  We compute the entropic interactions between two colloidal spheres immersed
in a dilute suspension of semi-flexible rods. Our model treats the
semi-flexible rod as a bent rod at fixed angle, set by the rod contour and
persistence lengths. The entropic forces arising from this additional
rotational degree of freedom are captured quantitatively by the model, and
account for observations at short range in a recent experiment. Global fits to
the interaction potential data suggest the persistence length of fd-virus is
about two to three times smaller than the commonly used value of $2.2 \mu {m}$.
