Who

The arm candy of film producer Harvey Weinstein, ex-model Georgina Chapman is also one-half of eveningwear label Marchesa and a small-time movie actress.

Backstory

The daughter of a coffee magnate, Chapman grew up in the leafy London suburb of Richmond and studied costume design at the Wimbledon School of Art and then fashion at Chelsea College of Art and Design. After dabbling for a while in acting and modeling, in 2004 she hooked up with a Chelsea classmate, Keren Craig, to form the Marchesa label, which they named after Milanese style icon Marchesa Luisa Casati. With Jimmy Choo president Tamara Mellon advising the designers, and the financial backing of restaurateur Giuseppe Cipriani, real estate entrepreneur Steven Witkoff and Chapman's now-husband Harvey Weinstein, the Marchesa line of ultra-luxe dresses—which retail for between $3000 and $10,000—quickly grew into a red-carpet staple. In 2006, Chapman and Craig decided to branch out with a simpler diffusion line, Notte Marchesa, the same year the label was named one of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund's top ten finalists.

Of note

Because the notoriously pushy Weinstein is her husband and backer, Chapman's quick rise to the top has been controversial, to say the least. The movie mogul has pressured the actresses in his movies to wear Marchesa on the red carpet, it's claimed—a charge he's denied. (Although a number of women in Harvey's extended circle, including Cate Blanchett, Renee Zellweger, Sienna Miller, Anne Hathaway, and Jennifer Lopez, have all walked the red carpet in Marchesa gowns.) It also emerged that Weinstein had attended a meeting with Anna Wintour and promised to help Vogue land covers with his actresses if she provided the fledgling label with exposure in the mag.

Chapman's relationship with Weinstein has helped her acting career, too. Before meeting Weinstein, her most significant role had been in a Head and Shoulders commercial. The blue-eyed, raven-haired Brit has since had bit parts in Weinstein movies like Derailed, Factory Girl and The Nanny Diaries, in which she was credited as "TriBeCa Fashionista."

Personal

Chapman and Weinstein tied the knot in December 2007 at Weinstein's Connecticut estate; the many guests included Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Cameron Diaz, Renée Zellweger, Anna Wintour, Rupert Murdoch, Ron Perelman, Quentin Tarantino, Graydon Carter, and Karolina Kurkova. The couple divides their time a townhouse in the West Village and the manse on Beachside Avenue in Westport, just down the road from Don Imus.