World's Cutest Boy Celebrates Big B'day in B'pest

It's a rare thing when an international sex symbol celebrates a significant birthday and you don't hear so much as a whisper that the person in question may be starting to look their age. And so it was when the cream of Budapest's international set came together to pay tribute to one of the world's best-known male models last Saturday night, even though the birthday boy wasn't wearing a stitch, and had just turned the ripe old age of 500.

Hard as it is to believe, the fabulous David first made his appearance five centuries ago last month, when his "creator" Michelangelo sprung him on the townsfolk of Renaissance Florence. He made his appearance on Saturday at the Renaissance-like downtown palazzo of local decorative arts masters Kelly Reid and Flavio Aita.

More than one million people come to ogle at David's "perfect" body every year, while in Budapest the "Big He" was greeted by hundreds of local townsfolk, including several who had come from as far away as New York just for the occasion.

The four-meter-tall hunk was lovingly crafted from a single slab of supposedly poor-quality marble, and has been making a scene of himself ever since. In 1873 he was moved to the Galleria dell Accademia, to escape the ravages of winter and other threats to his legendary beauty. A somewhat smaller David overlooked the banquet table at the party from the relative safety of a spare bedroom.

Earlier this year, the symbol of the Florentine Republic emerged from an eight-month sponge bath looking more alluring than ever. Last year, Reid and Aita's apartment emerged from a year-long renovation as one of Budapest's most striking single-family homes.

On his way to his first home outside the Florentine seat of government, David was pelted with stones thrown by local citizens; in 1527, he lost half of his left arm in a riot, and in 1991, a demented artist damaged one of his toes with a hammer. On Saturday night, a bit of birthday cake got on David's leg.

Pope Alexander VI, the scion of the Borgia family who was in power during the period while David was being created, was the most notorious pontiff in history, leaving Italy awash in greed, nepotism, ruthlessness, murder, and, as one famous historian described it, "unbridled sensuality."

"His manner of living was dissolute. He knew neither shame nor sincerity, neither faith nor religion. Moreover, he was possessed by an insatiable greed, and overwhelming ambition and a burning passion for the advancement of his many children who, in order to carry out his iniquitous decrees, did not scruple to employ the most heinous means"

Alexander was best known for being father to the evil Lucrezia Borgia, whose mother was one of the pope's four mistresses, for torturing and executing the famous Florentine preacher Savonarola (who had led the charge against papal corruption and promiscuity) and for a November 1501 party later known as the "The Banquet of Chestnuts" or, more properly, as the "Ballet of Chestnuts."

The party was thrown in the apostolic palazzo, and featured upwards of fifty women of ill repute. After the banquet, chestnuts were strewn on the floor, which the hookers, by this time stark-naked, picked up without using their hands. This was followed by a no-holds-barred orgy. Meanwhile, at Kelly and Flavio's, one bathroom seemed to be locked for a long time without anyone going in or coming out, and the next day they discovered lots of footprints in places where you wouldn't normally expect to find footprints in a bathroom. Also, by around 3:00 a.m., the action on the dance floor was getting very heavy indeed...

When Alexander died, his servants plundered his bedroom. Meanwhile, at Kelly and Flavio's, a few champagne glasses got broken and someone lost their mobile phone. All in all, a fitting tribute to a total babe who seems to get better looking every time we see him.