Just like some straight boys like a tomboy and others like a girly girl, some gay guys prefer their men femme and others like 'em butch. Openly-gay Italian TV host Alfonso Signorini likes them real butch. Dictator butch, in fact! When asked in an interview to name the sexiest man in Italy, Signorini was a bit stumped. But he did know who the sexiest man in the world is: Russian president-for-life Vladimir Putin! Signorini fell for Putin when he saw shirtless photos of the thuggish martial-arts aficionado taken during a Siberian fishing trip:

"When I saw his naked torso and a slain Siberian tiger lying at his feet, I almost had a stroke. Won-der-ful!" Signorini said in a reference to Putin's much-photographed shirtless fishing trip in Siberia last year and an incident recently when Putin shot a tiger with a tranquilizer gun, putting it to sleep but not killing it. "He is my erotic dream. I find him absolutely astonishing," Signorini said by telephone Friday from Milan. "I'm attracted by his charisma and his icy glance." The comments could embarrass both the Italian and Russian governments.

Um, "embarrass"? More like Signorini is probably going to get deaded. But can you blame him for risking some mysterious poisoning? The brutal enemy of the Chechens and other freedom-wanting types is foiiin, as evidenced by the rippling slabbiness of the small gallery below.