Albert Schultz talks with the Toronto Star about portraying Lord Black of Crossharbour -- Author, intellectual, wit, ruthless businessman and possible corporate crook.

An excerpt:

It's lunchtime and Conrad Black has made a modest meal of beef stroganoff, rice and salad before rising majestically from the table. "Right," he booms to all within earshot, "I'm now ready to meet the maggots of the media."

It's not the real Lord Black of Crossharbour, but certainly a more than reasonable facsimile thereof.

We are in downtown Hamilton, in the old-world Hamilton Club where stern oil paintings hang on the walls, impassive witnesses to the organized mayhem that is a movie set.

The movie in question is Shades of Black. Drawing on the book by Richard Siklos, it charts the rise and (maybe) fall of the embattled former chairman of Hollinger International, who stepped down in 2003 after allegations that he and other company officers had misappropriated funds. The CTV movie stars Toronto actor Albert Schultz as the Crossharbour Kid himself and Vancouver's Jason Priestley (Beverley Hills 90210) as a fictional investigator posing as a newspaper reporter. It is directed by Hamilton-born Alex Chapple, now based in the U.S. ...

Later, the affable, media-friendly Schultz reveals it was charm that won him the role.

The public image of Black may be of an aggressive, pompous man, but the private man is apparently very different.

"Ivan Fecan (CEO of Bell Globemedia, which owns CTV), told me the reason he wanted me to do the role was because of the charm I could bring to it," Schultz says. "He knows Black and says he is an extremely charming and likeable guy."