He's 'The Prince of Red Shoe'

Ever heard of Nathan Oman? He's a big fake who's now in real trouble.

Earlier this year, Nathan -- singer, actor, writer, tour guide -- said he'd been in the Arabian desert, shooting The Prince of Red Shoe, an epic fantasy adventure, based on his own life as an orphaned half-Thai, half-Nepalese child. Bruce Willis and Christina Ricci co-starred and it was directed by Wolfgang Peterson. Twentieth Century Fox was producing.

Thai entertainment journalists eagerly lapped up the story. Back in May, The Nation even visited Nathan at the Bangkok cafe he supposedly co-owns, and did a glowing profile piece and restaurant review for its Sunday edition. Don't bother looking. The Nation doesn't put stories from its Sunday features section online.

Cracks in Nathan's story started to appear in July, when Pantip.com "detectives" said they couldn't find anything about this huge movie project on IMDb. Fox denied there was a project.

The house of cards that Nathan Oman built has come crashing down. His name, his age, his ethnic background are fabrications. He's just another poor Thai guy with bleached hair who's unhappy inside his own skin.

And now he's facing serious legal hassles over various deals involving -- what else? -- money.

I have hesitated mentioning this guy -- a fake celebrity who revels in the drama and thrives on any kind of publicity.

It's obvious that Nathan Oman is hoping that someone will make a movie about him, or maybe offer him a reality-TV show. And somebody probably will. And people will watch it.

If it becomes a movie, make it a documentary. And I could only hope it will be fair and lay the truth bare for all to see.

But that probably won't be the way it works out.

Bangkok of the Mind has been diligently covering the Nathan Oman saga. Bkkdreamer's latest posting summarizes the story so far.