She's become a banking spokeswoman, opened space stations, posed in a saucy Maxim spread and appeared in Playboy. Now Anna Chapman, the most infamous of the 10 undercover Russian spies deported from the U.S. last summer, is living up to her "Bond Girl" image with her first acting foray.
Broadcast at the state-controlled Channel One's New Year's Eve gala, the short film stars Chapman as a sultry femme fatale opposite Maxim Isayev, a fictional hero from the legendary Soviet series Seventeen Moments of Spring. Said to be one of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's favorite fictional characters, Isayev was portrayed in the series as an officer operating undercover in Nazi Germany under the name of Stirlitz, and has frequently been compared to James Bond, according to the AFP.
The three-minute, black-and-white comedy shows Stirlitz sitting in a cafe with romantic piano music playing as Chapman sits some tables away coquettishly sipping tea. "'What a beautiful woman,' Stirlitz thought. 'It is a shame that the years have not changed me. I am still the same, reserved, modest, and nervous'," the Russian voiceover proclaims, according to the AFP. Following a Wizard of Oz-like transition into color, the clip concludes with a shot of Chapman, who says, "If you have love hidden deep your heart you will never succeed in concealing it. It is best to come out with it. And New Year's night is the best time for this."
Watch video of Anna Chapman's acting debut below: