Anna Vasil’yevna Chapman, a member of the group of Russian spies who were uncovered in suburban New Jersey last year, has been mounting a serious publicity campaign in Russia, and who can blame you, really? It’s probably pretty hard to get a job when you so spectacularly and publicly failed at your last one, and so we can’t really blame her for taking the “hot spy” label that was placed on her and running with it. But…
“Chapman told me that she intends to participate in designing clothing for the Khrunichev [Space] Center, in what capacity, designer or financially, she did not specify,” the Gagarin Astronaut Training Center’s top astronaut told Russian state media today.
We’ve made a pledge to report on women doing good work in the field of science, but this probably falls more under the heading of “stop it, you’re making my side look bad.”
Since her deportation, Chapman has appeared in Playboy, the Russian Maxim, and some sketch shows, but we suppose that once you announce your attention to make vodka named after you, you’re really committed to the idea of Russian fame. So from one country who’s having trouble coming up with enough cash to get its astronauts out of orbit to another: you should probably lean heavily on the engineers on this one, Mrs. Chapman.
And don’t go too crazy with the fame and the sexualization. There’s a precedent for this kind of thing, you know.
(via Wired.)
