Mussolini descendant fights on TV talk show

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ROME - The fascist dictator's granddaughter and the Communist Cabinet minister were supposed to put aside their differences - at least for a couple of hours on a TV talk show - and just be two women discussing sexual harassment.

But in the political ring, old scores quickly knocked out women's solidarity. Alessandra Mussolini, a parliamentary deputy, and Katia Bellillo, minister for equal opportunity, ended up in a name-calling brawl that included a kick for good measure.

While the occasional fisticuffs in Parliament between male lawmakers barely rate a mention in Italian news accounts, blow-by-blow accounts of the spectacle of two prominent women at each other's throat filled pages of Italian dailies yesterday.

The show was taped Monday evening to be transmitted on RAI state television tonight.

The two women, along with an Italian showgirl and a sharp-tongued male lawmaker, had been invited to discuss a recent court ruling that said a male boss' pat on the rear of a female employee did not constitute sexual harassment.

Reporters are allowed to attend the tapings of the popular show, and according to the Rome daily La Repubblica, at one point Bellillo told Mussolini: "Shut your mouth. You who call yourself Mussolini, you don't have a right to speak."

Mussolini shot back, "Communist, Communist, you shut up since you're a Communist."

Bellillo retorted that "fortunately your grandfather didn't win" World War II.

Mussolini said, "You should really go live in Cuba."

The two women rushed toward each other, with Bellillo allegedly throwing her microphone at Mussolini and Mussolini aiming a kick at the minister's knee.

When news of the brawl broke, Parliament's president insisted that Premier Giuliano Amato take the minister to task, contending that "a minister can certainly criticize a deputy for her opinion, certainly not for her name."

The fight even made the front page of the La Gazzetta dello Sport daily, which wrote the story as if it were covering a boxing match and ran a picture of Bellillo - who kick-boxes as a hobby - in boxing gloves.

For now, the only repercussion was in the real world of boxing. Former world middleweight champion Nino Benvenuti said he would no longer be a candidate along with Bellillo for a place in Italy's national boxing federation.