Wendi Deng and Lauren Sanchez: A tale of two billionaire plus ones

I’m coming in hot with this because WOW: in doing my research for Wendi Deng, I read this nugget in USA Today:

“Murdoch's office, on Thursday, told the New York Times, who first reported the news, that Murdoch started dating Zhukova, a retired molecular biologist in the summer. The two met at a family gathering hosted by Murdoch's third wife Wendi Deng, with whom he is on good terms with, according to The Guardian.”

The Murdoch in question is of course Rupert Murdoch, with whom Wendi raised two children and clearly keeps in close contact. The bride-to-be is the mother of Daria Zhukova, who was once married to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and is now married to Stavros Niarcho. She keeps close ties in both LA and New York and is very close friends with Wendi (along with Karlie Kloss, Jennifer Meyer, Derek Blasberg etc). This circle is utterly fascinating. It’s so insular! I guess there are not that many single male billionaires in the world.

But this isn’t a headline Wendi sought because attention is not the goal in these social circles. Of course Wendi attends the MET Gala with her daughter, this is a Monday night for her. Philanthropy is proper social behavior. She attends out of duty to art and charity and for her good friend Anna Wintour, not to have her picture taken. How gauche. She and daughter Grace wore gowns, beautiful gowns (I couldn’t track down a designer). And it probably gave Grace a chance to catch up with her godmother, Nicole Kidman. 

On the other spectrum of billionaire wives (or more accurately, fiancée) is Lauren Sanchez. Her dress is ugly. Sorry to the house of de la Renta but the shattered glass is tacky, it’s giving Project Runway challenge.

These two women, Wendi and Lauren, are friendly. They’ve been photographed together at parties and Wendi attended their engagement party. So they are friends. “Friends?” Who knows. But their style, both in how they approach fame and how they dress, couldn’t be more different. 

Wendi works quietly, from when she was an intern at one of Rupert’s stations, to be a connector of people. A relationship person. She is everywhere but never part of the gossip (except for that one time she laid the smackdown on someone who pied her husband, and another time got caught writing in her journal about Tony Blair). The point is, she doesn’t care about the opinions of peons, which is most of the world. The general public is not a thought in her head. She isn’t trying to sell us candles.

Lauren isn’t either, but the way she moves in the press and the number of events they attend make it clear that she is not camera-shy. She wants to be seen, to be known. She’s not stealth wealth, she’s loud about it. Up in our grill. And it’s annoying!

Here’s my question: WHY does she want to be famous? What’s in it for her to be scrutinized at a time when billionaires are like, pretty universally disliked? What does she want from US? Because she does want something. 

She wants to influence us. She wants us to like her. To praise her. To stan her. It’s not enough for her to be obscenely wealthy but she wants cultural capital, too. It’s greedy. Just take your billions and leave us alone!