HE was a 28-year-old nobody from Iran, but he managed to pull off an Oscar-caliber performance by posing as Steven Spielberg’s 14-year-old nephew.
For nearly two years, Anoushirvan Fakhran hoodwinked a tony Catholic high school in Virginia, claiming to be Jonathan Taylor Spielberg.
Fakhran is a rare breed of impostor-con man – able to fool the rich and famous with unbelievably tall tales.
Fakhran exposes for The Post the clever machinations elite grifters use to live their larger-than-life lies for years.
Fakhran said he concocted his scheme to attend the exclusive Paul VI HS in Fairfax City in 1997 after he legally changed his name.
He chose Spielberg because it was his great-grandfather’s name and it had Hollywood gusto.
“I always wanted to attend high school in America because I was abused and mistreated at school in Iran,” Fakhran says. “But I thought if I go back to high school, I was going to be the most popular, trend-setting student. Being Steven Spielberg’s nephew would give me the notoriety I wanted.”
He said he phoned the school pretending to be a representative of the Spielberg clan, and said the famed producer had a nephew who was filming a movie in the area.
He told the principal the boy wanted to attend a regular high school because he had to know what it was like for the movie.
“I went there disguised as the agent and met with the principal,” Fakhran said.
The principal asked for high-school transcripts, which Fakhran now admits he faked, along with a recommendation he printed on self-crafted DreamWorks letterhead.
Then, after he was accepted with open arms, he hired bodyguards to accompany him on his first day of classes.
“They treated me like royalty. I was introduced to everyone as Spielberg’s nephew. They gave me a free lunch. They asked for my autograph. It was heavenly,” the crafty charlatan recalled.
With a wealthy father unwittingly fueling his fantasy from overseas, he quickly assimilated into his new, flashy life.
He dazzled students with tales of celebrity hobnobbing and bragged of having pals like Jennifer Love Hewitt and Matt Damon. He wore Armani, Gucci and Prada on non-school-uniform days and sported a diamond-encrusted Cartier watch.
Although he was supposed to be 14, he drove a BMW to school emblazoned with “SPLBERG” vanity plates. When curious students asked him about his having permission to drive, he said he had a special Hollywood actor’s license.
He even parked in the principal’s parking space because he said the principal “insisted.”
“It was such a hassle to park in the school parking lot so I complained,” he said. “The principal offered me his space.”
And when the he didn’t feel like waking up for class, he was told he could skip first period so he could rest, he said.
Sometimes he missed school for weeks at a time to “film” in New York, Australia and London and no one said a word.
“To me, it was like the movie, ‘Never Been Kissed.’ I was able to go back to high school and do it all over again . . . This time, I was a somebody! I had such a terrible time at high school in Iran.”
Despite his brilliant performance, things started to heat up for Fakhran during his sophomore year at the Catholic school.
He began spending even less time in school and more time hawking his acting and modeling credentials to agencies like William Morris. Then he tried to get out of paying the school’s pricey tuition.
The school contacted “Uncle Steven’s” DreamWorks headquarters in Los Angeles and when word came back that the producer didn’t have a nephew named Jonathan, his act took its curtain call.
“They arrested me. They searched my house. I was devastated. I mean, I know it was wrong, but I didn’t sleep with students. I didn’t do drugs. I didn’t stalk Steven Spielberg.”
The impostor was given an 11-month suspended sentence and placed on two years’ probation.
Later, Fakhran said people chastised him.
Parents no longer wanted their kids to be his friends.
“What I did was really harmless,” the soft-spoken self-promoter said. “I didn’t hurt anyone.”
With his criminal past behind him, he says he’s focusing on Tinseltown.
He’s retained Beverly Hills lawyer Scott Schwimer to hawk his manuscript, “At Any Cost: From Fifteen Minutes of Notoriety to a Lifetime of Fame.”