Member of Parliament
Conservative MP Louise Mensch jumped into the Hackgate fray with both feet on July 19, as one of the most persistent questioners in the Parliamentary testimony of News Corp executives Rupert and James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks. But Mensch dug in even deeper later that day, when she engaged former News of the World editor and TV presenter Piers Morgan in a nine-minute row live on CNN, in which she claimed that Morgan had been involved in phone hacking himself and had even bragged about it afterward — allegations Morgan strenuously denied. The 40-year-old politician is also a prominent British chick lit author under the name Louise Bagshawe (which is also her maiden name), and is married to Peter Mensch, the manager of rock bands Metallica and Red Hot Chili Peppers.Read: "In His Own Defense: Cameron Zigs But the Opposition Follows."