Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Do you have a Theory of Wendi?

Seriously, who the hell IS Wendi Deng? The Wall Street Journal -- owned by her former husband Rupert Murdoch -- has identified her as a possible Chinese spy. Okay, this piece doesn't actually say that, but the strong inference is there.

When she was married to Murdoch, Gawker published a piece claiming that she controlled him. And even that piece, published in 2008, portrays her as a serial manipulator of men.
Her ticket out of China came in 1987, when she met a Los Angeles couple, Jake and Joyce Cherry... Mrs. Cherry says she had grown increasingly suspicious about Ms. Deng's relationship with her husband. Mrs. Cherry recalls discovering a cache of photographs her husband had taken of Ms. Deng in coquettish poses back in his hotel room in Guangzhou. Mr. Cherry confirms he had become infatuated with the young woman...

The Cherrys divorced, and Jake Cherry married Ms.Deng in February 1990. But that union didn't last. Mr. Cherry says that about four months after the wedding, he told Ms. Deng to leave because she had started spending time with a man named David Wolf...

Former colleagues describe Ms. Deng as having been adept at juggling the interests of News Corp.'s various units, which like to operate independently... She is said to have shown no hesitation about walking unannounced into a senior executive's office to discuss the latest Chinese entrepreneur she had met or government official she had contacted...
That last bit seems particularly relevant in light of the new WSJ story.

It's said that her marriage to Murdoch came a-cropper when she hooked up with Tony Blair, who supposedly spent a weekend with her at the Murdochs' ranch in Carmel, California. Here is her love letter to "Tony"...
"Oh, shit, oh, shit," she wrote. "Whatever why I'm so so missing Tony. Because he is so so charming and his clothes are so good. He has such good body and he has really really good legs Butt . . . And he is slim tall and good skin. Pierce blue eyes which I love. Love his eyes. Also I love his power on the stage . . . and what else and what else and what else . . . "
Ah. Poetry. "Really really good legs Butt." Who says that romance is dead?

Vanity Fair reported an "unsubstantiated" story that Wendi and Vladimir Putin were "in love."
The two have yet to be spotted together in public, because that level of self-serving malevolence in one single frame would likely crumble the earth onto itself. But Us did report Deng was spotted earlier this week boarding the St. Barths–docked yacht of Russian businessman Roman Abramovich. After Putin’s election, the billionaire reportedly gifted him a $35 million yacht to add to his collection of playthings, according to the Daily Mail. This one degree of mega-yacht separation isn’t quite a confirmation, but it has to count for something, right?
And now she is tied in with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. In fact, she is said to have patched up the "Jarvanka" union at a time when a split seemed likely.

From the Washington Examiner:
But here’s an interesting (i.e. too funny to be true) wrinkle in the story: New York journalist Michael Wolff suggested this week that the idea that Wendi Deng Murdoch is a Chinese communist spy originates with her ex-husband.

"Since their divorce, Murdoch has been telling anybody who would listen that Wendi is a Chinese spy — and had been throughout the marriage," Wolff wrote in a tweet.
Maybe a resentment-filled ex made up the whole "Chinese spy" story. Or maybe Murdoch really was played.

If China controlled Wendi, and if Wendi controlled Murdoch, and if Murdoch controlled Fox News -- then should we conclude that Fox is a Chinese psychological warfare operation?

Okay, maybe that's a reach. Still, I'm persuaded that something very strange is going on with this woman. Just look at the number of ultra-important people in her orbit! And she's not that much of a wow. (Then again, neither was Gustav Mahler's wife Alma, yet half the male population of Europe wanted to sleep with her.)

Does anyone have a "Theory of Wendi"? Right now, I'll take anything. Blue-sky conjecture, irresponsible speculation, conspiratorial plots involving aliens, anything.

7 comments:

b said...

Trump has found himself another kooky medic, Ronny Jackson, who writes "I told the president if he'd had better diet over the last 20 years he could have lived to 200 years old." The last one, Harold Bornstein, wrote that Trump's lab test results were "astonishingly excellent". This one writes that "he has incredibly good genes".

You wonder just how stupid the US citizenry can be taken for.

I have little respect for the medical "profession", but can't the AMA step in? Two of its members are talking what anyone without shit for brains can realise is utter rubbish.

Tom said...

Rupert did a lot of business in China over the yesrs, and often acted in ways that furthered Chinese interests, it seemed predictable, unremarkable. Except that the US kept letting him amass his media empire. But that's been the new normal for some while too.

As I read, Alma came to mind before you mentioned her. She certainly had high standards in husbands.

Wendi as Magnetic personality? Could be, but it's fun to think of the piratical Rupert getting played.

Stephen Morgan said...

The rumours predate the divorce. They came up at the time of the custard pie thing. I believe it was suggested that she was part of the deal whereby Murdoch acquired media assets in China.

Joseph Cannon said...

Tom, Alma may have high standards, but she didn't treat her husbands well. There's a bio of Franz Werfel you should look up; the way she treated him was horrendous. In truth, the way she treated Gustav was also pretty awful.

As much as I like Ken Russell, I'll never forgive the glowing portrayal of Alma in Russell's film about Mahler. I'm pretty much okay with the rest of it, even the thing with Cosima.

Tom said...

Joseph, I see I've got some more interesting historical reading to do, about Alma.

Have to wonder how large a role, as in the case of Paul Tillich, S&M played.

maz said...

I have to say Wendi stepped in nicely and punched out a prankster going after hubby with a cream pie. I'll take a crisp rabbit punch over fidelity any time. (Although I'd find it difficult to overlook Blair, just as a matter of taste. That'd be like spending the weekend with Snooki and expecting all to be forgiven.)

Anonymous said...

Murdoch Fox TV Network aired documentary saying U.S. moon landing was a hoax but aliens are real. Fox News = Foreign Anti-American Psyop... And let's not forget the constant division the Fox network sponsors in USA since Aussie Rupert Murdoch took over.