You may not have heard of David Zandi. If so, from the sound of it, you don't know what you're missing. The twenty-nine-year-old, Iranian-born Zandi, says that he's one of the last surviving male members of the Persian royal family. His IMDB page, which lists two acting credits--Marci C, in which he played "Musician", and Men in Black II, in which he stretched for the role of "Alien"--is full of other intriguing personal information, including the news that he's "a champion equestrian", "loves going skiing in the winter", "Turned down the offer to be a model for Gucci and Calvin Klein to stay in acting school", and that he "Coached his girlfriend with her acting and speech in 2001 so she could work on his project." (Is that what the kids are calling it these days?) This stuff goes over pretty well with the people who hang out at IMDB message boards: one post there is headed, "MARRY ME!" The page also features quotes from Zandi, including this beaut: "Even as Talent, I see it as my sole duty to do that which is in the best interest of the Studio, regardless of my own personal desires." Right now, Zandi is trying to serve the best interests of Disney by offering himself to star in the forthcoming movie version of the video game Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Zandi isn't exactly lobbying for the role: he just wants the studio to recognize that logic is on his side. "I'm very logical for this part," he explains, "because of the way that I was raised as a child, his personality, his mannerisms. It's something I could easily pull off. It would be like playing myself. It would be an opportunity to play myself because of my ancestry."
But though he's above begging, he "will accept the role from Jerry Bruckheimer when he decides to meet the demands of the fans. I just want to give the fans what they want." Zandi knows what the fans want because of "an official-looking poll obtained by movie news service IESB.net" that shows him leading the field s voters' top choice for the role, ahead of such notables as Orlando Bloom, Zac Efron, and James McAvoy. IESB says only that they received news of the poll from an anonymous source who asked that his identity be kept confidential, a Disney spokesperson said only the official spokesperson equivalent of, "Pull the other one," and Zandi disclaims any connection to the poll but does say that he thinks it would be an awful thing for his family and everyone involved if his ancestor wound up being played by Orlando Bloom. (We hear him on that one.) Will Jerry Bruckheimer come to his sense and hire Zandi? Right now, things don't look that good, but maybe if things don't work out, maybe Zandi can maintain his poise by repeating this mantra, from his IMDB quotes section:"In this world, there are many forms of deception, but perhaps the greatest of them all, is self-deception."