It took Hassan bin Mohamed al-Mahdi less than 10 days to become the talk ofRiyadh. Few Saudis had heard ofthe 27-year-old real estate developer until his round face suddenly appeared on billboards across town and invaded newspaper advertising pages.

He rented one of the capital's largest banqueting halls and offered nightly entertainment in the traditional form of poetry reading - a lavish buffet, and bottled water with packaging that also features his face. As many as 3,000 men streamed to the wedding hall in northern Riyadh every evening for a glimpse of the austere city's newest attraction.