The Guardian's Michael White recently asked
Why are politicians scared of Rupert Murdoch? Murdochian manoeuvres matter to us all as more than simply worth a good chuckle because so many politicians around the world behave as if Dad must always be placated...
Look how Rupert's ill-will towards Europe has frightened successive British governments into being either negative about it (G Brown) or laughably timid (T Blair).
I'm not starry-eyed Europhile, but it has been a bit pathetic.
One person who is
not scared of the wrinkly old bastard is his new wife, Wendi Deng. She's just landed Rupert at
#8 on GQ's list of "the twenty-five most emasculated, disempowered, henpecked husbands on the planet":
"[S]he's said to have revealed that he uses Viagra (but doesn't need it) and once asked him in front of colleagues, "Are you going deaf, old man?" In January, Deng got her mighty mogul to play waiter at a women's-empowerment event in Davos, Switzerland, much to the amusement of Murdoch watchers the world over. Then again, waiting on Deng has helped Murdoch gain access to the multibillion-dollar Chinese-media market, so who's using whom?"
So what's Wendi Deng doing these days?
Apparently says she is setting up a "DreamWorks-esque" film company together with her actress friend Zhang Ziyi, China's fifth richest celebrity. You can see why Deng and Zhang get along: both have slept their way to the top, including extra-marital affairs that boosted their careers.
The friendship between Wendi Deng and Zhang Ziyi began about 5 or 6 years ago... Zhang also met her present boyfriend Vivi Nevo, a mysterious Israeli tycoon holding major shares of Time Warner, on Deng's yacht.
Um, shouldn't that be "Rupert's yacht"? Anyway... So who is this Vivi Nevo fellow? MenStyle.com
rank him #23 in their Power Top 50:
If your average Master of the Universe pays a publicist to craft his image, what does it say about Vivi Nevo that he enlisted one of the world’s biggest PR firms to keep from having one? Despite being a player on the scene, Nevo has kept himself and his work shrouded... The venture capitalist has been attending the moguls-only Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference for more than a decade, and he is one of the biggest individual stockholders of the biggest media conglomerate in the world, Time Warner. When Harvey Weinstein was looking to break free of the Disney yoke, he turned to Nevo, who became one of the Weinstein Company’s earliest backers. Inevitably, questions about Nevo turn to his money. We do know this: His L.A.-based company specializes in strategic investing in the global technology, telecom, media, and entertainment sectors, and his wealth is reported to be inherited, which adds a wink to his firm’s name, NV Investments. Say it aloud.
Here's a pic of Zhang and Nevi:
