Brazilian politics has never been for prudes, but the fortunes of Senate president Renan Calheiros and his onetime lover continue to arch eyebrows. Calheiros, as this blog last reported (Aug. 13), has been under fire since May, when he was caught sending wads of cash to Mônica Veloso,

 with whom he had an extramarital affair and a child. Calheiros, who is not much to look at (below), has battled an irate public and fierce political foes ever since to save his own - how might the Brazilians put it? - "bum bum." Not so the fair Ms. Veloso, who has seen hers glorified from the printed page to cyberspace. A former journalist, she not only became one fo the country's biggest stories by revealing her ex's funny finances but now graces the cover of the anxiously awaited October edition of Brazilian Playboy, due to hit the stands on Oct. 9. Call it David and Goliath meets Beauty and the Beast. The whole imbroglio has kept a thousand gossips and eggheads busy parsing the peculiarities of politics and propriety in Latin America's biggest nation.