U.S. Mr Glum and Wendi become Murdoch hearing celebrities

Viewers around the world, watching the hearings on the Rupert Murdoch  media empire, as Murdoch and his son James were grilled by UK lawmakers, had two other questions.

They referred not to the well rehearsed performance of James, or the seeming snail like and sometimes dithering responses of his father, but to people in the row behind the stars of the show

The answer to one, the man with the green tie, is carried in a report by The First Post. The other second row ce

lebrity, sitting with legs crossed demurely, and sometimes leaning forward to look at the face of Rupert Murdoch was Wendi Deng, his Chinese wife. During the hearings she literally sprang further into the limelight when a member of the public sprayed her husband with scented ahcving cream, and she landed a right hook on his face.

For more on Wendi’s colorful career, you  can go to Wikipedia.

This is what the First Post said

As the world grappled with James Murdoch's jargon-packed and verbose responses to the Commons culture select committee, it seems there was one question on the minds of  Twitter account holders: who was that man sitting behind him with the long face and the green tie?

The answer is Joel Klein,former head of New York City's Education Department, who joined News Corp as executive vice-president in November 2010.

A week ago, he was chosen to replace Rebekah Brooks – the former head of News International  who was arrested on Sunday – as head of the internal NI investigation into the escalating phone hacking scandal.

Although some have suggested that Rupert Murdoch made the appointment as a PR move, those close to Klein say that it is unlikely that he would allow himself to be used in such a way.

The 64-year-old is reported to get up at 5 a.m. every day and still plays a mean game of tennis. A former colleague, Peter Scheer, told Reuters that he was the perfect man to head up the investigation, as he would not be afraid to stand up to Rupert Murdoch. "If he's empowered to conduct an investigation without constraints, he'll get the full picture," Scheer said.

But for those who didn't know who he was – most of the non-American Twittersphere, it would seem – he cut a much less impressive figure today.

"Surely that's Dobby The House Elf in the green tie behind the Murdoch boys," tweeted one user.

And as he continued to check his watch, pick his ears and look glumly into his lap, even Channel 4's Jon Snow was moved to tweet: "The sleeper was Joel Klein VP of News Corps… he doesn't seem to be enjoying the proceedings: nor does he appear to be preparing for power!"