Some people – myself included – are already wondering if we should compare Georgina Chapman to Camille Cosby. Camille Cosby is a vocal defender of her husband’s behavior, which as we know has included multiple instances of drugging, assaulting and raping women. Camille was actually front and center as Bill Cosby’s enabler, wife, defender and more. Georgina is not, at least she isn’t so far. It’s widely believed that the whole reason Georgina Chapman has a career as a designer – she co-designs Marchesa – is because of Harvey Weinstein’s money and connections. Women working on Weinstein’s films were often encouraged to wear Marchesa, no matter how horrendous the dresses. Weinstein produces Project Runway, and bam, Georgina appears as a guest judge. They have two young children together too. So, should we view Chapman as one of Harvey’s victims or as one of his enablers?
Harvey Weinstein’s troubles could cause a deep cut to his wife’s fashion business. With the revelation of a string of sexual-harassment allegations against the movie mogul, and the news that he is stepping down from his film company, insiders are predicting it could hurt his wife Georgina Chapman’s successful Marchesa line.
“He’s going to get ostracized in the [fashion] business — at least for a while — and Marchesa could suffer, too,” one fashion exec said. “Then I wonder if she’ll still back him up . . . if she’ll even stay with him.”
Chapman, 41, has certainly benefited from her 65-year-old husband’s power. Since the two met at a Manhattan party in 2004, the mogul, famed for aggressively promoting his films, has done for Chapman what he does best: He used his influence to get what he wanted.
“Georgina always had a hard time pushing herself. For Harvey, promotion’s in his blood,” a fashion insider said. “[He] wasn’t exactly subtle about asking Miramax’s female stars to wear Marchesa on the red carpet. And if the studio chief of your movie, and potential movies, asked you to wear a certain designer, wouldn’t you want to accommodate him?”
Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lopez, Halle Berry, Emma Watson, Renee Zellweger, Blake Lively and Kate Hudson all starred in projects produced by one of Weinstein’s companies, and all wore Marchesa on the red carpet. And after Weinstein bought the fashion label Halston in 2007, he hired influential stylist Rachel Zoe as a consultant and creative director. She, in turn, regularly put clients, such as Keira Knightley and Nicole Richie, in Marchesa gowns.
“Georgina would never have met so many celebrities without being Harvey’s significant other,” said a top New York film publicist. “She’s lovely — as are her gowns — but that’s true of several designers.”
Weinstein is also an executive producer of TV’s “Project Runway.” Chapman became a judge on the show in Season 12. Today, Chapman, with whom Weinstein has son, Dashiell, 4, and daughter, India, 7, is said to be worth $30 million.
Again, is she a victim or an enabler or something in between? I want to get away from this idea that the women in Harvey’s life – his wife, his employees, his coworkers – are somehow terrible just for their proximity to him, or equally or partially to blame. Harvey Weinstein was and is the monster (allegedly) and save all of your outrage for him. I’m saving my opinion on Chapman as a person until I see what she does next. If I was in her position, I would cut my losses – this is going to get worse before it gets better, and there are many fine divorce lawyers in New York who would love to take her call. Will that spell the end for Marchesa? Perhaps. But then again, would that be such a huge loss to anyone?
(And now I’m picturing Georgina transferring all of her money into offshore accounts and calling a London real estate agent as she quietly prepares for a prison break.)
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I had no idea they were married. Ive seen sites use photos of them together but I assumed they were just meeting on the red carpets a lot because his company produces Project Runway, and she is on All Stars.
I’m glad that wasn’t only me. I had no clue
Question: from comments on an earlier post –
everyone knows he’s a sexual predator – but not everyone knows about his rather public marriage to Georgina? Huh.
Little weird. It’s been covered here more of how anyone hoping to get on a big budget Weinstein film would be dressed in matches for red carpets. Blake Lively being 1. The red carpet turned into cheap ice skating costumes.
The predator I didn’t know.
Well, duh. No one would have ever bothered with her budget McQueen rags if it wasn’t for who she married and the power he had (which you could maybe access by wearing a few ugly dresses).
I don’t blame her for staying married to him though, if that is how he treats women then I doubt he treats his own wife that much better (for some reason, I thought of Big Little Lies) and this really isn’t on her, it’s 100 percent on him.
That’s like asking if anyone was wearing Marchesa because they actually liked the gowns.
Yeah it’s telling that wearing the gowns went hand in hand with a Weinstein movie.
The conversation I want to have about these arrangements is not about the actresses but about their “people” (managers, agents, publicist, etc.). I don’t know who was or wasn’t victimized but I want to know that (if this was an open secret) young women are sitting down with their people to figure out who the F**K decided the best way to move their careers forward was to place them at risk with this monster! (???) I recall being sick to my stomach when I saw Emma Watson (rich enough to never work again put craving respectability) out to dinner with Harvey. Or Zendaya at Harvey’s table at an event, wearing Marchesa, with no film lined up. Determine who advised you on this, who put you there and then FIRE them! I don’t care if your people believed he’d never lay a hand on you for x,y,z reason (he probably didn’t). They should be deeply disturbed that the people supposed to watch out for them put them there. Heads should roll.
You make a very good point. So many people have been complicit. It’s heartbreaking to imagine someone young being put in that position by someone who was aware of the risks.
They think it’s the cost of doing business. For a while there, Harvey could make a career (he wasn’t 100%) and they were making a trade. Perhaps they figured that it was worth it. Or that it wasn’t *that* bad.
From the rumors around them…enabler.
Sorry but i don’t get this fascination with pretending women did not know or enable this behavior actively for years. Its not just men here. And I think we are blinded by being such “good feminists” that we fail to hold people accountable.
Newsflash women can be awful people. Women can be victims. There are women that are victims and women who have seen, participated or knew about the casting couch. This is a fact. Lets stop sticking our heads in the sand here.
Of all the women, she is the one who profited directly from his aggressive behaviour. It is very unlikely that she wasn’t an enabler of some form. Just like his brother, and other members of the Weinstein Company.
It’s like trying to give Melania a pass for Dump. Not happening.
^^^What Nic919 stated.
She’s not the only one…she’s the only OBVIOUS one
^^^This
Amen. She married that in exchange for being successful in the fashion industry. It’s plain as day. While I will believe that your husband could be casually flirtatious or harrassive at the office without your knowledge, I just don’t believe that a guy is a dirtbag on this scale and level and the wife just doesn’t know and has never heard anything. Does she have access to the internet? He has had a reputation for being an a***h*** and an abuser to everyone who works for him since forever. Things have leaked on the internet. She’s another Camille, sorry, and she made a deal with the devil for success.
“He has had a reputation for being an asshole and an abuser to everyone…”. Maybe he’s an asshole and an abuser to her too! Not to mention he’s demonstrated enough legal clout to shut down the NYT ffs. But you imagine she can just waltz right out of this marriage easy peasy? With children involved?
Lots and lots and lots of people have made deals with this devil, knowingly and willingly. Poor choice clearly. But I still empathize with each and every one and entertain that she could be a victim too at this point. If she stands up and supports him, not under duress, I’ll eat my words.
Agreed. If Georgina wasn’t complicit, she was at least willfully ignorant. I imagine she made her deal with the devil to gain fame and cachet in the fashion industry, and just sort of assumed that other women were as well, but had to know that some were at least coerced, if not outright (and literally) backed into a corner. I mean, she is basically the Pnina Tournai of celebrity fashion as far as her natural talent goes, so she married a man who could make fame happen. Dude, if she could deal with that face on top of her, more power to her! I have no issue with that part of this, but I believe she knew the rest, and have no problems pointing fingers at her complicity, as she has gained enormously from her husband’s power. He’s the monster, for sure, but assuming that she was totally ignorant of what he was doing is a bit hard to believe.
Exactly. Plus shes clearly somewhat financially savvy – are we to believe that he spent almost $1 million paying off those 8 women he assaulted?? Not buying it.
Acknowledging the fact that the casting couch and different types of abuse exist in Hollywood does NOT require- or justify- people accusing any and every famous person with a vagina of being a secret prostitute or secret sex slave hiding her own or other people’s abuse for money, fame, oscars, or grammys. Harvey Weinsteins and others like him have clearly always existed. But attempts to degrade and destroy women and girls by marking them as manipulative whores- within the context of a society where women who are actual sex workers are already treated as subhuman- and punish women and girls for male behavior have also always existed. Both of these things are true at the same time in our patriarchal society and both problems play their own roles in rape culture. It’s not an either/or situation.
^ This!
Many of her gowns look like an explosion in the notions aisle at JoAnn Fabrics. All frippery and foofaraw.
I love your comparison! So true.
She is a beautiful woman. I will wait on my opinion of her until I see her reaction. It is hard to believe she didn’t have some idea of what was going on, but like we say victims don’t need to be perfect. He could have been charming and not disclosed his true colors until she was firmly attached. She could be the victim of economic abuse or physical abuse. Waiting to see what she does.
Same. I’ve thought she seemed likable when I’ve seen her on various shows. How she could sleep with him, though….talk about Beauty and the Beast.
Please forgive me this question: Does the woman in these pictures have a scar or is the design on her face lighting? Or makeup? She is a lovely looking woman, no question
It looks like really harsh, unblended contouring.
No she does have something which looks like a scar between her nose and upper lip. You can see it in other pictures.
Well her client list will be gone now, so yea…. My guess is will hear about their divorce pretty soon. She’ll want to disassociate from him.
I just can’t think of her as any better than Melania Trump. It’s crystal clear that they both married solely for money — people are arguing on the Harry/Meghan posts about whether or not she is with him only because of his ££ and title, which I think is debatable — but in this case, it is so blatantly obvious.
Georgina HAD to have been aware of the allegations, yet she married him, had children with him, allowed him to bankroll her professionally, and stayed with him (so far). I have zero respect for this woman, regardless of what she does next.
ETA: @Jessica: This does not mean I am in any way holding Georgina responsible for her husband’s actions. But we can judge her on her own behavior, and IMO she’s just another NYC golddigger; she happens to have her Marchesa gowns (and Marchesa wouldn’t even exist if Harvey hadn’t bankrolled it) be a part of this mess as it is alleged that actresses who worked for Harvey were “pressured” to wear them on the red carpet to gain exposure for the brand. She knew what he was doing and still allowed him to define basically every aspect of her life, because for her the perks were worth it. IMO
She was complicit in keeping the silence. There’s no way a wife doesn’t know that her husband is settling sexual harassment cases. She is more directly involved through Marchesa as well.
She is Melania and Ivanka all in one.
Not wearing Marchesa is the very least Hollywood can do to show they don’t support Weinstein so that’s what they’ll do.
Auf Weidersehen Georgina and Co-Designer.
If Marchesa disappeared it wouldn’t really be a great loss to fashion, the dresses are usually fugly.
You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas… she knew to some extent (at least by rumor or insinuation), but what she was getting out of it, was more important. I think they had some sort of arrangement that benefitted them both.
It’ll be nice not to see ugly Marchesa dresses on every red carpet 😀
Call Katie Holmes Lawyer Dad. He knows how play this game. Hard.
Yep, get those burner phones.
I’ve worked in this world for a long time; it was a very known piece of gossip that Harvey presented Georgina with an offer for marriage that she couldn’t resist—for personal and professional reasons.
In my eyes, their reunion looks a bit more like Donny the Diaper and Melania’s than Cosby and Camille. If you’ll notice, Georgina’s hardly ever with him. Georgina was always ambitious, hustling the ranks of the NY social elite (which hey, girl, cool, you do you, no judgement), and Harvey is a persistent prick (I’ve seen him in action, this is an understatement). I’ve had countless assigning editors over the years tell me (esp when I was a young reporter in my 20s) to never physically get near him, and if I was doing party coverage to never directly interview him because of the high probability of him doing something lewd.
This comment makes me think of gawker, which was supposed to be the real story journalists tell each other over drinks. Ah well, another internet time.
Considering her husband was the reason hee fugly fashion school failure designs were being gulped down by people before , yes. Very much Yes.
She knew and she didn’t care. She did not marry him for his winning personality or his warm demeanor. She saw a business opportunity and milked it no matter what others said and inspite of his reputation. She was complicit and stayed quiet because she never thought ppl would publicly speak out and she could go on using his starlets/victims as human dolls to wear her half assed creations. She knew, she just didn’t care
I think for her the arrangement is he can have affairs but maybe she didn’t know about all this? I highly doubt they spend time together so it’s possible she didn’t know how much has gone on. She’s British and maybe she didn’t know much about Harvey until he had her locked in? How do we know she’s not been on the receiving of his abuse, maybe he has her completely scared. She does have 2 children with him.
But by sticking with him, marchesa is gone. Many jobs destroyed. If she tells all and condemns Harvey, marchesa could rise and people would love to support.
That makes sense in theory but every single Marchesa gown featured on the red carpet has been trash. He was the only reason she got A-B listers wearing that garbage. If she condemns him, it can only be for her own conscience or she just doesn’t want to deal with him any more. SHE must know her designs are terrible. SHE MUST!
Nope. She knew. I know it is hard to believe, but she did. What is in her heart who really knows but she knew. It doesn’t mean it is her fault. Part of their strange dynamic is she is his Madonna perfection shiksa, and he is very generous with her.
Whether or not she should have gone public is one thing but she absolutely should have filed for divorce and let people connect the dots. If someone pays off his accuders on eight separate occasions and you stay married to him it tells me everything I need to know about you. She knew.
Thank you. And I have never liked or respected her because their business arrangement was so obvious.
This is complicated. To blame Cosby’s wife but not Weinstein’s brings in racial implications. Talk about intersectional. To even try and tackle this you need to keep your mind wide open. How responsible are rich white women? I mean, in light of this past election, we need to ask ourselves this. But then, you have to remember, college educated white women DID vote for HRC, it was white women/no degree, who voted for Trump. Still, the numbers on the college educated white women weren’t has high as they should have been.
If rich, POWERFUL white women like Georgina and Meryl knew, and didn’t do or say anything because they were profiting off of Weinstein, aren’t they part of the culture of toxic masculinity? Can toxic masculinity, much like patriarchy, much like Trump, even get where they are without the complicity of SOME women? Doesn’t this all need women collaborators to work? And if so, what is their responsibility?
Right on!
Why do people assume that just because these actresses worked with Harvey that they weren’t at some point abused by him as well and that’s why they’ve stayed silent? Because they’re also victims? Whether he sexually harassed them or forced them to do things professional that they didn’t want….that’s all abuse of power against these women. Just remember that when you all of you guys complain about them being “silent.”
I spent decades being in denial about the fact that women can be as bad as men, and often are. I get that it is nicer to believe that Chapman was/is an innocent hostage, but the facts don’t support this. Sadly, she knew. And she accumulated power and wealth by supporting Weinstein. You have to ignore reality to believe she’s a victim.
That is the part of feminism I find faulty at times.
Women can be horrible with no other reason than they are awful people. We can be just as nasty and sadistic and abusive as men can be and there is nothing behind it except lousy character.
Equality means realizing that some women make the decisions they do because they want to. I know a woman who similarly uses her power cause she can.
She knew who she was getting involved with. Harvey had had this reputation from the beginning, and not just being a pig but for being a cruel, mean, sadist. Harvey has always had a type: WASPy and preferably English. She married him for advancement. Everyone always has to pay the piper.
Whatever she may have known about him at the beginning, she most certainly would have known precisely who and what he was over the years of their marriage. To suggest otherwise is ludicrous and would have to assume a blind naivety on her part that is completely at odds with her hard-nosed, self-interested business decision to marry him. I have zero sympathy for her and the ‘dogs, fleas’ position she now finds herself in.
However, she is not responsible for who and what he is, no more than any other woman who has benefitted from their dealings with him.
My rage focus is on all those ‘boys club’ males who self-servingly either choose to see Weinstein as a fiery ‘character’ (H/wood loves a ‘character’), rather than the rage-monster and abuser he is, in order to justify their involvement with him or, far worse, knew him for exactly what he is and had no problem with it because of greed and self-interest.
No wonder so few prominent males have spoken out so far.
I’ve said before, I’m judging her. Marry a sleaze for a come up? Yeah, it happens. But good God, she made a rapist the father of her children. He’s a serial sexual predator, very unfaithful, emotionally abusive, a liar…I could go on and on. And she chose to procreate with him. I’m baffled. I can’t excuse it. She is the wife. She knows better than anyone what he’s like. I find it hard to believe he put on a fake persona for her 100% of the time during a decade of marriage.
She’s beautiful, successful and I’m sure a good businesswoman and mother. But no doubt, she must have major issues. When you bring kids into it, that’s a game changer. And it changes the way I look at her part in this for sure. Guilty. Get a lawyer, get a crisis PR manager, get a therapist and get out.
Or maybe she’s just as self-serving as he is? Countless women who marry for money and/or self-advancement have no problem exploiting the pros while coldly ignoring the cons.
I suspect the primary emotion she’s feeling at the moment is panic at the inevitable fallout for her business.
I agree her motivations were self serving. I still can’t wrap my head around her having kids with him. If she was feeling the tick tock of her biological clock, then she should have divorced him and moved on. I’d sooner go to a sperm bank than make Harvey Weinstein a dad again. *shudders* There’s just no excuse for that.
Sorry to labour the point but ‘self-serving’ includes having kids with an (at the time) seriously wealthy man to ensure the life/lifestyle she bought into would continue beyond the marriage and beyond any downturn in her business. Think about the alimony.
A canny back-up plan, more or less.
@Skylark – yep, that’s Gold Digger 101 right there. Have a kid as quickly as possible to secure the money. (Marla Maples, anyone?)
It is true. Some women aren’t good people and think the other women are just trashy sluts and get what they deserve. They think of them as equivalent to human Kleenex or as one unkind woman said spunk buckets or glory holes on pretty legs. They actually get some twisted joy at their spouse’s behavior as long as no one outs them. Their husband is just a cruel guy, and they like that about them because it means the person is powerful enough to be able to get away with it. Some have been confronted about their husbands, and the victims get a tongue lashing like a physical beating and threatened. Some even try sneaky things to ruin any potential woman who dares say anything and their ruthlessness is surprising. It can be that way.
I don’t really find it surprising that she procreated with him. Just because he’s a monster doesn’t mean his children are monsters. Normal women marry down and “settle” with men who aren’t particularly great just to have children. It happens everyday because of societal pressures for a woman to have children before she turns 40. For women who marry horrible men who are wealthy, there is even more reason to have children. It cements the wife’s place within the family (think the Royals and someone like Kate Middleton), and it boosts the amount of spousal and child support that will need to be paid in the event of a divorce.
If Ivanka and Melania are complicit then so is she and every woman who worked for him. They knew.
Ok, let’s assume she is silently complicit in his sexual assault and abuse of power. Does anyone believe GC actually slept with him or used IVF to conceive? Because he is just too gross. Inside and out.
from a 2007 NYT-article about Marchesa: “Giuseppe Cipriani and Steven Witkoff, partners in the Witkoff Group real estate company in Manhattan, are Marchesa’s high-powered investors. Weinstein, too, has contributed timely cash infusions, in amounts the company would not disclose.”
So Weinstein probably owns a stake in Marchesa
We’re never going to see a Marchesa dress on the red carpet again, that’s for sure. If an actress wears the dress, they will indeed be heavily questioned about it and we will see an Instagram notes pic of an apology for wearing one.
She would not have a career if not for him funding all that lace. Of course she knew and turned a blind eye.
She married him for his money, but mostly for his access–knowing it was the quickest (only?) way for her company to be a real success. Make no mistake, she’ll be out of there just as soon as it’s in her best interest. She’s just trying to figure out if that’s now or later…
I thought that Chapman came from money herself and this was a convenience to get those hideous dresses on a more public scale. Then they had children, so she loved him.
She is an enabler, no question about it. Camille Cosby’s behavior is disgusting, but I will say that the only (weak) excuse she has is that she comes from a generation where sexism and harassment were more readily accepted, and women were expected to stand by their husbands and turn a blind eye to infidelity without asking any questions. In addition, I’m pretty sure that Camille married Bill out of love when they first met. They were both young and it is believable that she truly loved Bill and did not enter into marriage with him just for money and connections.
Does anyone here believe that Georgina would have married Harvey had he not been so influential in Hollywood? They have a nearly 25 year age difference and he’s unattractive. She would not have looked at him twice had he not been Harvey Weinstein, movie mogul. She used him for his Hollywood connections to launch Marchesa, and would have been completely fine with her husband humping and harassing every woman in town as long as she could use him to make A-list actresses wear her hideous designs.
It makes me expect that Georgina will divorce Harvey in the near future. He is no longer any use to her or her business, and her love for him isn’t strong enough for her to want to stay. She will move on with her brand without him and marry a younger influential businessman or producer in Hollywood. That’s how these women who marry for money and power roll.
All I can say is I’ve met her many, many times and she’s absolutely lovely — warm, funny, genuine and a bit silly. Not sure what went on here but I feel terribly sad for the Georgina I met.
Wow, there’s someone here who met her! She was becoming like this mythical creature…a cypher. Is there anymore you can tell us? Did u meet Harvey? What was their dynamic like? What you said is exactly how I pictured her from project runway and interviews in YouTube.
I just can’t reconcile that woman with a vicious gold digging enabler. In some places I’ve seen more vitriol towards Georgina than Harvey. He deserves the worst condemnation. Like people have said on CB, is it possible she has been on the receiving end of his abuse and anger as well? Could she have been and still is fearful to leave him?
Wtf is this logic? She’s married to him so she’s in some way complicit? That’s a really sad and reductive position to take.
Have you read the background on their story? Or tye comments on this very article? Her husband’s methods of harassing and abusing those around him were an open secret, and we’re definitely well known by the time they met and married. It seems she turned a blind eye in order for her business to be successful. I don’t see how that can be construed as anything but complicit.
It’s probable that if that’s how he behaved to women he worked with, he was like that towards his spouse too. A professional tyrant is often a domestic tyrant too. It’s far more likely that she’s also his victim, not his enabler.
The knowledge about Harvey was wide known by the time they met. She comes from money so she didn’t need to marry him for his riches. Seems pretty obvious that they had a mutually beneficial agreement. I honestly don’t understand this victim narrative for his wife when all signs point to the very opposite.
She would have heard about incidents relating to her husband. That kind of harassment can’t be kept secret for too long. But it seems she turned a blind eye, married him and even decided to have two children with him.
Money is a number one motivator. I don’t feel sorry for her at all.
Of course her fashion business is going to collapse now her husband can no longer bully or intimidate his prey into wearing her ugly dresses.
And yes she’s complicit. She married, covered for and supported him for fame and money. Those are her values. She was probably happy when he was out creeping on other women because that meant he wasn’t creeping on her. That part is understandable given how repulsive he is.
What a world we live in where scum like Weinstein are awarded trophy wives.
I’m thinking like Vanessa. I know nothing about Chapman, but if HE committed the crimes, why go after the wife? I remember the story of the Austrian man who had his daughter chained in the cellar and had 7 children with her. I was outraged when the news outlets made the story, “How much did the wife know?” SHE wasn’t the criminal. Why not keep the focus on the monster, not the monster’s wife? I can’t even think of a case in which a wife did something that the husband did not participate in, and he becomes the focus of anger and contempt. Can someone explain this?
He’s repulsive – both inside and out. The ONLY reason women date/marry him is for the money and perks.
Her line became famous because Harvey told A-listers to wear it. The first one was Renee Zellweger back when she was huge in Hollywood and considered an A-lister.