由买买提看人间百态

boards

本页内容为未名空间相应帖子的节选和存档,一周内的贴子最多显示50字,超过一周显示500字 访问原贴
NewYork版 - 邓文迪成功秘笈:"Why do you care what people think?" NYT zz
相关主题
默多克申请与邓文迪离婚WSJ历史上最大的坑王诞生了 (转载)
见过我真人的来,看过奔的不算虎妈蔡美儿的口音
i think it's true love上西城拿下新公寓
Woody Allen RIPPED By Estranged SonAmy Chua is on CNBC right now
来说说我最近又看上的一个男人美国大选辩论纪念品中国造 美媒叹太讽刺
特殊高中亚裔每年有一千多人已经有20多年了,包括hunter的几千毕业生for all the chicks getting plastic surgery in china....
Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior (zz)大家再接再厉, Huffington Post更新JK事件报道 (转载)
Chinese Daughters and Amy Chua纽约版的也做点事情吧
相关话题的讨论汇总
话题: murdoch话题: mrs话题: she话题: mr话题: her
进入NewYork版参与讨论
1 (共1页)
a*o
发帖数: 25262
1
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/fashion/wendi-murdoch-is-crea
Declaration of Independence
By AMY CHOZICK
LAST January, Amy Chua got an unexpected e-mail just before an excerpt from
her provocative child-rearing manual, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,”
appeared in The Wall Street Journal. It was from Wendi Murdoch, the wife of
Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns The Journal.
“She wanted her daughters to come to New Haven and meet my daughters,” Ms.
Chua said in a phone interview. Like the Murdoch girls, Ms. Chua’s
daughters are fluent in Chinese and English, and have a Chinese mother who
grew up with a mother of her own who was unimaginably strict by Western
standards.
“She was asking for advice like, ‘How do you get a child to practice piano
for more than one hour a day?’ ” Ms. Chua recalled of their first meeting
. “She parents almost identically to the way I do.”
In return for Ms. Chua’s parenting tips, Mrs. Murdoch gave the author some
advice. After the excerpt ran in The Journal, Ms. Chua found herself the
subject of an angry backlash on mommy blogs, morning TV and newspaper
columns. A lot of friends tried to console Ms. Chua, but Mrs. Murdoch was
different.
“She was like: ‘Why do you care what people think? You have two wonderful
daughters. Get over it,’ ” Ms. Chua recalled.
If anyone is qualified to give advice on developing a thick skin, it’s
Wendi Deng Murdoch, 43, who harbors an ambition and busyness that would most
likely exhaust even the most determined of Manhattan socialities.
Since the couple wed in 1999, Mrs. Murdoch, the third wife of Rupert Murdoch
and 38 years his junior, has been viewed with suspicion and skepticism. At
best, she was described as a “trophy wife” and at worse a “gold digger.”
Lately, the intricate narrative of how Deng Wen Di from Jiangsu province in
eastern China became Wendi Murdoch of the Rockefeller triplex on Fifth
Avenue (and other homes in Beverly Hills and Carmel, Calif.; London; Cavan,
South Australia; and Beijing) has taken another turn.
Even as her husband’s company, News Corporation, faces scrutiny over a
phone-hacking scandal at its British newspapers, Mrs. Murdoch has emerged
with her own independent career and has immersed herself in a social circle
that includes David Geffen, Larry Ellison, Tony Blair, Nicole Kidman and
Bono, one that is often free of her husband’s presence.
Her first film, “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” based on the best-
selling book and produced with Florence Sloan, the Chinese wife of another
media mogul, the former MGM studio chief Harry E. Sloan, came out in 2011.
The pair are close to signing a deal with Sony Pictures to distribute their
second movie based on the memoir “Journey of a Thousand Miles,” by the
Chinese pianist Lang Lang.
Through a family spokesman, Mrs. Murdoch declined to be interviewed for this
article, as did other members of the Murdoch family. But many of her
friends were willing to discuss Mrs. Murdoch’s new and, they say, more
accurate public persona.
They describe someone who is, above almost all things, a world-class
networker, collecting powerful friends and brokering connections. She hosts
annual dinner parties with powerful women, hosts book parties for friends,
and regularly holds get-togethers. When Tony and Cherie Blair visited
Beijing in 2009, Mrs. Murdoch organized a dinner party with Chinese power
brokers. (Mrs. Blair is now among those suing News Corporation’s British
newspaper unit in the phone hacking scandal.)
In May 2011, when Hugh Jackman, a close friend who made a cameo in “Snow
Flower and the Secret Fan,” was in early performances of his one-man show
in San Francisco, the project was largely a low-profile one. Until Mrs.
Murdoch got involved.
“As a surprise Wendi flew in with about a dozen of the most influential
people in the business,” Mr. Jackman wrote in an e-mail. “She is the best
publicist anyone could ever have.” The show later moved to Broadway.
If there was a single moment that crystallized Mrs. Murdoch’s ascendancy in
the public imagination, it was during her husband’s testimony last July
before a British parliamentary subcommittee over the widespread phone
hacking that happened at one of his newspapers, The News of the World.
Wearing a pink blazer, she sat behind him, then instinctively vaulted out of
her chair to protect her husband from a protester’s pie attack.
“Until the cream-pie incident, she’d really been branded the classic
younger wife with a tinge of racism and stereotyping,” said Andrew Butcher,
a former senior communications executive at News Corporation. “That turned
everything around for her.”
“It seemed to finally give the marriage legitimacy,” he added.
Friends said they were not surprised at all to see Mrs. Murdoch, a former
competitive volleyball player, jump to her husband’s defense. “Nothing
characterizes her more than that moment,” said Diane von Furstenberg, a
longtime friend whose husband, Barry Diller, worked for Mr. Murdoch. “She
is protective and fierce and not afraid of anything.”
Sally Shan, a managing director of HarbourVest Partners, a global private
equity firm, and Mrs. Murdoch’s roommate when they attended the Yale School
of Management, said, “I saw that and thought, That’s my Wendi.”
IF Wendi Deng Murdoch had not married the world’s most powerful media mogul
, her life would probably read like an idealized version of the American
immigrant story.
The third daughter of a Guangzhou factory director moves to the United
States, and gets a job at the Sichuan Garden in Westwood, Calif., for $20 a
day and all the leftover soup she can eat. She takes night classes at a
commuter college, gets accepted by an Ivy League school, enters the media
business and eventually finds herself walking red carpets and holding dinner
parties at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. But this is no
typical immigrant tale.
After Liz Smith announced in The New York Post in 1998 that Mr. Murdoch and
his wife of 31 years, Anna, had amicably separated, the company crafted a
widely accepted narrative that Mr. Murdoch and Wendi Deng met later, after
he and Anna were already separated, when Ms. Deng accompanied Mr. Murdoch on
a trip to Beijing.
In reality, they met months earlier during a town-hall-style session at Star
TV, according to a person who was close to Mr. Murdoch at the time.
Employees, gathered in the company’s glistening new Kowloon headquarters in
Hong Kong, lobbed mostly softball questions at Mr. Murdoch. Then Ms. Deng
stood up.
“Why is your China strategy so bad?” she asked Mr. Murdoch in her
fractured English, according to a person close to News Corporation who
attended the meeting. Unsatisfied with his answer, she approached him after
the meeting, and they discussed media and China and business, all things
that, coming from a younger, attractive woman, apparently proved an
aphrodisiac to Mr. Murdoch.
He had been taken aback at how direct Ms. Deng was (friends say she still
has almost no brain-to-mouth filter) and how much she enjoyed talking
business, according to people close to the couple.
In 1999, 82 guests, watched as the couple wed on board Mr. Murdoch’s 155-
foot yacht, the Morning Glory, in New York Harbor.
In the early days of marriage, much was made of Mr. Murdoch’s
transformation: his shoddy hair-dye job, Prada suits, workout regimen and
new SoHo loft. But less noted was the transformation happening to his wife.
Mrs. Murdoch’s friends like to talk about how the money has not
fundamentally changed the brash, unfiltered, funny woman Mr. Murdoch first
met in Kowloon. But in other ways, Mr. Murdoch’s billions have
significantly transformed her.
She used to wash her clothes and face with the same soap, said a 2008 Vogue
article, and seldom wore makeup, much less luxuriated in the perks of
privilege — like the private yoga classes with her friends Kathy Freston
and Arianna Huffington — she indulges in today. At Yale, she would stake
out Filene’s Basement to procure designer gowns on the cheap. Today, she is
regularly photographed wearing Rodarte and Prada.
Mrs. Murdoch quickly and giddily embraced the trappings of great wealth.
While her husband conducted business in various European capitals, she would
travel with him and shop for glassware and cutlery and curtains to stock
her new homes. In addition to their loft in SoHo, the Murdochs transformed
an old hutong in Beijing into a courtyard oasis decorated with art by
Chinese artists.
At the same time, she tried to find a place for herself in the family
business, brokering meetings in China and weighing in on MySpace’s Chinese
operations. As head of Star TV, James Murdoch worked with his stepmother to
try to repair News Corporation’s standing in China. In turn, Mrs. Murdoch
earned James’s respect, and he became the first of Mr. Murdoch’s four
grown children to accept his father’s third marriage, according to a person
close to the Murdoch family.
Still, there were bumps. The first came in 2000, when The Wall Street
Journal, not yet owned by News Corporation, published a 4,000-word front-
page article about her. It described how, in 1988 at age 19, she had moved
to Los Angeles with a married couple, Jake and Joyce Cherry, to learn
English. Mr. Cherry and Wendi Deng had an affair, according to the article,
and she married him in 1990. The marriage lasted two years seven months,
according to Los Angeles court records. In that time, she got a green card
and enrolled at California State University, Northridge.
Mr. Murdoch was furious, according to people close to News Corporation who
would not discuss the article on the record, even though it was the kind of
article he would have loved — had it been in one of his newspapers and
about someone else’s third wife.
The article and subsequent follow-ups by other publications branded Mrs.
Murdoch as a calculating seductress for much of the next decade.
Then in 2006, there was an infamous marital battle when Mr. Murdoch declared
in a TV interview with Charlie Rose that while Grace and Chloe, his
daughters with Wendi, would have an equal economic interest in the family’s
trust, they would not have the same voting rights as his children from his
previous marriages, Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James.
Wendi Murdoch was enraged. It was the first she had heard of that decision.
“He became this typical husband whose wife threatened to leave him,” said
a person close to News Corporation who would not speak for attribution about
the Murdochs’ relationship. “It was surreal.”
They worked through it, and by all accounts, Wendi has had a hugely positive
impact on Rupert. She will openly roll her eyes at him when he’s out of
line and tell him when he’s wrong, even while the two are in public.
“She has a great upbeat personality and is one of the few people who can
keep Rupert Murdoch under control,” said Mr. Butcher, the former News
Corporation spokesman. “In the very early days of the marriage she was
somewhat subordinate, but that pretty quickly changed.”
As their daughters, Grace, 10, and Chloe, 8 (whom Mrs. Murdoch refers to as
“Grace Chloe” in her still-heavily accented English) get older, she has
taken on a wide range of professional endeavors, including the film business
. Mrs. Murdoch was actively involved in the production of “Snow Flower and
the Secret Fan,” and according to all accounts she thoroughly enjoyed her
autonomy and power. At one point she stood up in a boardroom full of China’
s most powerful film executives and demanded that the posters for “Snow
Flower” be better positioned around Shanghai and that more money be spent
on marketing.
“They all just got quiet and took it in,” said Wayne Wang, the film’s
director. “The next day I started to see posters on the streets and buses
that were the way she wanted them.”
Even as she forges her own identity, Mr. Murdoch’s influence is never far.
“Snow Flower” was released domestically by News Corporation’s Fox
Searchlight in July 2011 just as revelations surfaced that The News of the
World had hacked into the voice mail of Milly Dowler, the teenager who had
been kidnapped and murdered. The film grossed only about $11 million
worldwide.
In recent months, as James Murdoch continues to face scrutiny about his
involvement in the scandal in Britain, and has resigned several key
positions in the Murdoch empire, investors have questioned the future
leadership of News Corporation. In only the most hushed and off-the-record
conversations do people close to the company ask: could Wendi take over one
day?
Doubtful. In contrast to Anna Murdoch, who had an office on News Corporation
’s corporate floor and a position on the board until 1998, when Mr. Murdoch
forced her off, the third Mrs. Murdoch is kept at a distance.
“I’d say she actively does not want a role in the company,” said Mr.
Geffen, a longtime friend. “Nor does she have an ambition to have her kids
involved in the company.”
Mrs. Murdoch was an early investor in Art.sy, an online start-up designed to
help art enthusiasts browse works from galleries, museums and private
collections. Early on, the Web site was having difficulty convincing gallery
owners and artists to agree to allow it to display their art online.
Mrs. Murdoch brought on her friend Dasha Zhukova, the Russian socialite and
wife of the billionaire Roman Abramovich. The two women hosted parties in
Miami’s Art Basel to help introduce the Art.sy founder, Carter Cleveland,
to Larry Gagosian and Marc Glimcher, among other key players gathered for
the annual art fair.
“Here I was a 24-year-old nerdy computer science major, and I was going
from booth to booth with Dasha and Wendi,” Mr. Cleveland said.
Mrs. Murdoch initially found out about Art.sy the way wealthy and well-
connected people hear about potential investments: through a friend. The
friend was Joshua Kushner, who runs the private equity firm Thrive Capital
and whose sister-in-law, Ivanka Trump, is a close friend of Mrs. Murdoch’s.
The Murdochs briefly occupied a nearby condo in the Trump Park Avenue
building, where Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump live. Grace and Chloe speak
Mandarin to Ms. Trump’s young daughter, Arabella, and the Murdoch women
regularly attend Ms. Trump’s Sabbath dinners. (“She loves the challah,”
Ms. Trump said of Mrs. Murdoch. “She calls it ‘that bread.’ ”)
IN recent months, the Murdochs have grown to live largely separate lives,
with Mrs. Murdoch taking the girls to piano lessons and attending red-carpet
galas, and Mr. Murdoch dealing with the scandal unfolding in Britain. As
Mrs. Murdoch attended the Oscars in February, Mr. Murdoch traveled to London
to visit the newsroom of the embattled Sun tabloid, which has been accused
of widespread bribery to a network of corrupt officials.
He rarely accompanies her to the many charitable events and parties she
attends, partly because he is 81 and partly to avoid the news media, said
several people close to the couple who did not want to discuss their marital
relations for attribution. (This weekend, the couple are vacationing in
Venice, after attending News Corporation meetings in Rome and Milan.)
It has not been entirely easy for Mrs. Murdoch to feel comfortable around
the kind of company she now keeps. “I’ve seen her evolve over time in
terms of her capacity to handle meeting people in the industry and senior
government officials,” said Ms. Shan, her graduate school roommate. “
Initially that wasn’t her comfort zone.”
Mrs. Murdoch still regularly (and humorously) drops references to how far
she has come since her meager childhood in China.
Like last year when she and Ms. Huffington hosted a party at Ms. Huffington
’s Manhattan apartment to celebrate Mrs. Freston’s newest weight-loss book
, “The Lean.” Guests included Martha Stewart, Joel Klein and Harvey
Weinstein. Because Mrs. Freston is a vegan, the caterers had assembled a
meatless spread with tofu, quinoa and kale spun into elaborate hors d’
oeuvres.
Ms. Huffington recalled a toast Mrs. Murdoch gave. “She said, ‘I grew up
so poor in China that one day I aspired to have meat regularly,’ ” Mrs.
Huffington said. “ ‘Now that I can have meat three times a day, Kathy
tells us we can’t have any meat at all.’ ”
j**4
发帖数: 10425
2
i like her.... and all those huaren chicks who talk shit about her are just
fucking jealous
a*o
发帖数: 25262
3
The first question she asked Murdoch: “Why is your China strategy so bad?”
Not a lot of Chinese people can start a talk like that.
Now she's trying to build her own empire since she knew she can't get into
Murdoch's. Chinese women are smarter than the rest? LOL..

just

【在 j**4 的大作中提到】
: i like her.... and all those huaren chicks who talk shit about her are just
: fucking jealous

j**4
发帖数: 10425
4
i think it's just her, not because she's chinese

【在 a*o 的大作中提到】
: The first question she asked Murdoch: “Why is your China strategy so bad?”
: Not a lot of Chinese people can start a talk like that.
: Now she's trying to build her own empire since she knew she can't get into
: Murdoch's. Chinese women are smarter than the rest? LOL..
:
: just

1 (共1页)
进入NewYork版参与讨论
相关主题
纽约版的也做点事情吧来说说我最近又看上的一个男人
Ultraluxury Apartment Sales Drive Records in Manhattan Real Estate特殊高中亚裔每年有一千多人已经有20多年了,包括hunter的几千毕业生
Opening for postdoc fellow in cardiac MRI (转载)Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior (zz)
这个读MBA,我觉得长知识没有锻炼能力扩展人脉重要!Chinese Daughters and Amy Chua
默多克申请与邓文迪离婚WSJ历史上最大的坑王诞生了 (转载)
见过我真人的来,看过奔的不算虎妈蔡美儿的口音
i think it's true love上西城拿下新公寓
Woody Allen RIPPED By Estranged SonAmy Chua is on CNBC right now
相关话题的讨论汇总
话题: murdoch话题: mrs话题: she话题: mr话题: her