Aarcflick

 Last summer, I was living in Venice Beach and had decided, due to a friend's persistence, to visit a fortune teller. I, always skeptical but wanting to laugh, agreed to go. What the fortune teller said made me roll my eyes: "I'm not saying you're Cleopatra, but you somehow share her story and are connected." Less than a month later, I got a call from a production company making Jada Pinkett Smith's "African Queens" and was subsequently hired to direct four episodes of a dramatic documentary about the controversial leader's life. The joke was on me. Stars: Adele James, Craig Russell, Nada El Belkasmi I remember as a kid watching Elizabeth Taylor play Cleopatra. I was captivated by her, but even then, I felt like the picture wasn't right. Was her skin really that white of hers? Born in Iran, I am a Persian, and Cleopatra's heritage has been attributed at one time or another to the Greeks, the Macedonians, and the Persians. The known facts ...