Bin Laden's Niece to Star in Reality Show on Her Life
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/celebrities/3714861.html
NEW YORK -- Osama bin Laden's niece, an aspiring singer
who posed for a sexy photo shoot in a men's magazine last year,
has signed up for a reality television show about her life
and her as yet unfulfilled "quest for stardom."
Wafah Dufour Bin Ladin, whose mother was married to the
al Qaeda leader's half brother, was born in California
but lived in Saudi Arabia from the age of three to 10.
"I understand that when people hear my last name,
they have preconceived notions, but I was born an
American and I love my country," Dufour said in a
statement from ReganMedia announcing the deal to
develop a reality TV series.
Dufour has dropped the "Bin Ladin" -- a different spelling
of the Arabic name from that used by Osama bin Laden --
and now goes by the name Wafah Dufour.
Based in New York, Dufour has been promoting herself as
a musician and last December appeared in a sultry GQ
photo spread, reclining on satin sheets wrapped in feathers
and posing in a bubble bath wearing nothing but a necklace.
"Her story will bridge the gap that people feel exists
between the cultures she has lived in," ReganMedia President
Judith Regan said.
"She is also a young woman who falls in love, has her heart broken,
worries about her looks, doesn't always listen to her mother,
and hasn't spoken to her father in years," Regan said.
Dufour's mother Carmen bin Ladin wrote the 2004 bestseller
Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia, an account of
her rocky marriage to Yeslama, Osama's half-brother,
who amassed a fortune in the family's construction business
and started his own investment firm.
Dufour, who earned a master's degree in law from
Columbia University, was in Geneva with her mother
at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
She had said in the past she has never met Osama bin Laden.
She cites U2, Depeche Mode, The Cure and The Cranberries
among her musical influences.
Regan has published a string of celebrity authors
including Michael Moore and porn star Jenna Jameson,
and she was an executive producer on the reality show
Growing Up Gotti about members of the family best known
for its Mafia empire.
The statement did not say when the show would be aired
or on what channel.
___________________________________________________________
In 1994 Rupert Murdoch gave Regan her own imprint at
HarperCollins, ReganBooks, and a TV show on Fox News.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0880010.html
Regan is a self-made success, transcending humble origins
as a Massachusetts farm girl to become the purveyor of best-
sellers from -- if not necessarily by -- Jose Canseco,
Jenna Jameson, Michael Moore, Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern,
Robert Bork, Sean Hannity, Bernard Kerik, Tommy Franks and
Wally Lamb.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/04/19/DDGQOCAQSD1.DTL
Welcome back America.
We'll all have a big laugh when they finally find Bush
with his head stuck in an armadillo hole.
Osama who?
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