Names and faces

■ Rupert Murdoch has power and wealth — as well as legions of detractors who say the media mogul’s tabloids and T V stations have fueled crass celebrity culture, phone hacking and fake news. A new play in London explores the roots of his success and his divisiveness. Ink shows how Murdoch revolutionized British journalism at the end of the 1960s, turning the failing Sun newspaper into the country’s most influential tabloid through a canny mix of sin, sensation and sex. Playwright James Graham said it’s fascinating “to see the torment” on the faces of liberal theatergoers as they realize they are rooting for the Australian upstart. “He’s an enjoyable, mischievous, provocative voice in the play,” Graham said. “We want to subvert and disrupt and interrogate what that man did,” he added. “He is a man who has had an incredible impact on all of our lives.” In the play, Murdoch sums up his intentions as “give people what they want … and to hell with the consequences.” Today, Murdoch owns the film studio 20th Century Fox, U.S. broadcaster Fox News, the New York Post, the Times of London — and the Sun, still Britain’s best-selling newspaper. But in recent years, Murdoch has faced setbacks. The revelation in 2011 that his News of the World tabloid had eavesdropped on the voice mails of a teenage murder victim forced him to close the newspaper and sent a former editor to prison. Ink opened in the West End last week and runs at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre until Jan. 6.

■ British actor Colin Firth said he has taken Italian citizenship as a “sensible” move amid global political uncertainty. Firth, who is married to environmentalist Livia Giuggioli, said he has become a dual U.K.-Italian citizen, and his wife is applying for British nationality. Their two sons already have dual citizenship. In a statement Saturday, the 57-year-old Firth said he and his wife had never thought much about their different passports, “but now, with some of the uncertainty around, we thought it sensible that we should all get the same.” Firth has been quoted as calling Britain’s planned exit from the European Union a disaster. The actor, who has played Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and King George VI in The King’s Speech, said he “will always be extremely British” but also has “a passionate love of Italy.”

Murdoch

Firth