If you're a public figure (or about to become one), Wikipedia can be your best friend, or your worst nightmare. Your Wikipedia entry is the jumping off point for serious investigative research on you by journalists as well as more casual Google searches by potential employers, collaborators, partners, and others.
When someone is researching you (whether that be a journalist doing a story, a casting agent looking for talent, an employer looking to hire you, or anyone else), it is advisable to have some control over what that person sees, especially since once a journalist feels he or she has enough information, he or she will stop researching and write the story. Give your journalists (and others) everything they need to see right on Wikipedia, and they may not look further. A good example is this article on Carlos Celdran. If you look at Mr. Celdran's Wikipedia entry, you'll notice that most of the biographical information about him was gleaned directly from his Wikipedia entry, which was initially written by me. All the information in the journalist's article about Mr. Celdran came from his interview with Mr. Celdran or Mr. Celdran's Wikipedia article. Obviously Wikipedia played a major role in the development of that newspaper article.
If the journalist didn't feel he had gotten enough information from that article, he would have continued researching other links until he felt he had enough for the story. Make sure your Wikipedia entry provides those researching/checking up on you with the right information.