While Stiller was making "Empire of the Sun, " his colleagues were in boot camps training for their military roles -- and would emerge talking about the boot camp as if they'd become part of a real military unit.

CNN: 'Tropic Thunder' pushes envelope and then some

One of the most important developments was the rise of the British navy the "empire" on which "the sun never set" in the mid-19th century.

WSJ: The Weekend Interview with Charles Hill: The Empire Strikes Back

Murdoch's international newspaper empire includes the New York Post, the News International stable of UK titles including the Sun and the Times, and a cluster of Australian papers including the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun.

CNN: Murdoch: Web sites to charge for content

But as he stood on the sun-splashed 86th floor of the Empire State Building, he was 1, 050 feet above ground level and had just led the U.S. to a snowy win over Costa Rica and a draw at Mexico that got the Americans' World Cup qualifying campaign back on track.

NPR: Klinsmann Open To Staying With US After World Cup

With four wives and 17 children, choosing a successor to take over the sprawling empire and considerable wealth of Chinese billionaire Stanley Ho Hung Sun was always gong to be a dicey proposition.

FORBES: Tug Of War For China's Gambling Empire

Now he faces open revolt from journalists on the Sun, the paper which laid the foundations of his media empire with its "soaraway" success in the 1970s.

BBC: Eye of the storm