Shaking hands with the devil...with the blue dress on.

But who was wearing the blue dress? Khatami!

As you know, ex-Iranian prez Khatami has been brought up on legal charges for shaking hands with a woman. He denies the claim, asserting that the tape had been edited to make it appear that he shook hands when really he didn't. Not to be outdone, the Iranian press claimed that he fell prey to a CIA plot. Well, the videographer is speaking out although no one has explained what a couple of grappa heiresses are doing attending a Khatami speech.

Man who filmed ex-Iranian president and grappa heiress speaks.

Video footage showing former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, a Muslim Shiite cleric, shaking hands with several women - a taboo gesture for Islamists - including two Italian grappa heiresses, has provoked controversy in Iran. But the man who filmed the scene, Marco Orioles, a university sociology lecturer from the northeastern Italian town Udine, has told Adnkronos International (AKI) he didn't want to provoke a commotion. Khatami's office has denied that the cleric during a trip last month to Italy intentionally shook hands with women - as shown in Orioles' footage broadcast on the 'YouTube' website.In a statement the cleric's office said that the footage had either been edited to give a false impression, or else Khatami had shaken the hands of people in a crowd without realising they were female."None of the 67,000 people who in the first few days viewed the 'incriminating' footage will have had any doubt as to its authenticity," Orioles told AKI. He was referring to the number of times the footage was viewed.

Regarding the CIA allegations:

"I think the CIA only discovered it had a modest sociology lecturer as an agent in Udine, the day after Kayhan published its editorial," Orioles said.

Pretty funny that.