Melania isn’t the only prominent Trump administration spouse who was a Davos no-show.
Louise Linton was unable to join her husband Steven Mnuchin at the celebrity and mogul-filled gathering in in the Swiss Alps due to her acting commitments, the Treasury Secretary revealed Friday.
‘She was busy, she had to stay home working,’ Mnuchin told DailyMail.com shortly after President Donald Trump wrapped up his ‘America First’ address to the business tycoons and celebrities who flock here each year.
What kept Linton away from the schmoozing amid the snow was a Hollywood engagement that puts her close to another leading man, according to her spokeswoman, Jill Fritzo.
‘Louise is filming a romantic-comedy in LA. We have not announced the movie title or full casting yet,’ she said via email.
FROZEN OUT: Scottish actress Louise Linton, pictured in New York, was unable to make the trip to Davos, Switzerland to accompany Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
Fritzo laughed off the idea that Linton got bumped because of bad PR during a pair of other times she accompanied her husband – on a trip to Kentucky and a trip too see the latest U.S. currency.
‘HAAAAAA, no she wasn’t “kept away”…. That’s funny,’ Fritzo said.
Whether or not Linton would show was one of the nagging questions among those who come here for networking as well as the parties and gossip. After Mnuchin was pictured solo walking up to his first press conference, it seemed he came stag unless his spouse was simply laying low.
The Treasury Department did not respond to requests for information this week about whether Mnuchin was bringing his spouse or how the economic delegation he was heading would travel to Switzerland.
Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross ended up flying here in advance of the President, who arrived on Air Force One Thursday morning.
A White House spokesman on the trip, asked about Linton on Thursday, said he didn’t know if she was here. The State Department did not respond to a request for information in advance about Secretary Rex Tillerson’s travel, although he ended up hopping a plane from Geneva.
Mnuchin told DailyMail.com Linton had to stay home to work
Linton was filming a romantic comedy in L.A., according to her spokeswoman. Here Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Treasury secretary, center, and his wife walk through the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017
Linton’s appearances with her husband have drawn fascination and some scorn on social media. His attendance at Davos raised immediate questions about whether she would be joining him
Also missing out on Davos was first lady Melania Trump, who scrapped a plan to accompany her husband due to logistical problems, according to her office.
She flew solo this week from Washington to West Palm Beach. She hasn’t appeared with Trump in days, following a report that Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to a porn star who claimed in interviews to have had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006.
Linton’s time out of the limelight kept her away from event where Elton John and Kate Blanchett were given awards, where her husband moved financial markets down and then up with comments about the dollar, and titans of industry met with Trump as the eyes of the global media zoomed in Davos.
It’s the kind of must-see that many A-listers are desperate to take a peek at – like the total eclipse that landed Linton in the news.
Melania Trump, who hails from Slovenia, which shares the Alps with Switzerland, also did not accompany her husband, due to logistical issues according to her staff
Hillary Geary and Wilber Ross attend Wildlife Conservation Annual Safari Benefit at Central Park Zoo on May 18, 2005 in New York City. Geary did not accompany her billionaire husband, the Commerce secretary, to Davos
NOT PRESENT: First Lady Melania Trump visited Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C. before Christmas, did not join her husband
That event caused a headache for her her husband, after she tweeted out a made-for-Hollywood image of herself in front of a sleek government jet after a flight to Kentucky.
Linton then got in hot water after tweeting designer hashtags about her outfit, then got in a Twitter spat with a woman she called ‘adorably out of touch.’
The Scottish actress also drew mockery on Twitter when she joined her husband on a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to see the first currency bearing his signature being printed.
She posed wearing black leather gloves while Mnuchin held up a sheet of freshly printed dollar bills.
COOL CUSTOMER: Treasury secretary, center, arrives for a press briefing on day two of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018
Hilary Geary, the socialite wife of billionaire Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, also didn’t get to jump aboard the Davos express, which included a bevy of members of the president’s cabinet, from Trump’s Homeland Security secretary to his secretaries of Energy and Transportation. Each showed up for a panel on the trip.
Asked if his wife was able to join him, Ross responded to DailyMail.com with a simple ‘No’ as he made his way through the conference center, first ducking into a ‘salon’ and then heading down a corridor in another direction.
Geary, the society editor and art collector is a fixture on the Palm Beach social scene. She helped pick out the $12 million home she and Ross share in D.C.’s Kalorama neighborhood when they’re home.