You know that the Italian banking scandal is really serious when you see it percolating down to the level of popular TV. Today's Repubblica reports an attempt by one of the protagonists of the ongoing drama, Stefano Ricucci, to censure the popular TV-football review show "Quelli del calcio" (Those who play football (soccer)). The director of the program Simona Ventura had planned on presenting a parody sketch involving Stefano Ricucci, one of the "conceristi" involved in the take-over attempt of the Banca Antonveneta and the brouhaha of telephone interceptions involving the Director (Governatore) of the Bank of Italy, Antonio Fazio. Ricucci would be an appropriate target for parody since he is well known in the popular press as the husband of the beautiful actress Anna Falchi. It turns out that the most recent batch of intercepted phone conversations to be made public show Ricucci discussing an attempt to censure the skit by way of a phone call to a well-placed RAI (the Italian public network)official. That official, like many many others in the RAI has a political patron, in this case Roberto Calderoli of the Liga Nord, who is close to Ricucci.

Ricucci apparently also tried to invoke the assistance of another paladin of the Italian sporting scene, Flavio Briatore, the director of Renault's Formula I team (and "discoverer" many time Formula I champion Michael Schumacher) in his attempt to head off the parody, but without success.

The only thing unusual about this sort of interference in that this time it's all in the public domain, and highly enjoyable. Meanwhile, Silvio Berlusconi's man Alfredo Meocci has indeed been elected Director General of the RAI, so for Berlusconi all is well.

I conclude with a horrible confession: the papers have been full of news regarding the group of Concertisti (Fiorani, Ricucci, Gnutti, et. al.) trying to take-over the Banca Antonveneta and RCS. Question: What is RCS? I didn't know the meaning of that abbreviation until Googling it: R=Rizzoli CS=Corriere della Sera The financiers also want to assure themselves a good press. (Angelo Rizzoli was a notable self-made man, who created a publishing-cinematic empire, largely frittered away by his son.)