A Vancouver-based model is keeping quiet after reportedly being deported from Saudi Arabia for being too handsome, promising that the full story will be revealed in an upcoming movie.
When CTV British Columbia asked 23-year-old Omar Borkan Al Gala if there was any truth to reports that he was kicked out of a cultural festival in Riyadh last month and later deported from the country due to his good looks, the model just laughed.
“I can’t talk about this right now,” he said on Tuesday. He laughed again when asked if he was even in Saudi Arabia for the music festival.
Reports surfaced in April that Al Gala was one of three men deported from the country because religious police thought their good looks might tempt local women.
When pressed by eTalk’s Lainey Lui, he simply replied: “Whatever happened in Saudi is going to stay in Saudi for now.”
Lui later said Al Gala may be staying quiet to keep up the mystery surrounding the story.
“I think this is somebody who understands how to leverage a little bit of attention for a lot of gain,” she said.
Al Gala said that within 48 hours of the story breaking, he gained more than 800,000 followers on social media. He now has nearly a million likes on Facebook and has received marriage proposals.
He says he’s never claimed the story to be true, but has also not denied it, admitting that the media attention has given his career a boost. “As a model, yeah, it put me on the next level,” he said.
He said he’s shooting a movie about the ordeal, where the entire story will emerge.
“I’m not saying it’s not true. I’m not saying it’s true. It’s coming,” he said.
Lui said the model understands how to sell the story.
“He has a film coming out where he’ll tell everybody what the answer is. That’s a very savvy way of selling a story,” she said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Shannon Paterson
