Dame Iris Murdoch was a drag character developed by Rupert Murdoch to compete with Dame Edna Everage, the character developed by his fellow Australia native Barry Humphries. The character became a source of unbearable frustration to Murdoch when he found that while dressing in Dame Iris drag somehow freed him to write philosophy and sharp, witty fiction, he could only write thus when so dressed. He therefore put out the news through all the organs of his worldwide media empire, first that Dame Iris was suffering from dementia, and then that she was dead.