Did you know that Natasha Alam was once a princess? I didn’t think so. The Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader interview with Eric’s new girl is pretty darn interesting:

Technically speaking, she’s still a princess.

“I think I keep the title until he remarries,” says Natasha Alam, a new co-star on the HBO hit television series “True Blood” and “Playboy” magazine cover girl.

Alam, in 1998, married the grandson of the former Shah of Iran, Amir Ebrahim Pahlavi Alam, in New York and they moved to London soon after. Those nuptials granted her the title of princess. They later lived in Los Angeles so Natasha could pursue her acting career. However, the couple finalized their divorce in 2005. Then, they went their separate ways: Amir returned to London, while Natasha went Hollywood.

Alam plays the role of “Yvetta,” a leggy, erotic dancer at the Fangtasia bar in the vampire show, “True Blood.”

“I kind of forget that fact,” Natasha, 27, says of being a princess. “But in situations like this (speaking to the media), I get refreshed about it.

“In London, being a princess was a big deal – because of the whole royal family and everything. You get reminded of that in London. I loved that feeling and experience.

“But I felt lonely and unfulfilled. I felt there was more to life.”

So the Russian beauty from Uzbekistan, with the striking light blue/gray eyes, decided to chase her lifelong dream of acting. Her towering height (5’10″) means if Natasha wears four-inch heels (just check “Maxim” magazine), she suddenly leaps to 6’2″. “I guess I should consider myself an Amazon babe,” she says.

So watch out Tom Cruise. And watch out for her new, Americanized accent in the process.

Now, the accent sounds more midwestern than Russian dialect from her native Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which is formerly part of the Soviet Union. “I work with my tapes and my voice coach (Bob Corff),” says Natasha, whose birth name is Natalia Shimanchuk.

It’s obviously working for her as an up-and-coming thespian navigating what can be an unforgiving Hollywood web.

Except, Natasha’s new role in life almost evaded her.

Natasha’s grandmother fed her beer during her days as a toddler in the home country. She feared her granddaughter was too skinny and needed to gain weight – unbeknownst to Natasha’s mother.

Because of Nazi Germany, her grandmother knew the feeling of hunger. “She survived the German invasion during World War II,” Natasha says. (An estimated 20 million Russians were killed by the German Wehrmacht or “war machine”).

But once Natasha’s mother found out about the “secret diet,” she put an end to the beer routine.

Later, when she turned 17, Natasha’s mother enrolled her in the University of Technology for Aviation.

Her major?

Aircraft mechanics.

Natasha has evolved from a potential airplane repairwoman to “Playboy” centerfold – and eight pages worth, including 100 percent nude pictorials.

“I found the Technology school boring,” Natasha says. “I think I would have been much happier if I was studying quantum physics or astronomy or something like that.”

So, Natasha said goodbye to potentially wearing blue coveralls, then headed to the big city: Moscow.

That’s where she found a new start, in a new field as a model.

She performed on the runway while traveling to the perfunctory sites: Rome, London, Milan and New York.

However, there was a “but” . . .

“I was a model, but that was only half of me,” she says.

She wanted more roles on the screen.

Natasha’s first acting role was for a cigarette commercial that aired in Italy. “It was like a James Bond-type commercial,” she says. “The fast cars, the sexy outfits, the special effects.”

Still, she wants to be cooler. Natasha is most known for her appearances in HBO’s “True Blood” (at least five episodes). She also has appeared in “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “The Unit,” “Entourage” and “NYPD Blue.”

Which are fine and good, but she aims to expand her screen story. Natasha doesn’t mind or downplay her sexual roles per se – “It’s not that I prefer them, it’s just that those kinds of roles have been falling my way in life” – but ultra-cool would be action-packed movies.

She possesses action skills in at least one area, for sure.

Natasha competes in Wushu, an intense form of Chinese martial arts.

“I actually can go out and kick someone’s ass,” she says. “I can defend myself. I would love to be in action movies.”

Like a crime-fighting “Charlie’s Angel” or “Wonder Woman” – with a touch of Russian panache.

Those parts also would further distance her from the stereotypical Russian-accent characters that she dislikes, you know the role of a mail-order bride from Murmansk or a prostitute from Saint Petersburg.

In fact, one of the pivotal reasons she worked at a fever pitch to eradicate her Russian accent and sound like a college student from Ohio was to avoid that form of type-casting.

And broaden her horizons from her days in royalty.

“Basically, you are socializing,” Natasha says of her real-life princess role in the early part of this decade. “The dinners, the luncheons, the events.

“I felt there was something in me that said the doors needed to be opened. Now, I’m living my dream; I’ve found my calling.”

And when “Playboy” called, she was overwhelmed.

“Oh, my God,” says Natasha. “It’s been so amazing to be in ‘Playboy.’ The magazine is such a legend. I still can’t believe I’m on the cover.”

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Posted in Natasha Alam, Season 3