Guardian readers also seem to have an eternal fascination with the soap opera that has been Berlusconi's leadership in Italy.

Part of the answer lies in the press's eternal fascination with those who wield political power.

Men on stage in dresses, it would seem, hold an eternal fascination.

That's why rough sketches by painters, partially chiseled shapes by sculptors and early drafts by writers hold an eternal fascination, providing a peek into the soul, a clue to the secrets of the creative spirit.

Egyptian art, after all, was ultimately about death, or more to the point, it was about eternal life after death, about achieving a suspended state of grace (another source of Egypt's eternal fascination for us).

One Born Every Minute (Channel 4) has returned for its third and doubtless - the eternal fascination of man and womankind with watching itself in extremis being what it is - equally compelling series.

He had time to glance at Rama as he fought-drawn by the eternal human fascination for all machines of violence-and what he saw chilled and awed him simultaneously.

Some of the children covered their mouths and giggled, but others only watched her, their eyes reflecting the eternal fascination of the fairy story: would the monster be bested . . . or would it feed?

Explaining the Yeston-Kopit approach to what he called a "story with an eternal fascination," Mr. Yeston said: "The music digs deep into the world of operetta and flows into American musical theater.

"I think there is an eternal fascination in the combination of rocks and water and what you can do with them that bubbles up after a few generations or so," Mr. Verity said.