The vanity of world leaders
By Periscope
21 January 2011
Oh, vanity
These are trying times and world leaders on both sides of the Atlantic are feeling their age. But British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama, both relatively young men, seem determined to not let power age them: Both this week turned up with suspiciously un-greyed hair. Giggled Tim Walker, writing at The Daily Telegraph, “[Cameron’s] hair, which had been greying at the sides, had taken on a hue of uniformly inky blackness.” Walker also brought in an expert: Carmelo Guastella, barber to the rich and powerful, told him that Cameron has made a very “obvious blunder”: “It looks as if he might have tried disguising some of the greyness and then thought, ‘Oh well, I may as well go the whole hog.’ The trouble is hair seldom grows in a single colour so it looked a bit obvious.”
David Cameron sports his new hair on January 20. Photo credit: Crown copyright
Obama, meanwhile, has also sparked rumours that he’s been hitting the Just For Men – his hair, during the joint summit meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, was flecked with grey, but by the evening’s state dinner, had regained its black sheen. Snorted Adrian Chen at Gawker, “Imagine Obama dying his hair! What’s next, a nose job for Biden?”
Barack Obamas newly black hair. Photo credit: Official White House photo
Berlusconi urged to show more ‘robust morality’
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is no stranger to scandal, especially scandal involving pretty girls, but his latest dust-up has garnered attention from one of Italy’s loftiest moral arbiters: The Vatican.
Magistrates recently opened an investigation into allegations that Berlusconi engaged the services of an underage prostitute and later used his influence to secure her release from Milano police custody in May. Berlusconi has denied the allegations and has refused to submit to questioning from prosecutors.
The Vatican is not pleased. In what the BBC called a “rare public and openly critical comment by the Holy See”, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said, “The Church urges and invites everyone, especially those who hold a position of public responsibility [...] to commit themselves to a more robust morality, a sense of justice and legality.”
Hoping Berlusconi will show some “robust morality”? “Ha,” says Gawker’s Jeff Neumann.
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