The Ross and Rebekah files; Soap stars, tycoons, ministers, cops. Who don't they know?

The sensational events of last Thursday gave the editor of 'The Sun' a taste of tabloid scrutiny, but also revealed her to be half of London's best-connected couple. By Sholto Byrnes and Cole Moreton

The EastEnders hardman and the Sun boss - known to rivals as the "ginger ninja" - are better connected than anyone in London, to judge from the powerful people gossiping about them on Thursday morning as news of their 4am row spread.

Naturally they were all agog on the set of EastEnders, queen of soaps, where the return of the Mitchell brothers (one of whom is played by Mr Kemp) has added millions to the ratings again. But the affair was also a welcome distraction for the couple's good friends Tony and Cherie at No 10. The mood there was defiant after the departure the previous day of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, David Blunkett (who went to Ms Wade's offices at The Sun for a consolatory drink within hours of his resignation on Wednesday). Next door at No 11, the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, will have reflected on his fond memories of the Kemps' wedding reception three years ago. But there was unabashed glee among the rivals of Fleet Street, who speculated what this might mean for the relationship between Ms Wade and her boss, the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. She missed a breakfast meeting with him on Thursday because she was in a police cell.

"It was a lot of fuss about nothing," said Mr Kemp. "Just a silly row that got out of hand," said Ms Wade. They both made these statements in The Sun, where staff felt compelled to put the contretemps on the front page (underneath bizarrely simultaneous claims that his screen brother Phil Mitchell, aka Steve McFadden, had also been involved in a bust-up with a woman, his former partner).

So who are these people, who do they know and why do they matter? Rebekah Wade, 37, is in charge of the bestselling daily newspaper in Britain, the paper wot claims to have won it for both Tories and new Labour. It is in Tony Blair's interests to be her friend, just as he has cultivated her boss. Ross Kemp is a committed Labour supporter anyway. The actor who became a huge star as tough Grant Mitchell more than a decade ago has canvassed for the party on the streets.

The pair met at a golf tournament in 1995. They were married in Las Vegas in 2002. The reception party in London was attended by 400 people including Mr Brown, Mr Blunkett and the late Mo Mowlam. When Mr Kemp celebrated his 40th birthday last year, the guest list included the Prime Minister's wife Cherie Blair, the former director-general of the BBC Greg Dyke and the former commissioner of the Metropolitan police Lord Stevens. Not bad for an Essex-born actor who plays a thuggish Cockney car mechanic.

Mr Kemp's biggest pal in Labour circles is the former spin-doctor Alastair Campbell, who followed his departure from Downing Street with a one-man show at the Royal Festival Hall which was chaired by his friend the professional actor. The boys even celebrated Boxing Day together one year, with their partners Ms Wade and Fiona Millar, a former aide to Mrs Blair. But lately a degree of political pragmatism appears to have crept in: the Kemps are said to have dined recently with the Tory leadership frontrunner David Cameron and his right-hand man, George Osborne.

But then Ms Wade, born in Cheshire in 1968 and educated at grammar school before going to the Sorbonne in Paris, was once a Young Tory. Fiercely ambitious, she went from the News of the World to The Sun, where she became deputy editor at 29. Overlooked by Mr Murdoch for the top job, she took over the NoW instead and launched a highly controversial campaign to "name and shame" paedophiles. Then in 2003 she became The Sun's boss, the first woman to edit a mass-market national daily. Since last year the paper has been running a high-profile campaign against domestic violence, and recently highlighted the fact that men could be victims too.

In happier moments, the Kemps sometimes entertain at a second home in the Oxfordshire countryside. There they are also frequent guests of their friends Matthew Freud and Elisabeth Murdoch, who own an impressive property in the estate surrounding Blenheim Palace, family seat of the Duke of Marlborough. Mr Freud is a public relations guru who has made and saved many a showbiz career. His wife Elisabeth, the daughter of Rupert Murdoch, has a media company of her own.

Last Wednesday night, after finishing work and offering support to her friend Mr Blunkett, Ms Wade joined her husband at the house in Notting Hill where Mr Freud was celebrating his 42nd birthday with caviar and vodka. It was an intimate party, apparently also attended by Rupert Murdoch, in town for BSkyB's annual meeting. The Kemps left at 3am and were taken home to Battersea in the Sun editor's chauffeur-driven Mercedes.

They started to argue in the car, and carried on inside the house. According to one report, Ms Wade dialled 999 but then hung up - and within a minute the emergency services were called by Mr Kemp, who said he was being assaulted. When police arrived at 4am they offered the actor medical attention on a cut to his lip, but he refused. He later said it had been caused during filming of his SAS series Ultimate Force.

Ms Wade was arrested, fingerprinted, had a DNA sample taken and slept in a police cell. She was not interviewed about the alleged assault, and was released without charge. Arriving at The Sun around 3pm she asked, deadpan: "Much happening today?" Some staff applauded.

The episode had been reported that morning by Sky News, the TV channel owned by Mr Murdoch. According to one member of staff, Mr Murdoch appeared in the Sun newsroom soon afterwards and said: "I'm treating this lightly and so should you all. Let this be a lesson to all of you. And bloody make sure you get a good paper out."

If Ms Wade needed PR advice that day - which is unlikely - there are only two people she would have turned to. Guy Black was best man at their wedding and has been a close friend of Mr Kemp since their childhood together in Braintree, Essex. Currently director of communications for the Telegraph Group, he was formerly chief spin-doctor for the Conservative Party and before that the director of the Press Complaints Commission. The latter job was also once held by Mr Black's partner Mark Bolland, who went on to become deputy private secretary to the Prince of Wales (he now runs his own PR firm). Mr Bolland is, independently, a friend of Ms Wade. When the four of them spent a couple of days together in northern Italy a few years ago, eyebrows were raised at the formidable web of British contacts temporarily centred on a villa in Tuscany.

Ms Wade is said to be much more comfortable among actors than her fiercely private husband is in her world. The corporate aspects of her job are not much to his taste; although it would be a mistake to think that his behaviour bears any relation to the on-screen character with whom he will always be identified. Friends testify to his intelligence, and he has talked of his sensitivity, admitting that "at some rugby games I get so emotional that I can't play for the first five minutes". At a party Mr Kemp was seen greeting the former Sun editor Stuart Higgins with a kiss on the cheek; the only kisses between men that Grant Mitchell would approve of, one assumes, would be the Glasgow variety.

As a tabloid professional, Rebekah Wade knows how sexy a good celebrity tiff can be to her readers. But in private she also knows more than a few of the celebrities her staff might long to turn over. Last August bank holiday, for example, she and her husband attended the 50th birthday party for the music PR supremo Gary Farrow, whose clients include Sir Elton John.

The singer was best man at Mr Farrow's wedding to Jane Moore, Sun columnist and long-standing friend of her editor. Guests at the birthday party included the chef Gordon Ramsay, the singer George Michael and pop impresario Simon Cowell.

As Ms Wade mingled with guests that day she will have reflected that her guests had plenty of experience of what an unnerving, uncomfortable experience it is to find your private life written up in the tabloids. After Thursday, so does she. At least her friends will sympathise.