I would imagine that People Magazine’s cover story this week is going to be more in-depth than just their first-released partial article about Georgina Chapman. I still can’t believe that People didn’t devote last week’s cover to Weinstein, but in all fairness, I guess People’s target audience was more wrapped up in Chip and Joanna Gaines leaving HGTV?? Seriously? So, People waited a week and did their reporting and created a cover with Weinstein and all of his most prominent victims. And then the story is about Georgina Chapman for some reason.
Over the course of their nearly ten-year marriage, movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and fashion designer Georgina Chapman appeared to be the ultimate power couple. “Their relationship started out with the understanding that if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours,” a source close to both tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story.
While Chapman, 41, was aware of her husband’s notorious temper, even apologizing “many times for his verbally rough behavior,” according to the source, she wasn’t aware of Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct. “She never would have stayed married if she’d known,” says the source. “She was never with Harvey when he behaved like this.” On Oct. 10, Chapman announced she was leaving Weinstein. In a statement to PEOPLE, she said, “My heart breaks for all the women who have suffered.” She has since met with divorce lawyers. “The past week has been a never-ending nightmare for Georgina,” says the source.
Surrounded now by relatives and close friends, Chapman is attempting to “focus all her energy on her two young children to try to protect them from everything that’s going on,” says another friend. She’s also trying to salvage Marchesa, which had to cancel a presentation of its latest collection and was recently dropped from a collaboration with Helzberg Diamonds.
Also in PEOPLE’s new cover story, some of Weinstein’s alleged victims talk about the courage it took to come forward — and multiple sources also detail the climate of fear and abuse around Weinstein, 65, who has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex as more than 40 women have stepped forward with accounts of sexual assault or harassment. Weinstein “has never done anything in his life that was consensual,” says one source who worked with him for years. “He makes people do things. He assaults people in every way.”
Describing the work environment, another source says, “It was human harassment at every level. Mass intimidation, constant threats — to men and women — about losing your job. It was mocking people about their physicality, about their age. One of his favorite lines was, ‘I’ll fire you on the cover of Variety.’ ”
While a producer source contends most people around him knew he was cheating on both his first wife, former model Eve Chilton (they split in 2004 and have three daughters) and Chapman, with whom he has a daughter, 7, and a son, 4, few at his company realized what allegedly was truly going on with the women he met.
“I don’t know why no one saw it, why we didn’t know. No one really wanted to think about what was happening behind closed doors,” says the source who worked with him for years. “We were naive. We thought his abuse stopped in the office.”
Weinstein “has never done anything in his life that was consensual…He makes people do things. He assaults people in every way.” And then “I don’t know why no one saw it, why we didn’t know. No one really wanted to think about what was happening behind closed doors… We thought his abuse stopped in the office.” Sorry, sources, you don’t get to say that at this point. With each passing day, we’re getting a clearer idea of just how much collusion and complicity was involved with the Weinstein rape/assault/abuse/harassment emporium. There were assistants helping Weinstein manipulate his victims. There were executives helping him cover up and pay out to victims. There were agents and managers sending their clients like lambs to the slaughter into those hotel rooms. Also: while I have some limited sympathy for Georgina Chapman, let’s not paint her as the biggest victim in this expansive story.
Cover courtesy of People, additional photo courtesy of WENN.
He didn’t grope and rape women in front of his wife? Well, case closed then. He must be innocent! 🙄
While I wholeheartedly agree that Chapman shouldn’t be held responsible for her husband’s behavior … All the eye-rolls for this truly poor PR tactic. All of ’em.
While she may’ve turned a blind eye (probably grateful he was leaving her alone physically when “in the throes” of stalking hi next victim), there is NO WAY she wouldn’t be aware of what was happening – not unless she is deaf, dumb, and blind. If even we plebs heard talk, how could she not have heard ANYTHING?? While I’m not saying his behavior is her fault, noooo, it is ALL on him, IMO she stayed (like Camille Cosby) for her gain: Marchessa being put out there on all of “Harvey’s Girls” (God, that expression makes me want to vomit).
I’m sure she saw his temper at home, and heard talk. No way she didn’t. This is TOTAL PR spin. And I don’t believe Marchessa will survive. I’ve read employees are scurrying to jump ship before it sinks.
I just feel sorry for the kids.
You’re probably right, but it is possible people like Harvey don’t show this at home. It’s not like she was on a movie set with him. Honestly it’s irrelevant about Georgina, Harvey did this and others in the industry tacitly or unknowingly helped him. We need to punish Harvey, and encourage people who before it gets to Harvey type abuse turn him in. Aside from victims feeling comfortable to know how and where to report, we need assistants and others to feel like they know what they should if they see something too. The culture, and not just in Hollywood needs to change.
Noway
But that’s just it. Georgina Chapman is the industry. She is the culture. I wouldn’t think twice about her had she just been his wife but she had power and agency of her own. The truth is there are other insiders alleging that Chapman used that power to build her brand knowing the personal cost to her husband’s victims. How does that make her different from Bob Weinstein? She doesn’t get a pass from me.
Even if we choose to believe that Georgina Chapman had no idea whatsoever that her husband was raping and pillaging his way through Hollywood – at the very least, she knew he was unfaithful, and she should have wondered about the power imbalance between him and the young actresses he was sleeping with, and she should have wondered if there was any sort of coercion. Because, let’s face it, there’s no one anywhere who looks at Harvey Weinstein and thinks to themself – gotta get me a piece of that hunka hunka burning love. Basically, she should have guessed.
I know of two friends who had long-term boyfriends who were awful cheaters and both were just completely blind to it. EVERYONE knew and people would intimate it to them all the time but they just had a wall up to the knowledge. It wasn’t like they knew and were in denial, they had no memory of all this stuff. One of them, her boyfriend used to sexually harass and grab/grope etc. her friends virtually in front of her all the time. He was a sexual pest. He did it to ALL of her friends. She was completely blind to it, it was the strangest thing. She didn’t want to know on such a deep level that she somehow managed to completely block it. I mean, it was a super unhealthy relationship in many ways. I remember one night I went out with her and he was calling her every two minutes. She didn’t want to see him that night and so she didn’t answer her phone. She had about 40 missed calls so she turned her phone off. Then he started calling me and various other people non-stop because he thought we might be with her. After they broke up we all asked her how she put up with it so long?? I mean, he was “face-raping” (a term for unwanted kissing attacks where I’m from) her friends metres from her, groping them, begging them for a quickie up against a wall, etc. (once he propositioned me for a full 30 minutes while she was 1.5 metres away – it was deeply uncomfortable). Her best friend said to her: how could you not have known! Once we were in a cab and he was pawing me and all over me in the back seat and you were in the front seat and I kept trying to meet your eyes in the mirror. You must have heard me saying: no, no, no, get your hands off me, etc.?? The friend had no idea. She didn’t remember any of it. She had completely blocked it even though it was completely blatant. She was so apologetic and felt terrible but she genuinely just didn’t recall anything like that happening even though it happened pretty much every weekend for years. I think she ended up getting some therapy about how this could possibly be.
Anywho, this is my long-winded way of saying, it may seem unbelievable but it is possible Georgina so deeply didn’t want to know that she blocked it. She could also be complicit, but the former is possible.
Just curious: Does anyone know how their relationship first began (Harvey and Georgina), and how it led to marriage? Did he bully, harass and assault her at the start? I wonder what his first wife is thinking and feeling about all this?
While it’s obvious so many people turned a blind eye to his despicable behaviour for decades because a) it suited them, b) they had earlier been victims and were still scared, c) they didn’t know what to do about it, or some other reason, HE is responsible for how he behaved. It’s all on him. I wish we could still tar and feather arseholes like HW.
They met at an industry party.
I don’t think that’s what they are saying. I think they’re saying she wasn’t with him most of the time so she didn’t know what he was doing. Nothing in that piece says she thinks he’s innocent because she didn’t see it. Whether that’s the truth is another matter and what people believe.
Smells like damage control.
Yup. Trying to save the brand
Her brand was dead without him. And now it’s not only dead…. The earth will be salted around the name. She’s just trying to save herself and I don’t buy it. I think she knew. At best knew and avoided knowing more. At worst knew the worst of it, but stayed. No sympathy for her. Only the children.
Florc, the Winter games is almost upon us. She still has time to use her skills in designing the costumes of the US figure skating team. She already has the template. She gets to have a career every 4 years.
Felicity Huffman confirmed what we all suspected. I think that was the last nail in the brand’s coffin.
The only half decent thing she could do at this point is to set up some fund or allocate some of her Marchessa money towards helping abuse victims.
At least some of the profit she made off of her husbands abused and bullied victims would go to a worthy cause.
I doubt she’d do , because that would mean accountability in some way.
Yup. Damage control.
Except Felicity Hauffman said that HW bullied her into wearing Marchessa. And I’m sure she wasn’t the only one.
This!!!!
do we really believe she didn’t know anything about that as well? Did’t she ask him why he was able to convince so many a listers to wear her fugly clothes?
Exactly. I don’t blame Georgina for any of Harvey’s sexual assaults, but how could she not know about the bullying of the actresses to wear her designs on the red carpet? From the beginning Marchesa was pushed as red carpet evening wear. They claimed to never advertise, there’s no way this intelligent woman didn’t know about or count on the advertising she was getting for free for her label through Harvey. That said the rest is all on Harvey.
He is responsible for rape and sexually assaulting women and his own actions. But Harvey didn’t become Harvey, the lech without help. He was a known predator from the 70s! No one knew? Lies.
I totally see what you’re saying, magnoliarose. I’m just really doing my best to keep the blame where it belongs and not lose sight of who the monster is. I do think it’s pretty crappy that GC is talking about Marchesa here, it strikes me as tone deaf and self serving. And this article seems to be her positioning herself as another victim. I have sympathy for his actual victims, I’m coming up with nothing for her.
The people I want most to know about, when it comes to this situation, are the people around him who knew what he was doing, and had the power to stop him. So that’s his brother, the board of TWC, and his friends who helped him bury stories about himself.
More evidence seems to be coming out about Lombardo being a procurer of victims for Harvey. That brings Matt Damon’s name back into this for me because he helped to get the 2004 NYT’s story quashed.
This hurts me more than I can ever say but the author of the quashed NYT piece has been very vocal about the fact that neither Damon nor Crowe knew what the expose was about and she didn’t tell them as she was still in the investigation stages. It isn’t a stretch to believe they thought they were just giving glowing praise about a man they knew they also couldn’t afford to piss off. Things have been sort of twisted around so that it seems Damon and Crowe went to bat to make Weinstein look innocent of the rape and harassment allegations but that wasn’t the case.
@Sophia
I agree with you that Harvey is the monster. He is the rapist and bully.
But now I think we need to figure out how to break the system that allows men like him to thrive and destroy women’s lives.
Let’s also not forget that that brand came out of nowhere. It just popped up one awards season with a few actresses wearing the brand. Prior to that, I never heard of Marchesa. So yes she does know how her brand came to be and the tactics involved (maybe not the sexual assault).
She also became really well known by appearing as a judge on Project Runway All-Stars (Weinstein produced) and her line was always mentioned in the introductions. She came across as perfectly pleasant on the show, but Weinstein’s reputation as a over the top bully and crazy person has been written about for years, so she knew who she was marrying. Gross.
Okay, she didn’t know he raped women. His sexual misconducts have nothing to do with her.
But let’s talk about Harvey’s other behavior and the fact that she was perfectly fine with him using his hostile temper, vile bullying to make women wear her gowns? Those women are going to remember.
why is it assumed she knew bullying was involved in actresses wearing her gowns?
Of course she knew. Do you really think all those actresses went through a number of meetings and fitting sessions before any red carpet without letting her perceive they were not happy or comfortable about the whole situation?
And, above all, didn’t she ask why all those alisters were so enthusiastically interested in her outfits after she landed one of the most powerful men in HW? How did she explain this phenomenon to herself? Coincidence? Talent? Luck?
Felicity Huffman pretty much had another gown picked out before she was forced to wear Marchesa. I’m sure she’s not the only one. Georgina knew.
What, you think actresses, particularly established ones like Huffman, would voluntarily choose the tacky D-list Marchesa over another label?
Either she’s delusional or she knew damn well that they wore Marchesa under pressure. And that’s all she cared about.
“Their relationship started out with the understanding that if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”
Well excuse me while I vomit at that visual. Also…started out with? That’s all it ever was. Sorry, no sympathy. She made a deal with the devil, you do that eventually you get burned. Also, if your business part…sorry…husband has to bully women to wear your clothes? Her fashion label isn’t worth saving.
Plus to bring children into this business transaction…sorry…marriage? Unconscionable.
Tend to agree.
“Plus to bring children into this business transaction…sorry…marriage? Unconscionable.”
Unless you believe in immaculate conception, I’m pretty sure he should bear responsibility for that as well.
Exactly kitten. Now there judgment on her having children. His first had three daughters with him. Maybe he was good as a dad? Maybe to his children he was the best dad? I don’t think it’s wrong that if Georgina wanted children she had them. We don’t know that she’s not a good mother and that Harvey treats his children amazing and they’ve felt nothing but love from them.
I’m not ready to give her a pass yet.
Yes, she might have been manipulated by Harvey. Or maybe she knew exactly who she married but didn’t care because of the perks.
I have a feeling she’s more worried about her fashion line and being associated with him now. I’m not sure how much she knew, clearly, she knew he wasn’t faithful. Did she know exactly what he was doing, who knows? Maybe she thought her husband while a cheating pig wasn’t a rapist. That’s possible.
The reports do say he had violent mood swings which I imagine she saw, and she probably stayed because it benefited her to do so. All those actresses wearing her clothing line benefited her, and I imagine no matter what Harvey made his actresses wear those dresses (Not implying they were all sleeping with him or being raped but just that he forced them to wear her line). That benefited her brand big time.
The way she so easily dumped him when it became clear how toxic his brand was made me think there wasn’t much love between the two.
If she saw those violent mood swings, their children also saw, or at the very least heard them.
The fact she keeps bringing up the fashion line rather than concentrate on the victims shows her priorities.
It’s a given that she will try to save her fashion line, but if i were her publicist, i’d advise to keep talking about the victims, and the shock + effect of the sudden divorce on the kids and on her and no mention of the fashion line. Too soon for that from Georgina especially when it’s being confirmed that HW was strong arming actresses into the dresses, and was a major backer.
I’d push the other Marchesa founder, Keren Craig, to become the front and spokesperson of the label for now.
She’s mentioned the victims in her statement. It makes no difference because people think it’s to save her own skin. She can’t win. Why shouldn’t she be worried about marchesa, her best friend is a co founder and there are hundreds of employees that could be left without a job. It’s not being selfish and shallow to worry about that. But people have decided she’s a monster as well.
Sid: I know she’s mentioned the victims. BUT in the next breath mentions her business or quotes are attributed to her or her handlers discussing her business.
In a similar fashion to HW’s initial statement starting with an apology then deflecting to bursaries, his mother and NRA.
Unintentionally, that shows their priorities and dilutes the initial apology/ sympathy to victims in their statements.
Don’t forget that when this scandal first broke, Harvey (for i believe it was him or his office) put out a statement saying she +children stood by him 100%. Then once he was fired and had no more power and all those Alisters started speaking out, is when she left him. And said 3 things (paraphrasing):
1. Sympathy for the victims
2. I’m leaving HW, please give us privacy
3. Trying to save my business (to be fair, this quote attributed to friends / handlers.
A narrative repeated in the article above.
The first 2 items should be the basis of her PR and no more ‘helpful friends / handlers’ discussing (nee leaking) the business as her priority. Only her co- founder Keren should be discussing the business right now.
It’s the only way for Georgina to distance herself from the Harvey stench. Play the sympathy card in terms of apology / greater sympathy to his victims + his children rather than discussing her own devastation, and let Keren take care of business by taking over the public duties, discussions about trying to save the business.
I’m not saying she can’t be worried about her business (and be very upset), but if she wants to save it, as we have been repeatedly assured via ‘friends’ that she does, then she needs to play this game differently.
Sid, she can worry about Marchesa, she can worry about that privately. When it comes to her public statements, LAK is right, it should center on sympathy for the victims and requests for privacy.
Georgina has her own self-absorption problems. She benefited from being the face of the brand, and he pushed and promoted her over her partner. How many people even know what she looks like?
Marchesa was built on the foundation of Harvey’s money and influence, and he considers it their business and her partner is the third wheel in the equation.
I cannot believe that she did not know anything. Wives/girlfriends always know, they just refuse to believe it.
I mean did she know her husband was a cheater, probably I agree it’s hard not to know. Especially because according to some accusers he was open about all the women he slept with. He apparently even bragged at parties. However, I disagree that she had to know he was a rapist. She could have convinced herself that it was all consensual and that her husband was just a pig.
They don’t always know. There are men who are skilled at covering their tracks, and gaslighting is a real thing that is used commonly by abusers. I think many wives and girlfriends SUSPECT, but thats a far cry from knowing or seeing the behavior.
I would be inclined to believe she didn’t know the whole truth if it weren’t for the fact that she was a Hollywood, fashion and NYC society insider. She wasn’t a Holmby Hills housewife.
Quite. She’s a hard-nosed business woman who saw an opportunity in the shape of Weinstein and grabbed it with both hands.
She knew, at the very least, that he was a raging bully, a verbal abuser, a harasser of staff. She knew that he ‘persuaded’ actresses into wearing her tacky gowns. And she was fine with that.
And the truth is, she would still be fine with him being all the above (and the rest) had this expose not happened.
A high-profile, high net worth couple – and she’s been helped along business-wise by him? I do believe she knew she slept with other women. That DOESN’T mean she knew about the harassment or non-consensual sex. It’s not like people would be telling her, is it?
This. I’m not sure what their arrangement was–maybe they had an open marriage–however an open relationship still mandates consent and is not somehow indicative of sexual assault.
Shut up, Georgina. You knew he was sleazy. So you don’t get to now say I didn’t know he was THAT sleazy. You knew enough. And the nerve to invoke the children! You made that monster their father. Now you’re concerned??
He was never a good man. He was never husband material. He was never father material. You saw behavior you felt the need to apologize for. And knowledge of that should have been enough for you to not get so intimately tangled up with him. Bye Felicia. Sit down. Shut up.
I totally completely agree. She got fleas from laying with a dog. I feel sorry for her children, I’m so sorry that they’ll suffer the aftereffects of having this scandal taint them and to learn that their dad is such a horrible human.
But Georgina knew, she KNEW, that Harvey was a POS. If I heard these rumors, then she did too. She married a man and had children with a man and benefited from a man who was a serial sexual predator. She knew.
If I were in her shoes I would help my employees as much as possible, leave California, and change the children’s last name to Chapman. The children deserve a chance at normality.
I am not convinced she knew he was a rapist.
I don’t know WHAT to make of her. Maybe she married him as a bit of a gold digger? She knew he would put her into circles that could help her business. That isn’t the most moral high ground to take, but it is not as bad as being complicit to repeated rapes.
She doesn’t know her dresses are hideous. They are HERS. She thinks they are great. Maybe she thinks actresses happily agreed to wear her designs because she married a powerful man in HW? Not that they were forced as they were, but that they did it to get in his good graces…that it was THEIR idea?
I truly don’t know if I believe the worst of her, or if I think she was a bit of a victim too. Clearly, the world is gross, so the worst case is probably accurate. But I can’t help but think that if he was as abusive as he was to all those actresses, who is to say that he didn’t tell her that if she left, he could ruin HER career, and keep her children from her? He had that kind of $ and power. Plenty of average american women making middle class $ , married to middle class earning husbands stay in bad marriages because they are either being outright abused and fear for their life if they leave…r just stay because they couldn’t afford to live on their own etc.
Perhaps she didn’t know he actually raped women. But I find it incredulous to think that she didn’t know he harassed women who were dependent on his word for their careers. SHe’s only been married to him for ten years. He’s been doing it for much longer than that. If we knew, she knew. If Felicity Huffman says he strong armed her into wearing Marchesa, she knew. If only that he came home and said, “Hey, honey! Guess who I told to wear one of your dresses?”
Nah, she knew. And now she’s trying to extricate herself from the fall out.
I’m saving any sympathy for the other half of Marchesa, whats her name.
Georgina didn’t make those bordello doily frocks all by her lonesome.
Imagine your business being tanked because your partner is married to a monster. Though she, like Georgina, must have known the real reason stars were wearing their gowns.
I’m saving mine for the Marchesa staff who are now without jobs.
Chapman knew Marchesa’s red carpet high-profile was largely down to her bullying husband’s influence and on that basis, I’ve no sympathy whatsoever for her current professional predicament.
Had she been motivated by genuine creativity rather than hard-nosed greed, she had everything at her disposal to build up a credible brand that was well regarded on its own merits – one that women would have chosen to wear rather than one into which so many of them were forced by her POS husband – then she’d now have a business worth saving and her staff would still have their jobs.
The fallout for her staff is entirely her fault.
To play devils advocate, Sandra bullock, Jane Fonda, Barbara Streisand, Kate Middleton amongst others have worn marchesa. They weren’t in Harvey’s movies. Did he bully them? I can’t see that. Also a lot of these people and women in the industry haven’t gone guns blazing on georgina. To me that says something.
I didn’t suggest every woman who wore Marchesa did so under duress so not sure what point you’re trying to make here? I’m talking specifically about those, like Huffman, who were not given a choice if they wanted to keep on the right side of him.
As for why no one has gone guns blazing on Chapman, why on earth would they? He’s the disgusting sexual predator, not her, and regardless of what she did and didn’t know and what she self-servingly turned a blind ‘business’ eye to, her dubious morality is entirely separate from her husband’s criminal deviancy.
Skylark
So why is the dubious morality of Damon, Clooney, Streep, Crowe etc prominently featured here since the story broke? Like it or not Georgina is under the microscope and not because of proximity. It’s also funny how every conversation about her is derailed by cries of don’t blame the victim or don’t blame her for Weinstein’s actions. 99% of commenters here have never come close to doing that. The questions and the incredulity are valid.
Of course the questions and the incredulity are valid but there’s a crucial difference between Chapman’s dubious morality and that of Clooney, Streep, Damon etc. The latter are and have been in positions of serious and influential power since the 90s, independent of Weinstein. He was not controlling their careers and they were under no obligation to him.
I’ve given my opinion on Chapman: I see her as complicit and self-serving but, because of her dependency on Weinstein, not anywhere near as complicit and self-serving as the Clooneys, Streeps and Damons of this world, who can’t use the power imbalance that kept his victims quiet as an excuse for looking the other way.
On and please don’t include me in your derailment theories. Thanks.
Hmm so much for the assholes using I have a daughter rhetoric tojustify how different they are from Harvey
4 daughters clearly did nothing to him.
I wonder if his daughters come out with being sexually harassed would he feel any remorse
As foe those who didn’t know, no one can make uou open your eyes if you willfully shut it which is what happened here.
It also works for Georgina
Anytime one of these fools use the ‘I have a daughter’ line the response should be, ‘So does Harvey Weinstein. So does Bill Cosby. So does Mel Gibson. So does Donald Trump.’
There’s no amount of money that would get me into bed with that fat, ugly bully.
I can’t imagine. It’s a form of prostitution for sure. At least sex workers are honest about the transaction.
She knew. I know the wives of some predators might not, but in this case it doesn’t make sense because there were potentially hundreds of victims over a span of decades. HW was too arrogant to be sneaky- he hid in plain sight.
This is why calling out the small behaviours is imporant. People like this are emboldened and will continue pushing if you allow them the small transgressions.
Chapman says she was aware of the verbal abuse, the ‘source’ inside says they thought the abuses stopped in the office. Ignoring for the time the likelihood that is all they knew, they knew about the minor things, and some of the major, and stepped around it. They broken stepped him.
This is how well meaning people contribute to these predators. It is uncomfortable, you will make a scene, but if you can – say something.
First of all, WHY would she marry this disgusting person? So he could help her business I guess. She HAD to know he was at the very least a philanderer. She KNEW he was an asshole to people. I want to feel sorry for her but I just can’t. She knew he was a monster. And she stayed with him anyway. She probably had some young hottie on the side.
Came here to say…Georgina did not date HW in a “bubble”. He would have had to have used some of those bullying tactics at the very beginning, before they negotiated the “deal”. Then she married him, giving him a cover and her a design line.
She. knew.
I don’t believe for a second that she married him for his charming personality and good looks. So, I’m left with the very glaring reality that she married him for his money and status. She played with fire, now she’s getting burned. I don’t really feel sorry for her. I knew her husband was a creep, why didn’t she? Skeptical doesn’t even start to describe my feelings towards her.
So many complicit people sending these ladies to him, helping him hurt people. ..mind boggling and shameful as hell.
She knew.
No sympathy for her. She has enough money for live a nice life. So go Georgina and disappear, other women dont have that luxury.
…like all her employees now out of a job.
I just can’t believe this. I know my husband. For better or worse, I know exactly what he would be capable of(not this!). If I heard rumblings about things then I’d know immediately if it seemed feasible. She put two and two together a long time ago.
Where are these “assistants” of his?! I’d love to hear them tell it.
As if any assistants weren’t hired with an NDA.
What is she has one?
This is how I see it.
Georgina Chapman isn’t leaving Harvey Weinstein because he’s a pervert ,but leaving him because We now know he’s a pervert.
I agree with you. My sympathy is with the women he assaulted and the children.
Agreed! If she stayed knowing he was a serial cheater, that’s still pathetic in my book. There is no way she didn’t know about the rumors of HW’s behavior; if everyone else in Hollywood knew and there were settlements PAID out, NDAs signed, how could this woman NOT know??? She is saving face b/c we all know now too…..I think way too many other people (other people in the Weinstein Company for example) were complicit in this cover-up and it is disgusting. As many have stated before me, BRAVO to the brave women who came forward to take down this bully and rapist! I only hope he finally gets what he deserves: A jail cell.
I agree also. She may have thought that he was too powerful to ever get accused of assault and rape, and she was right for a long time.
I swear there’s more hatred and blame towards her than Harvey here. Smh.
Most aren’t blaming her for Harvey’s behaviour, nor do they hate her. They are saying she knew enough to leave him, but didn’t because money was a decent exchange for bullying or worse. I wonder if HW is going to turn on the mother of his children?
How do we know this though?
How do we know that she didn’t find him charming?
By all accounts, Harvey showed his wife a different side than he showed the people he worked with.
And maybe she’s the type of woman who is drawn to men in positions of power and maybe it’s NOT just because she wants to further her career, maybe that is genuinely what she finds sexy.
It’s really not as unheard of as many people here seem to think.
And maybe, just maybe, she really did love him.
I agree that the optics are pretty terrible, but relationship dynamics are complex. *shrugs*
And I know people will come for me for giving her any benefit of the doubt but until I see proof that she knew of the assaults and turned a blind eye I feel compelled to reserve judgment. That doesn’t mean that I won’t change my mind as new details come out but for now, that’s where I stand.
How do you know that is the reason? Maybe she herself felt trapped and was at the receiving end of his vile behaviour and only now she felt safe to leave. She hasn’t looked like a happy person to me. And you should know it’s not always easy to leave a relationship. People are acting as if only she alone could’ve ended all this but didn’t, which is such a far fetched easy theory but life isn’t that way.
I can believe she never saw that side of him. From what I’ve read on this site, sociopaths are quite skilled at hiding aspects of themselves, changing facades based on who they are dealing with. Nobody to this day, would believe what my mother did to me. Everyone loved her and nobody knew her like I did.
Or like Sid says, maybe she was trapped and terrified in which case I’m literally jumping for joy that she got out of that situation. I cheer every time a woman makes it to safety.
Mostly, I was just telling Sid that I don’t think most here hate her, but there is a lot of disgust for her actions/inactions.
Personally I think it is the destruction of her marriage and family compliments of Harvey that is occupying her mind along with the thought of all her employees also losing their jobs. Although I know nothing about her, I want to think that she is just as horrified about what he did as we are.
@ Sid
Which is why I don’t get all the capes that come out when it’s Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck.
People are very good at deluding themselves, looking the other way, and denying that things are that bad. Especially when their livelihoods are on the line. Sometimes people quite simply choose not to care, because the alternative is ruination. Moral rectitude makes a poor meal, and many do not have the fortitude to stand up to what seems an insurmountable foe. If you want examples, look at the whole of human history.
I’m not saying it’s right, it isn’t, but I can easily believe that so many didn’t really know how bad things were. Denial is a powerful drug, plausible stories abounded, and if few people really talked to each other about it (especially in the pre-internet days), who would really know the scope Harvey’s crimes aside from Harvey himself? Who would even WANT to know? Everyone seems to be forgetting just how much power Harvey had; David and Goliath is a remarkable story for a reason.
Regarding whether those around him couldn’t be naive and had to know what’s going on, surely if the last 12 months has taught us anything, it’s “never underestimate the cognitive dissonance of the masses.”
Too true Jay!
I said up thread that I am not sure what to think about Georgina.
But I DO think it is possible that she was as much under his thumb as everyone else. Maybe not. But is is *possible*.
People keep saying “I knew, why didn’t she?” We all “knew” rumours. We all “knew” that Gretchen Mol was a victim of his…yet, turns out while he had MANY victims, Mol was NOT one of them. Maybe Georgina doesn’t spend any time on celebrity gossip sites, and sure enough…no one was going to call her up to tell her. So while it seems hard to imagine her not assuming her husband was unfaithful — she very well may NOT have known he was actually a rapist. And while the right thing to do if your husband cheats is usually to leave…not everyone does for whatever reasons. Again, maybe she knew a lot , but I just don’t think it is out of the question that she didn’t know the scope of his lechery.
PR, as no one is saying he groped/assaulted women with her consent. Side eye, certainly but literally no one is accusing her of aiding and abetting, or pimping for him.
However, her line *is* made off of the back of a slimy predator intimidating and ultimately assaulting actresses, whether she was aware or not, whether she likes it or not. Why try to keep that mess and what it stands for then with this limp and unnecessary salvage attempt when common sense would tell you that anyone who believes she is an innocent party might want to support her but the legacy of that particular brand is a deal breaker.
Let it burn and start another one, if anyone still supports her they can support her starting fresh.
Fail to see what the point of using People for PR was, it looks unnecessarily defensive and thereby shady af.
Funny that. Most of the western world’s population “weren’t there” when he behaved rapey and yet we all knew about it! What’s your next wild damage-limitation claim Georgina? You weren’t actually married to him at all, it was just a rumour?
I think she was willfully ignorant. There is no way she had no clue what he was doing but she preferred not to think about it, IMO. She married him for money and status, I don’t blame her for his behavior but I don’t feel particularly sorry for her either.
I feel sorry for his daughters, particularly Lilly, who had to deal with her father’s rage last week. I can’t imagine how horrified and humiliated she must feel.
I do not have sympathy for Georgina except perhaps a tiny sliver but she is not telling the truth in this thinly veiled attempt to save her
toxic brand. It is absolutely fitting that Marchesa go down in flames
since it caused nothing but grief for his victims and it was built on
his vile bullying and victimization of actresses. Who would want to be
associated with it? She married him for his money and contacts so she
could be a fashion player even though she had no talent and didn’t
deserve it. It is unconscionable to have a successful business because
your husband is such a horrible human being that people fear saying No to him.
Knowing all we know now consider the fact that she was a
struggling actress/model and most of her tiny parts came AFTER she met Harvey. She had bit parts in Bride and Prejudice, Factory Girl,
Derailed, The Nanny Diaries, Grindhouse and Awake all Weinstein projects released from 2004 to 2007. Understand that movies aren’t released until well over a year after shooting ends and some times even 2 years. Remember the story Aishwarya’s manager told about Harvey? The movie was released in 2004.
Putting together everything that has even been said publicly how in the world would this woman not know he was a predator? She wasn’t his public girlfriend and he didn’t divorce his first wife until 2004.
It was common knowledge they lied about the dates and how their “romance” began and he began funding her projects.
She didn’t always look this polished and glamorous, it was like she had acomplete revamp from struggling budget actress/”model” to high fashion dripping with money wife of a mogul. In fact she sometimes looked like a suburban soccermom all gussied up for the company holiday party.
When this broke I figured she may be able to work this to her advantage but since it went on and on I realized her truth would be revealed against her will. I am sure I seemed insensitive on these threads but I won’t pretend and say what seemed more correct to say in the moment knowing the backstory. But at the same time I wasn’t going to say anything more because I knew I would get attacked for the perception I was participating in misogynistic victim blaming.
With her eyes WIDE OPEN she married this man and was complicit. I don’t give women a pass when they participate in revolting behavior for their own gain and I refuse to call a woman a victim in the name of misguided feminism either.
Tell us more inside info if you know about her. I don’t know her or am privy to her life so it would be interesting to see some perspective on someone who knows. I’m only going by what is available to everyone and the people who have known and worked with her. My impression is that she did these roles due to the modelling gigs she used to do and I thought she was modelling before she met Harvey. No doubt people here will be making jibes about her reasons for modelling being unsavoury. But if I was offered a lot money for brief modelling shoots and extra appearances I would take it. I don’t think that is a sin.
Also for me the only revolting behaviour is Harvey’s. Until it is exposed that Georgina procured women for Harvey to abuse and treated people as badly as he did and laughed and encouraged bullying and enjoyed it, then i won’t take part in making her the villain.
Her ‘modelling’ career has been exaggerated to make it seem like she had regular gigs when her official biog lists just 2 commercials as the sum total of her ‘modelling’ career and she refers to herself as a costume designer after graduating from art school in 2001 at the age of 25.
I’m not going to speculate on what type of modelling she may or may not have done, but the idea that she was a model seems to have popped up in recent reporting on her when in the past she’s always been described as a former actress who never really made it, moved sideways into costume design and eventually hit the jackpot with Marchesa.
As for her relationship with Harvey, the official story is that they met at a party in 2004 and married in 2007. I side eye the official story of when they met given Harvey only divorced his wife in 2004 and Georgina was already appearing in movies slated for release in 2004.
Marchesa is tainted because it was launched (officially) in the same year she met (officially) Harvey AFTER their relationship had began (officially). Harvey likes to tell the cute story of help he gave it by making sure Renee Zellweger wore it at a premiere in the winter of 2004.
Simultaneously, as Magnoliarose explains, Georgina took lots of small parts in various Weinstein productions between destined for release between 2004 – 2007. The director of DERAILED (starring Jen Aniston and Clive Owen), Mikael Hafstom, has come out to say that he was ordered to put her in his film as well as publicly thanking Georgina during the premiere as if her part had been as important as the other actors.
Once she married HW in 2007, she gave up acting and concentrated on the label.
@ LAK
Exactly. Everything.
@sid I try to come here and gossip and have fun because I love the commenters here, the bloggers and the atmosphere. There are many lovely people here, and they all keep me company in between daily life. I sometimes share here like anyone else, but I try to keep it to what the subjects are here and offer opinions or things I have heard only if it seems essential to the post. My life has been lived around the topics we discuss here.
I wouldn’t diss anyone for being a model. Lol, I just have no patience when it is used as a cover to blanket over whatever else the person was doing.
One thing I will say though and you notice Kaiser breaks down statements because there is sometimes more in what isn’t said than what is. Statements are written after being edited and agonized over to set the tone and push the narrative they want. The fact that in her remarks she has not sympathized with the victims much speaks volumes about her.
Magnoliarose
Excellent info. That is all 🙂
At Lak did georgina make the director do that or did Harvey? Maybe she felt she had to to go with with whatever he said, did and wanted, I doubt she was a equal player in that relationship. Everybody has said he is a bully and controlled everything. I doubt he treated georgina differently. I haven’t heard of stories like that of her otherwise. The people who have met her that have said on CB is that she’s meek.
As for the doing movie parts, Sorry to say but if I had access and knew people that could get me in movies with Jennifer Aniston (ill get criticised for this as she is not popular on cb), aishwarya rai and Scarlett Johansen, I would take it. I don’t think it’s that serious or shady. This is just my opinion and perspective though.
Sid: She may be meek in public or even genuinely, that isn’t mutually exclusive from her ability to make and work her connections.
We know that HW bullied people into giving her parts and wearing her clothing, whilst she ‘meekly’ let it all happen because he is so controlling.
Therefore it’s not in the realms of impossibility that she knew what was going on here, but kept silent because there was a benefit for her, in roles, in a fashion empire, even if she herself was bullied in return. It’s the faustian pact she made.
The thing is movies are financed, cast, filmed and edited several years before they’re released. If Chapman and Weinstein began dating in 2004 and he was divorced in 2004 what happened in the year or so prior to land Chapman in a film and see the uber explosion of her clothing line? I don’t lime the optics.
Sorry, Mag, just wanted to say my comment wasn’t in reply/response to you. I had the page loaded and didn’t refresh.
Georginas PR people should be fired. She should hire Liberty Ross team. Even though it is probably hard for her to stay quiet with all this swirling around, it is best that she stay out of the spotlight and tend to herself and kids. Let Harvey get dealt with accordingly and just go dark.
Exactly. Liberty Ross handled this like a boss.
Liberty gave a clinic and a blueprint. She was never desperate because she was actually a fashion model and has true style and experience. Liberty was a steadily working model who worked with the top photographers and people, but since she didn’t go the Victoria Secret-Swimsuit route, she would be known mainly to fashion followers.
Liberty is just boss like LAK said.
Isn’t what Georgina did just a long term plan for what he’d been doing to other women?
In exchange for silence and pain, he gave her opportunity.
I’ll save my shaming for his procurers and the Dog, himself.
Georgina is no victim. She knew. It only blew up so publicly that she’s left him.
My feelings about her are borderline. I am so conflicted. First, I could blame everyone, including Chapman, who MUST have heard rumors over the years. But then recently, an actress scolded the public for believing rumors about her and Weinstein. So when are people supposed to believe rumors, and when are they not?
And my view is that the public keeps criticizing the wrong people. Actors and assistants all relied on Weinstein for their livelihoods. If the actresses who were victimized did not want to come forward and be named, how could other actors or HW’s assistants do so? The outrage needs to be focused on the money behind the scenes, on the people who actually held power and control over HW. THEY are the ones who could have done something about him.
Which leads me back to Chapman. I believe spouses hold a lot of influence over each other – at least in Hollywood, where reputation means a lot. So maybe I see Chapman as having more influence over HW than his assistant did. But how much? Certainly less than the producers and financiers. So back to my first point, I really don’t know I feel about her, mostly because I don’t know about their relationship, whether she held any sway over him, whether she (then or now) controls some of his money, etc. But I suspect not.
I’m afraid I sit on the side that believes she knew, ergo was complicit in his continued harassment and assault of women and raging bullying with everyone else. She knew where she wanted to go with her business and how to go about getting there – become Weinstein’s girlfriend, then wife and mother of his children. Someone with that type of sociopathic ego does not change his spots once he gets home to his wife and children. He’s the type that works 24/7, often from home, so I can imagine she was privy to his tantrums, screaming fits and abusive management style. And in the Hollywood power world she played in she would have heard all but the worst allegations. In my mind she wasn’t the hapless victim of a closet pervert, she was the willing arm candy who sold herself to the highest bidder for her own enrichment. The only ones I feel sorry for are her children, they didn’t deserve to be born into this sick family.
My total sympathy is with people who have been victims of Harvey’s, their friends, children, families and of all of those actresses whose dreams were murdered by him and who will continue to suffer because of him. Some actresses left Hollywood because of him, and he broke women so that they will never be whole again.
Magnoliarose, I come here for the same reasons you do like you said. However I must say what comes across in what you don’t say is pure contempt for georgina rather than Harvey. Every time georgina is mentioned you are always there ( I’m the same because I like to provide a different perspective).
Again you keep talking in riddles instead of getting to the point. Tell us all about her if you have inside info. Tell it to the media so they don’t make her a victim. Stop giving these little hints. They way you talk about is like she’s the biggest villain in this whole thing. If I find concrete evidence of her evil behaviour like I said before then of course I will change my mind on her as will others, but she can’t be condemned without proof. So she’s either a great actress going by PRALLSTARS and interviews and she’s fooled a lot of people in the industry and those who have worked for her, or she is so powerful and scary she’s bullied everyone into saying nice things about her. Which is it? I’d rather believe people who know her and random speculation with hints of I know who she really is. What’s stopping you from revealing all about her?
What was she hiding beneath the veil of modelling? Was it worse than rape? And breaking down statements, she’s damned if she does she’s damned if she doesn’t. I’m not seeing this hidden secret in her statement. She expressed sympathy (regardless whether people think it’s genuine ) if she didn’t mention the women she would’ve been criticised, if she expressed sympathy in a way that’s acceptable to you then she would’ve been accused of making it about herself.
She knew. But no matter how powerful she is in the industry, strong women are susceptible to manipulative, gaslighting, abusive men. I have no doubt he was controlling of her. Even if she went in with eyes wide open and dollar signs in her heart, there is no way anyone can convince me that he wasn’t a monster to her.
I watched a video of someone observing his body language and it’s very eye opening. I channel is political and possibly left leaning (I didn’t watch the other videos but their titles triggered me) regardless, the video done on Weinstein highlights that his ‘control’ is innate, not just something he turns on and off.
The story is about Georgina b/c girlfriend is trying to save Marchesa, period, the end.
She made her deal with the devil and now she’s paying for it.
She only married him to fund her clothing line and she knew everything. She willfully looked the other way to further her own career.
She didn’t care what he did as long as he continued to financially support Marchesa.
Limited sympathy? More like zero sympathy.
Marchesa is dead. No one wants to be associated with that nast. Sorry GC but get as much $$$ as you can and flee with your children and don’t look back. Anything associated with the Weinstein name is radioactive.
Perhaps she didn’t know the full extent of what was going on – ok – but, if I’m to sympathize with her, I’ll need one good, believable reason why she was with this abusive monster in the first place.
Why is it so hard to believe that she too is also a victim? She says she was aware of his “notorious temper”. Can you not imagine how he could have been to her behind closed doors? So many people feel bad for abused women who stay in relationships with men that abuse them and their children, men who are all around assholes, but here, because she is pretty and rich, nope, no such sympathy. She is no more “complicit” than Rose McGowan who was paid to shut up and everyone is rallying behind her. Keep your focus on the true monster and the one who actually did the crimes. At this point you are guilty for watching a Weinstein movie for how far reaching the finger pointing has become.
We’ll said Nancy but it will not be accepted here.