In March 2003, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi attended the opening of a cancer research centre in Pomezia, south of Rome. "I want to pass my compliments to the directors," he declared at one point, "for having such beautiful staff... Beauty helps you work better, especially if the person sitting at your elbow is attractive."

Berlusconi's remarks caused an uproar. The chief source of complaints? Italy's Ugly People Association, whose president, Telesforo Iacobelli, was irate: "I hope he was just making a bad joke," Iacobelli declared, "and not saying something he seriously believed in."

[The previous year, Berlusconi had introduced the Danish PM to the local press as "Anders Rasmussen, the best looking prime minister in Europe." Among his other politically incorrect remarks? That Islam is an inferior society, and that Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini never killed anyone, but just "sent people on holiday."]