SALA[A]M PAX OUTED... The legendary Iraqi blogger is currently visiting Australia, a guest at the Sydney Writer’s Festival.

Between near-death experiences and promotional engagements, Salam Pax spends what little time spare time he has asleep. It’s the waking hours that Pax, a 30-year-old Iraqi whose internet diary from Baghdad has earned him a global following and a movie deal, finds “surreal”. [...] Today, his dilemmas can be less confronting – such as choosing the right actor to play the lead in Salam Pax, the movie. “George Clooney… of course”.

-- Freya Petersen, "Blogger of Baghdad signs a movie deal", Sydney Morning Herald (Thursday 20 May 2004)

(Freya Petersen? Isn't she the actress in White Collar Blue -- you know, the pouty one the studio execs cloned from Kristen Scott Thomas' DNA?)

(UPDATE: No, she isn't. That's Freya Stafford. Bad call.)

Anyway, have a look at the photo posted of S. Pax. Dammit, I think I look more like him than Clooney does.