When alleged Russian spy Anna Chapman’s Facebook photos broke, she went from threat to national security to sexy “bombshell.” If she plays her cards right, she can ride her “femme fatale” image right to the bank.
Chapman is accused of secretly passing information to Russian officials from various locations in Manhattan — and Now that her picture is all over the Internet, she’s being painted as a sexy siren. In the Post she’s “a flame-haired, 007-worthy beauty who flitted from high-profile parties to top-secret meetings around Manhattan.” And in the AP she’s a “striking redhead” and a “femme fatale” — watch out Natasha. So what’s next for spying’s newest starlet?
Jail
Hotness aside, Chapman allegedly committed a crime — and she’ll probably have to serve time for it. Jeffrey Mankoff, Adjunct Fellow for Russia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told me her prospects for acquittal looked grim — she was “pretty well caught red-handed,” he explained, and the evidence against her “seems pretty cut-and-dried.” There’s a silver lining, though — as the AP reports, Chapman and her associates are being charged with “failing to register as foreign agents,” rather than with the more serious crime of espionage. Mankoff explains this is probably because they didn’t actually get much useful information out of their cloak-and-dagger (and invisible ink!) escapades. So basically Anna Chapman kind of sucks at spying, and when she gets out of prison (she could get five years), she’ll need a new career. Options abound!
Reality TV
Chapman could pull a Salahi and parlay her notoriety into reality TV fame. This also seems to be the path of Debrahlee Lorenzana, the fired Citibank employee also known for her hotness. Chapman’s glamor shots are sort of reminiscent of Lorenzana’s Village Voice photo shoot — and since Lorenzana first appeared on a reality show back in 2003 yet is still making headlines today, Chapman’s five-year hiatus shouldn’t hold her back too much.
Advice column
Also notorious, sexy, and notoriously sexy, ex-escort Ashley Dupre now has an advice column in the Post. But it’s not very good — maybe Chapman could do better. She could answer questions about pickup lines (apparently one of her team’s code-phrases was “Excuse me, but haven’t we met in California last summer”), trust issues, and how to rock a tiara.
Book deal
Valerie Plame penned Fair Game after she was outed as a spy. And since Anna Chapman apparently enjoys hanging out in bookstores and coffee shops with her laptop open, she’s already acting like a writer. Another plus of this approach: she could actually do it from prison.
Movies
Of course, the true holy grail of media dominance is having a movie made about your life, something Plame will achieve when the film version of Fair Game comes out this year. Naomi Watt’s performance as Plame is already generating Oscar buzz — so clearly it’s time for Chapman to start thinking about who should play her. One Gawker commenter suggests Jennifer Aniston — but just to bring things full circle, what about Ashley Dupre?
Image via Gawker.
Anna Chapman – Photos [Gawker]
N.Y. Suspect Dubbed Femme Fatale Of Russian Spy Case [AP, via Chron.com]
Spy Ring’s ‘Femme Fatale’ [NY Post]
Invisible Ink And Other Spy Details From Criminal Complaints [NYT Lede Blog]
Valerie Plame Spy Movie With Sean Penn Is “Fair Game” [Showbiz411]