Ruby’s presence shakes up staid Vienna Opera Ball

THE TV cameras were told to ignore her, and Austria’s rich and powerful sought to avoid her. But amid all the bling on Thursday night at the Vienna Opera Ball, most eyes were still on one particular jewel — Ruby.

With Ruby, aka Karima el-Mahroug, at the centre of the scandal plaguing Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, her scheduled appearance at Austria’s ball of balls was a sensation most of the moneyed and influential guests present would have been happy to do without.

State TV was initially ordered to avoid covering her. But with the Berlusconi scandal big news, she was hard to keep out of sight — let alone out of mind.