New Statesman, he said he considered himself a socialist.^[35][36] He had previously stood as a Communist candidate in school elections.^[36] More recently, he has been described as "the archetypal floating voter", and Jon Snow once said that Paxman's greatest strength was being "not very political".^[36] Paxman himself has stated:

I do understand we have to have a government, and I do firmly believe in democracy. So it's not true to say I'm not a political person. I am a political person. But I'm not a party political person. I don't believe there is a monopoly of wisdom in any one party. I suppose as one gets older - I would have described it at the age of 21 as the process of selling out, but another way of looking at it is to say, actually, the world is not a very simple place, and that as you get older simple-minded solutions seem less attractive.^[36]

He has periodically suffered from depression.^[37] It has recently been wrongly asserted that he attended Charterhouse School.^[38] Paxman has denied these claims.^[39]

Criticism[link]

Paxman has been publicly criticised over his and his partner's home help arrangements.^[40] Having advertised on a Romanian website, they hired two people at below minimum wage without a written contract. While this is not illegal in the UK if employees live in, Paxman, known for grilling interviewees on workers' rights issues, was criticised when his employees went public, claiming to have been paid "the bare minimum".^[41]

Paxman's controversial remarks about the Scots have provoked anger at parliamentary level. Twenty Scottish Members of Parliament signed a House of Commons motion in March 2005 condemning him for comparing supposed Scottish dominance at Westminster to British rule in India: a "Scottish Raj" was running the UK, said Paxman. The row came right after a Cabinet minister had complained that the Newsnight host had been offensive about his Glasgow accent. Paxman's response served further to fan the flames.^[42] In an introduction to a new edition of Chambers Dictionary in August 2008 Paxman labelled the work of Scotland's national poet Robert Burns as "sentimental doggerel."^[43] Paxman himself is quarter-Scottish through his maternal grandmother, a fact which he stated has led to many of his comments being misunderstood as he regards the Scots "with affection".^[5]

Paxman has been widely condemned as disrespectful when commented in an absurd way the possible exit of Greece from the Eurozone ('like bad kebab vomiting") on the 31st of May 2012 edition of Newsnight. He received many angry messages from the audience on twitter and other media accusing him for racist and inappropriate stereotypical analogies ^{[44] [45]}. Paxman has come under fire from critics of US foreign policy, including fellow journalist John Pilger, for his involvement with the British-American Project about which, according to The Guardian, "even its supporters joke that it's funded by the CIA."^[46]

Paxman in popular culture[link]

Paxman became a focus of media attention in his own right in October 2000 when the stolen Enigma machine, which had been taken from Bletchley Park Museum, was inexplicably sent to him in the post. He had it returned to its rightful location.^[47]

Charlie Brooker once opined in his Screen Burn columns that one of his new policies for the BBC were he put in charge would be to "let Paxman actually hit people", describing this as "self-explanatory".^[48] Similarly, Graeme Garden suggested on I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue in 1994 that one way to increase Newsnight's ratings would be to "arm Jeremy Paxman".^[49]

Paxman and his presenting style were also frequently parodied by comedian Chris Morris in the satirical TV series The Day Today and Brass Eye. Harry Enfield also parodied Paxman in his short-lived Sky series, Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show.

Bibliography[link]

• Harris, Robert; Jeremy Paxman (1982). A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret Story of Chemical and Biological Warfare. New York, N.Y.: Hill and Wang. ISBN 0-8090-5471-X.  New edition published as Harris, Robert; Jeremy Paxman (2002). A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Gas and Germ Warfare. London: Arrow. ISBN 0-09-944159-4. .
• Paxman, Jeremy (1985). Through the Volcanoes: A Central American Journey. London: Paladin. ISBN 0-586-08572-6. 
• Paxman, Jeremy (1991). Friends in High Places: Who Runs Britain?. London; New York, N.Y.: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-015600-3. 
• Paxman, Jeremy (1999). The English: A Portrait of a People. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-026723-9. 
• Paxman, Jeremy (2003). The Political Animal: An Anatomy. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-028847-3. 
• Paxman, Jeremy (2006). On Royalty. London; New York, N.Y.: Viking. ISBN 0-670-91662-5. 
• Paxman, Jeremy (2009). The Victorians: Britain Through the Paintings of the Age. London: BBC Books. ISBN 978-1-84607-744-9. 
• Paxman, Jeremy (2011). Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British. London: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-91957-4. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jeremy Paxman

• Biography of Jeremy Paxman, member of the BBC's Press Office, at the official website of the BBC.
• Profile of Jeremy Paxman at Speaker's Associates
• BBC 'Newsnight' biography of Jeremy Paxman
• Official website of BBC's Newsnight programme
• Paxman questioned by fellow-journalists at London's Frontline Club, February 2008
• Paxman interviewed at length on the US Charlie Rose Show, June 2007

For the noted French soldier, see Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard.

Pierre Bayard (born 1954) is a French author, professor of literature and connoisseur of psychology.

Bayard's recent book Comment parler des livres que l'on n'a pas lus?, or "How to talk about books you haven't read", is a bestseller in France and has received much critical attention in English language press.

A few of his books present revisionist readings of famous fictional mysteries. Not only does he argue that the real murderer is not the one that the author presents to us, but in addition these works suggest that the author subconsciously knew who the real culprit is. His 2008 book L'Affaire du Chien des Baskerville was published in English as Sherlock Holmes was Wrong: Re-opening the Case of the Hound of the Baskervilles. His earlier book Who Killed Roger Ackroyd? re-investigates Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. His book on Hamlet which argues that Claudius did not kill Hamlet's father remains untranslated into English.

Bibliography[link]

• Balzac et le troc de l"imaginaire. Lecture de La Peau de chagrin (Lettres modernes-Minard, 1978).
• Symptôme de Stendhal. Armance et l’aveu (Lettres modernes-Minard, 1980).
• Il était deux fois Romain Gary (Presses universitaires de France, 1990).
• Le Paradoxe du menteur. Sur Laclos (Minuit, 1993).
• Maupassant, juste avant Freud (Minuit, 1994).
• Le Hors-sujet. Proust et la digression (Minuit, 1996).
• Qui a tué Roger Ackroyd? (Minuit, 1998 et « Reprise », 2002).
• Lire avec Freud. Pour Jean Bellemin-Noël, dir. Pierre Bayard (Presses universitaires de France, 1998).
• Comment améliorer les œuvres ratées? (Minuit, 2000).
• Enquête sur Hamlet. Le Dialogue de sourds (Minuit, 2002).
• Le Détour par les autres arts. Pour Marie-Claire Ropars, dir. Pierre Bayard et Christian Doumet (L’Improviste, 2004).
• Peut-on appliquer la littérature à la psychanalyse (Minuit, 2004).
• Demain est écrit (Minuit, 2005).
• Comment parler des livres que l'on n'a pas lus? (Minuit, 2007).
• L'Affaire du Chien des Baskerville (Minuit, 2008).

External links[link]

• "Books we have never read" (review)
• "L'Affaire du chien" (review)

A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (April 2012)

Silvio Berlusconi
50th Prime Minister of Italy
In office 8 May 2008 – 16 November 2011
President	Giorgio Napolitano
Preceded by	Romano Prodi
Succeeded by	Mario Monti
In office 11 June 2001 – 17 May 2006
President	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Giorgio Napolitano
Deputy	Giulio Tremonti Gianfranco Fini Marco Follini
Preceded by	Giuliano Amato
Succeeded by	Romano Prodi
In office 10 May 1994 – 17 January 1995
President	Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Deputy	Giuseppe Tatarella Roberto Maroni
Preceded by	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Succeeded by	Lamberto Dini
Personal details
Born	(1936-09-29) 29 September 1936 (age 75) Milan, Italy
Political party	Forza Italia (1994–2008) The People of Freedom (2008–present)
Spouse(s)	Carla Dall'Oglio (1965–1985, Divorced) Veronica Lario (1990–2010, Divorced)
Children	Marina Pier Silvio Barbara Eleonora Luigi
Alma mater	University of Milan
Signature
Website	https://www.forzasilvio.it/

Silvio Berlusconi (Italian pronunciation: [ˈsilvjo berluˈskoːni] ( listen); born 29 September 1936) is an Italian politician and media tycoon who served three times as Prime Minister of Italy from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the controlling shareholder of Mediaset and owner of A.C. Milan. He is nicknamed Il Cavaliere (The Knight) for his knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour, which he received in 1977.^[1]

Berlusconi is the longest-serving post-war Prime Minister of Italy, and third longest-serving since Italy's unification, after Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Giolitti, holding three separate terms. Technically, he has been sworn in four times because after a cabinet reshuffle, as happened with Berlusconi in 2005, the new ministry is sworn in and subjected to a vote of confidence. He is the leader of the People of Freedom political movement, a centre-right party he founded in 2009. From November 2009 to November 2011, he was the most senior leader of the G8 countries. In 2012, Forbes magazine ranked him as the 169th richest man in the world with a net worth of US$5.9 billion.^[2]

Berlusconi's political rise was rapid and surrounded by some controversy. He was elected as a Member of the Chamber of Deputies for the first time and appointed as Prime Minister following the March 1994 parliamentary elections, when Forza Italia gained a relative majority a mere three months after having been officially launched. However, his cabinet collapsed after nine months, due to internal disagreements in his coalition. In the April 1996 snap parliamentary elections, Berlusconi was defeated by the centre-left candidate Romano Prodi. In the May 2001 parliamentary elections, he was again the centre-right candidate for Prime Minister and won against the centre-left candidate Francesco Rutelli. Berlusconi then formed his second and third cabinets, until 2006.

Berlusconi was leader of the centre-right coalition in the April 2006 parliamentary elections, which he lost by a very narrow margin, his opponent again being Romano Prodi. He was re-elected in the parliamentary elections of April 2008 following the collapse of Prodi's government and sworn in for a third time as Prime Minister on 8 May 2008.

Berlusconi was criticised for his dominance over the Italian media whilst he held political office.^[3] His broadcasting company Mediaset is the largest in the country and one of the biggest in Europe, Berlusconi never fulfilled his election promises to sell off his assets in the company to avoid a conflict of interest. His leadership was also undermined by sex scandals.^[4] After losing his majority in parliament amid growing fiscal problems related to the European debt crisis, Berlusconi officially resigned as Prime Minister on 16 November 2011.^[5]

Family background and personal life[link]

Berlusconi was born in Milan in 1936. He was raised there in a middle-class family.^[6] His father, Luigi Berlusconi (1908–1989) was a bank employee and his mother, Rosa Bossi (1911–2008), a housewife.^{[citation needed]} Silvio was the first of three children; he had a sister, Maria Francesca Antonietta Berlusconi (1943–2009) and has a brother, Paolo Berlusconi (born 1949), both entrepreneurs.^{[citation needed]}

After completing his secondary school education at a Salesian college, he studied law at the Università Statale in Milan, graduating (with honor) in 1961 with a thesis on the legal aspects of advertising. Berlusconi was not required to serve the standard one-year stint in the Italian army which was compulsory at the time.^[7] During his university studies he was a upright bass player in a group formed with the now Mediaset Chairman and amateur pianist Fedele Confalonieri and occasionally performed as a cruise ship crooner. In later life he wrote AC Milan's anthem with the Italian music producer and pop singer Tony Renis and Forza Italia's anthem with the opera director Renato Serio. With the Neapolitan singer Mariano Apicella he wrote two Neapolitan song albums: Meglio 'na canzone in 2003 and L'ultimo amore in 2006. Berlusconi also owns the Serie A Club AC Milan.

In 1965, he married Carla Elvira Dall'Oglio, and they had two children: Maria Elvira, better known as Marina (born 1966), and Pier Silvio (b. 1969).^{[citation needed]} By 1980, Berlusconi had established a relationship with the actress Veronica Lario (born Miriam Bartolini), with whom he subsequently had three children: Barbara (b. 1984), Eleonora (b. 1986) and Luigi (b. 1988). He was divorced from Dall'Oglio in 1985, and married Lario in 1990. By this time, Berlusconi was a well-known entrepreneur, and his wedding was a notable social event. One of his best men was former Prime Minister and leader of the Italian Socialist Party Bettino Craxi. In May 2009, Lario announced that she was to file for divorce.^[8]

Business career[link]

[edit] Milano Due

Berlusconi's business career began in construction early in the 1960s. After a couple of successful projects, in the late 1960s he carried out the construction of Milano Due, a huge residential project of about 10,500 apartments, which he eventually built in Segrate, an eastern suburb of Milan.

Telemilano[link]

Berlusconi first entered the media world in 1973 by setting up a small cable television company, 'Telemilano', to service units built on his Segrate properties. It began transmitting in September the following year. After buying two further channels, Berlusconi relocated the station to central Milan in 1977 and began broadcasting over the airwaves.^[9]

Fininvest[link]

In 1978 Berlusconi founded his first media group, Fininvest, and joined the Propaganda Due masonic lodge. In the five years leading up to 1983 he earned some 113 billion Italian liras (€58.3 million). The funding sources are still unknown because of the complex system of holding companies that makes them impossible to trace, despite investigations conducted by various state attorneys.

Fininvest soon expanded into a country-wide network of local TV stations which had similar programming, forming, in effect, a single national network. This was seen as breaching the Italian public broadcaster RAI's statutory monopoly on creating a national network which was later abolished. In 1980, Berlusconi founded Italy's first private national network, Canale 5, followed shortly thereafter by Italia 1 which was bought from the Rusconi family in 1982, and Rete 4, which was bought from Mondadori in 1984.^[10]

Berlusconi was assisted in his successful effort to create the first and only Italian commercial TV empire by his connections to Bettino Craxi, secretary-general of the Italian Socialist Party and also prime minister of Italy at that time, whose government passed, on 20 October 1984, an emergency decree legalising the nationwide transmissions made by Berlusconi's television stations.^[10] This was because, on 16 October 1984, judges in Turin, Pescara and Rome, enforcing a law which previously restricted nationwide broadcasting to RAI, had ordered these private networks to cease transmitting.

After some political turmoil in 1985 the decree was approved definitively. But for some years, Berlusconi's three channels remained in a legal limbo, and were not therefore allowed, for instance, to broadcast news and political commentary. They were elevated to the status of full national TV channels in 1990 by the so-called Mammì law.^{[citation needed]}

In 1995, Berlusconi sold a portion of his media holdings, first to the German media group Kirch Group (now bankrupted) and then by public offer. In 1999 Berlusconi expanded his media interests by forming a partnership with Kirch called the Epsilon MediaGroup.^[11]

On 9 July, a Milan court ordered Fininvest to pay 560 million euros in damages to Compagnie Industriali Riunite in a long-running legal dispute.^[12]

Political career[link]

From left to right: Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Silvio Berlusconi.

Berlusconi with Bush at the White House.

As he founded his Forza Italia party and entered politics, Berlusconi expressed his support for "freedom, the individual, family, enterprise, Italian tradition, Christian tradition and love for weaker people"^[13] and his intention to combat fiscal, judicial and bureaucratic oppression of Italians. The political family of the European People's Party was joined by Forza Italia in 1999 and by the People of Freedom in 2009.^[14] Some allies of Berlusconi, especially the Lega Nord, push for controls on immigration. Berlusconi himself has shown some reluctance to pursue such policies as strongly as his allies might like.^[15] A number of measures have been taken, with mixed results. The government, after introducing a controversial immigration law (the "Bossi-Fini" law, from the names of the Lega Nord and National Alliance leaders, as first authors of the text) is seeking the cooperation of European and other Mediterranean countries in reducing the large number of immigrants trying to reach Italian coasts on old and overloaded ferries and fishing boats, risking (and, often, losing) their lives.

On 8 November 2011, after losing his majority and public support, Berlusconi announced he would resign once parliament passed economic reforms.^[16] Many believed that the problems and doubts over Berlusconi's leadership and his coalition were one of the factors that contributed to market anxieties over an imminent Italian financial disaster, which could have a potentially catastrophic effect on the 17-nation eurozone and the world economy.^[17] On 12 November 2011, after a final meeting with his cabinet, Berlusconi met Italian president Giorgio Napolitano at the Palazzo del Quirinale to tend his resignation.^[18] Following Berlusconi's resignation, Mario Monti formed a new government that would remain in office until the next scheduled elections in 2013.^[19][20] On 16 November, Monti announced that he had formed a Cabinet and was officially sworn in as Prime Minister of Italy, also appointing himself as Minister of Economy and Finance.^[21]

Legal problems[link]

Allegations[link]

Silvio Berlusconi has an extensive record of criminal allegations, including mafia collusion, false accounting, tax fraud, corruption and bribery of police officers and judges. Berlusconi has been tried in Italian courts in several cases. In three of these cases accusations were dropped by the judiciary because of laws passed by Berlusconi's parliamentary majority shortening the time limit for prosecution of various offences and making false accounting illegal only if there is a specific damaged party reporting the fact to the authorities.^[22][23] In all of them, but one, either he was acquitted by a court of first instance or on appeal, or charges were dropped because the statute of limitations had expired. Therefore he has not been sentenced up to now, despite having been found guilty of providing false testimony in 1990.^{[24][25][26][27][28]} Berlusconi claimed that "this is a manifest judicial persecution, against which I am proud to resist, and the fact that my resistance and sacrifice will give the Italians a more fair and efficient judicial system makes me even more proud",^[29] and added that "789 prosecutors and magistrates took an interest in the politician Berlusconi from 1994 to 2006 with the aim of subverting the votes of the Italian people" citing statistics that he said have constituted a "calvary including 577 visits by police, 2,500 court hearings and 174 million euros in lawyers' bills paid by me".^[30][31] Berlusconi has always been able to afford top lawyers and publicists, for example Nicolas Sarkozy was one of his French top defenders.^[32][33][34] Some of his former prosecutors later joined the parliamentary opposition. Some of his attorneys are also members of parliament.

False testimony[link]

Receipt for membership of Silvio Berlusconi to "Propaganda 2" (P2) masonic lodge

In 1981, a scandal arose after the police discovery of Licio Gelli's secret quasi-Masonic lodge Propaganda 2 (P2), which aimed to change the Italian political system to a more authoritarian regime. The list of people involved in P2 included members of the secret services and some prominent characters from political arena, business, military and media. Silvio Berlusconi, who was then just starting to gain popularity as the founder and owner of "Canale 5" TV channel, was listed as a member of P2.^[35][36] The P2 lodge was dissolved by the Italian Parliament in December 1981 and a law was passed declaring similar organisations illegal, but no specific crimes were alleged against individual members of the P2 lodge. While the Italian Constitution had forbidden secret associations since 1948, no penal law provision had ever been passed by Parliament to enact that, and in the Italian legal system an action cannot be a crime if no law declaring that action a crime was in force when the action was committed. Thus, members of the P2 were members of anti-Constitutional and yet not illegal per se association.

Berlusconi later (in 1989) sued three journalists for libel for writing articles hinting at his involvement in financial crimes. In court, he declared that he had joined the P2 lodge "only for a very short time before the scandal broke" and "he had not even paid the entry fee". Such statements conflicted with the findings of the parliamentary inquiry commission appointed to investigate the lodge's activity, with material evidence, and even with previous testimony of Berlusconi, all of which proved that he had actually been a member of P2 since 1978 and had indeed paid 100,000 Italian liras (approximately equivalent to 300 euros today) as an entry fee. In 1990 the court of appeal of Venice found Berlusconi guilty of false testimony in front of the Court of Verona, however the court could not pass sentence as the offense had been pardoned by an amnesty passed in 1989.^[37]

Some political commentators claim that Berlusconi's electoral programme followed the P2 plan.^[38]

Jowell controversy/David Mills bribery case[link]

David Mills, lawyer husband of the former British cabinet minister Tessa Jowell, acted for Berlusconi in the early 1990s, and was later accused by Italian prosecutors of money laundering and of accepting a gift from Berlusconi in return for witness evidence favourable to Berlusconi given in court. Mills claimed that the money in question came not from Berlusconi but from another client. Tessa Jowell then announced her separation from Mills, which some of the UK media suggested was an attempt to distance herself from a potential scandal. She also denied having discussed the money with her husband; Private Eye magazine published a satirical front cover of Jowell with a speech bubble stating: "I have never met my husband". In December 2010, information obtained by the Wikileaks website revealed Mr Berlusconi had become very fond of Ms Jowell, referring to her in private company as 'piccolo puntaspilli' (the little pincushion).^{[citation needed]}

On 17 February 2009, Mills was found guilty of accepting a bribe of about 400,000 pounds sterling, allegedly from Silvio Berlusconi, and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.^[39] On 25 February 2010, the Court of Cassation gave a verdict of not guilty because the statute of limitations expired.^[40][41] The supreme court judges ruled that he received the money in 1999, and not 2000 as prosecutors had previously argued. He was ordered to pay €250,000 compensation to the office of the Italian prime minister for "damaging its reputation".^[42]

Soliciting minors for sex[link]

In February 2011, Berlusconi was charged with having sex with nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug between February and May 2010 when she was under the age of 18.^[43][44] He was also charged with abusing his political powers in an attempt to cover up the relationship (by trying to persuade the police to release the girl while she was under arrest for theft, based on a false claim that she was the granddaughter of Hosni Mubarak).^[43]

Abuse of office[link]

In February 2012, Milan prosecutors brought charges against Berlusconi for alleged abuse of office connected with the publication of confidential wiretaps by the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, which is owned by Berlusconi's brother, in 2005.^[45][46] The publication of the conversations between then Governor of the Bank of Italy Antonio Fazio, senior management of Unipol and Italian centre-left politician Piero Fassino was a breach of secrecy rules and was seen at the time as an attempt to discredit Berlusconi's political rivals. Their publication also eventually led to the collapse of the proposed takeover of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro by Unipol and the resignation of Fazio.^[45] The head of the company used by Italian prosecutors to record the conversations has been previously convicted of stealing the recordings and making them available to Berlusconi.^[46] On 7 February 2012, at an initial court hearing, Berlusconi denied he had listened to the tapes and ordered their publication.^[46]

Personal fortune[link]

In 2012, Forbes magazine reported that Berlusconi was Italy's sixth richest man, with a net worth of $5.9 billion. He holds significant assets in television, newspapers, publishing, cinema, finance, banking, insurance, and sport.^[47] Berlusconi's main company, Mediaset, comprises three national television channels covering half of the national television sector; and Publitalia, the leading Italian advertising and publicity agency. Berlusconi also owns a controlling stake in Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the largest Italian publishing house, whose publications include Panorama, one of the country's most popular news magazines. His brother, Paolo Berlusconi, owns and operates il Giornale, a centre-right wing newspaper which provides a pro-Berlusconi slant on Italian politics. Il Foglio, one of the most influential Italian right-wing newspapers, is partially owned by his wife, Veronica Lario. After Lario sold some of her ownership in 2010, Paolo Berlusconi acquired a majority interest in the newspaper. Berlusconi is also the founder and major shareholder of Fininvest, which is among the largest private companies in Italy^[48] and operates in media and finance. With Ennio Doris he founded Mediolanum, one of the country's biggest banking and insurance groups. He has interests in cinema and home video distribution (Medusa Film and Penta Film). He is also the owner of the football club A.C. Milan which along with Boca Juniors has won the most FIFA recognized international club titles in the world. After his resignation as prime minister of Italy, he announced that he will return as president of A.C. Milan in 2012.^[49]

See also[link]

• Controversies surrounding Silvio Berlusconi
• Forbes list of billionaires (2011)

References[link]

Documentaries[link]

• "Citizen Berlusconi – The Prime Minister and the Press", 2003
• Viva Zapatero!, directed by Sabina Guzzanti, 2005
• "Quando c'era Silvio", documentary film directed by Beppe Cremagnani e Enrico Deaglio, 2005.

Feature films[link]

• Draquila - L'Italia che trema (directed by Sabina Guzzanti, Cannes Film Festival, 2010)
• Videocracy (directed by Erik Gandini, 2009) "Videocracy / ATMO independent film- and TV productions". http://www.atmo.se/film-and-tv/videocracy/. Retrieved 12 November 2009. 
• "Bye Bye Berlusconi!/Buonanotte Topolino"
• Il Caimano (directed by Nanni Moretti, 2006)
• Shooting Silvio (directed by Berardo Carboni)
• Citizen Berlusconi (directed by Andrea Cairola and Susan Gray)

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Silvio Berlusconi

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Silvio Berlusconi

• Official website
• Profile: Silvio Berlusconi, BBC
• A chronology of Berlusconi's life from Ketupa.net
• Berlusconi cuts stake in television company, IFEX
• Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People
• BBC News Europe: Berlusconi in his own words
• Berlusconi to lobby EU on behalf of Russian travellers video on RussiaToday
• Silvio Berlusconi; A Complex Character
• (Italian) Progetto Politica: le 10 domande di Repubblica a Berlusconi
• (English) (Italian) Forza Italia, Berlusconi's political movement; click on International for an English version.
• (English) "EN" (Italian) A popular paper spread among the members of the European Parliament about Berlusconi's life chronology, mysteries and trials. By Marco Travaglio and Peter Gomez.

Silvio Berlusconi v t e Prime Ministers of Italy Kingdom of Italy Cavour · Ricasoli · Rattazzi · Farini · Minghetti · La Marmora · Ricasoli · Rattazzi · Menabrea · Lanza · Minghetti · Depretis · Cairoli · Depretis · Cairoli · Depretis · Crispi · Starabba · Giolitti · Crispi · Starabba · Pelloux · Saracco · Zanardelli · Giolitti · Tittoni · Fortis · Sonnino · Giolitti · Sonnino · Luzzatti · Giolitti · Salandra · Boselli · Orlando · Nitti · Giolitti · Bonomi · Facta · Mussolini · Badoglio · Bonomi · Parri · De Gasperi Italian Republic De Gasperi · Pella · Fanfani · Scelba · Segni · Zoli · Fanfani · Segni · Tambroni · Fanfani · Leone · Moro · Leone · Rumor · Colombo · Andreotti · Rumor · Moro · Andreotti · Cossiga · Forlani · Spadolini · Fanfani · Craxi · Fanfani · Goria · De Mita · Andreotti · Amato · Ciampi · Berlusconi · Dini · Prodi · D'Alema · Amato · Berlusconi · Prodi · Berlusconi · Monti v t e Italian Ministers of Foreign Affairs Kingdom of Italy Cavour · Ricasoli · Rattazzi · Pasolini · Visconti-Venosta · La Marmora · Visconti-Venosta · Campello · Menabrea · Visconti-Venosta · Melefari · Depretis · Corti · Cairoli · Depretis · Cairoli · Mancini · Depretis · Robilant · Depretis · Crispi · Starabba di Rudinì · Brin · De Blanc · Caetani · Capelli · Canevaro · Visconti-Venosta · Prinetti · Tittoni · Paternò-Castello · Guicciardini · Tittoni · Guicciardini · Paternò-Castello · Barone Sidney Sonnino · Tittoni · Scialoja · Sforza · Tommasi della Torretta · Schanzer · Mussolini · Grandi · Mussolini · Ciano · Mussolini · Guariglia · Badoglio · Bonomi · De Gasperi Italian Republic De Gasperi · Nenni · Sforza · De Gasperi · Pella · Piccioni · Martino · Pella · Fanfani · Pella · Segni · Fanfani · Piccioni · Saragat · Moro · Fanfani · Moro · Fanfani · Medici · Nenni · Moro · Medici · Moro · Rumor · Forlani · Malfatti · Ruffini · Colombo · Andreotti · De Michelis · Scotti · Colombo · Andreatta · Elia · Martino · Agnelli · Dini · Ruggiero · Berlusconi · Frattini · Fini · D'Alema · Frattini · Terzi di Sant'Agata v t e Berlusconi I Cabinet (1994 – 1995) Berlusconi | Tatarella | Maroni | Comino | Guidi | Urbani | Berlinguer | Ferrara | Speroni | Martino | Biondi | Pagliarini | Tremonti | Dini | Previti | D'Onofrio | Radice | Poli Bortone | Fiori | Tatarella | Gnutti | Costa | Bernini | Mastella | Fisichella | Matteoli | Podestà  v t e Berlusconi II Cabinet (2001–2005) Berlusconi | Fini | Follini | La Loggia | Pisanu | Scajola | Frattini | Mazzella | Baccini | Stanca | Tremaglia | Prestigiacomo | Buttiglione | Bossi | Calderoli | Giovanardi | Ruggiero | Castelli | Tremonti | Siniscalco | Marzano | Moratti | Maroni | Martino | Alemanno | Lunardi | Sirchia | Urbani | Gasparri | Matteoli  v t e Berlusconi III Cabinet (2005–2006) Berlusconi | Fini | Tremonti | La Loggia | Caldoro | Baccini | Stanca | Tremaglia | Prestigiacomo | La Malfa | Calderoli | Giovanardi | Micciché | Pisanu | Castelli | Siniscalco | Scajola | Moratti | Maroni | Martino | Alemanno | Matteoli | Lunardi | Storace | Buttiglione | Landolfi  v t e Berlusconi IV Cabinet (2008–2011) Berlusconi | Tremonti | Maroni | Alfano | Palma | Frattini | Sacconi | Fazio | Gelmini | La Russa | Scajola | Romani | Zaia | Romano | Prestigiacomo | Matteoli | Bondi | Galan | Bossi | Ronchi | Bernini | Vito | Brunetta | Calderoli | Fitto | Meloni | Carfagna | Rotondi | Brambilla | Brancher  v t e Presidents of the European Council President-in-Office (1975–2009) Liam Cosgrave · Aldo Moro · Gaston Thorn · Joop den Uyl · James Callaghan · Leo Tindemans · Anker Jørgensen · Helmut Schmidt · Valéry Giscard d'Estaing · Jack Lynch · Francesco Cossiga · Charles Haughey · Pierre Werner · Dries van Agt · Margaret Thatcher · Wilfried Martens · Anker Jørgensen · Poul Schlüter · Helmut Kohl · Andreas Papandreou · François Mitterrand · Garret FitzGerald · Bettino Craxi · Jacques Santer · Ruud Lubbers · Margaret Thatcher · Wilfried Martens · Poul Schlüter · Helmut Kohl · Andreas Papandreou · Felipe González · François Mitterrand · Charles Haughey · Giulio Andreotti · Jacques Santer · Ruud Lubbers · Poul Schlüter · Aníbal Cavaco Silva · John Major · Poul Nyrup Rasmussen · Jean-Luc Dehaene · Andreas Papandreou · Helmut Kohl · Jacques Chirac · Felipe González · Lamberto Dini · Romano Prodi · John Bruton · Wim Kok · Jean-Claude Juncker · Tony Blair · Viktor Klima · Gerhard Schröder · Paavo Lipponen · António Guterres · Jacques Chirac · Göran Persson · Guy Verhofstadt · José María Aznar López · Anders Fogh Rasmussen · Costas Simitis · Silvio Berlusconi · Bertie Ahern · Jan Peter Balkenende · Jean-Claude Juncker · Tony Blair · Wolfgang Schüssel · Matti Vanhanen · Angela Merkel · José Sócrates · Janez Janša · Nicolas Sarkozy · Mirek Topolánek · Jan Fischer · Fredrik Reinfeldt Permanent President (since 2009) Herman Van Rompuy