KEY POINTS:
Politics don't get much more Italian than this.
An investigation by a maverick magistrate is stirring up a hornet's nest of allegations involving blackmail, transvestites, prostitutes, footballers, businessmen and, just for good measure, government spin doctors. And, at the base of it all, are the antics of the paparazzi in the land of their birth.
In the latest twist, the Minister of Justice, Clemente Mastella, is denying plotting to cover up the scandal and the chief spin doctor faces calls to resign over an alleged tryst with a transsexual prostitute.
Mastella strongly denied the "slanderous" allegations made by Italy's top talent agent, Lele Mora, who claimed that he asked the "very kind" minister for help in containing the inquiry into extortion of politicians, footballers and showgirls that was launched by Judge Henry John Woodcock, a half-British investigator.
The Government is divided over the work of Judge Woodcock. Last June, the long-haired, bike-riding, 39-year-old judge arrested Crown Prince Vittorio Emanuele on charges of involvement in a luxury hotel prostitution ring.
- INDEPENDENT
