What happens when a televised public service announcement also carries a possible jail sentence? Gabriele Paolini is about to find out. Dubbed the “world’s most prolific television hijacker,” the Italian prankster (and the Guinness Book of Records) claims he’s to have disrupted some 20,000 live broadcasts, among them: crashing a fashion program broadcast to promote condom use. Calling himself the “prophylactic prophet,” Paolini face is well known to Italian TV audiences, especially since his antics, which he claims are only to promote AIDS awareness, often have reporters fighting back, like the time one correspondent kicked him in the shins during a live broadcast.

It was all fun and televised games, but now Italy’s Supreme Court is holding him accountable, upholding a 3-month suspended sentence against him, which was brought when he interrupted a June 2001 report on the state broadcaster RAI. So if he pulls another stunt, he’s headed to jail.

But the court’s ruling won’t just affect Paolini world record setting — it’ll also crack down on anyone who purposely puts herself in front of a TV camera in a public place. Just imagine what a law like that would entail …

… if instituted in the U.S.

Those tourists waving in the background? Lock ‘em up!

Read more at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jossip/~3/313203934/.