Posted on 07/19/2011 3:33:47 PM PDT by frithguild
LONDON - Her husband was in the hot seat, but Wendi Deng has emerged as the unlikely star of a British hearing into phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's newspapers.
Video of 42-year-old Deng jumping forward to smack a protester with a pie aimed at Murdoch's face quickly went viral, and numerous fan pages quickly popped up on social networking sites such as Facebook praising her quick rapid reflexes.
For the better part of the hearing, Deng - Murdoch's third wife - sat behind her husband and stepson, James, as they answered questions from British lawmakers. When a protester approached Rupert Murdoch, 80, with a foam pie he'd managed to smuggle in, one of Murdoch's lawyers - Janet Nova - quickly stepped in.
But it was the image of the long and lean Deng - clad in a prim pink blazer and polka dot pencil skirt - leaping forward to swat, open-palmed, at the man trying to attack her husband that stunned millions of TV viewers and presenters watching the events unfold live.
For what could be the first time, Deng's celebrity briefly eclipsed that of her husband. Within minutes of the attack, social media were abuzz with praise of Deng's heroic leap in defense of her husband.
A fan page on Facebook invited viewers to "express your admiration of Mrs. Murdoch's right hook," while tweets glowing with praise poured into Twitter and started "Wendi Deng" trending on the site.
Her life pre-Murdoch was not exactly tabloid material. Deng was born on mainland China, studied in the United States as a teenager and later graduated from the Yale School of Management
Before she met her husband, Deng moved back to Hong Kong to work at Star Television, which is owned by Murdoch's News Corp.
Deng was introduced to Murdoch at a Hong Kong cocktail party in 1997 and she left Star TV before marrying the media mogul in June 1999 aboard Murdoch's private yacht, in New York.
Since then she has largely played the role of devoted spouse but is also the co-founder and co-CEO of the film production company Big Feet Productions.
She has two daughters with Murdoch - Grace, who was born in 2001 and Chloe who was born in 2003
They can call her a trophy wife if they want but she wouldn’t be that quick to action if she weren’t genuinely protective of him.
This Deng has a lot of Xiao Ping to her.
Asian women are always darn loyal to their husbands.
She sure was quick on her feet with that right-hand swing!
Me love you longgggg time!
Wendy seems to be a very common name among westernized asian women.
Sure glad the pie thrower was internationally humiliated. The ONLY reason these gorks do such things is so they can get hurrah’s and high fives from their idiot lamebrained liberal peers.
Deng! I love a woman who’ll fight for her man! You go, girl!
Especially her clueless first husband that she married purely for the US citizenship.
If a lady sits like that and has the type expression on her face Mrs. Murdoch has in this photo, don’t further piss her off. Believe me, this is the voice of experience speaking.
I gather some years ago she was a serious volleyball player. This matters, because she hit the creep with a classic downward net spike.
If she contacted his face much, I bet that really rattled his chimes.
Note to self: If I become very wealthy, I will have an entourage of female martial artists, who know how to inflict serious hurt.
Feisty Hottie Ping!
To be on or off the Hottie Ping List please FReepmail me.
frithguild gets the nod for the heads up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
