Perhaps the most successful of those former Weinstein-sponsored It Girls is
Gwyneth Paltrow. As Olivia Armstrong
wrote for the Decider in 2015:
Paltrow was the Weinsteins’ It Girl back in 1995, right after
Se7en put her on the map and just before
The Pallbearer and
Emma — the latter earning her the top-billing spot two years later in Miramax’s first Best Picture-winner,
Shakespeare in Love, beating Steven Spielberg’s war epic,
Saving Private Ryan, which, to this day, is still a shock. Paltrow was The Weinsteins’ most promising money-maker, and if there’s anything Harvey Weinstein loves more than editing films to death, it’s money.
Paltrow is still publicly friendly with Weinstein, but —
as Jordan Sargent noted for Defamer in 2015 — “weird stuff” comes up when she talks about him. Like this quote:
When
Talk magazine launched, pal Gwyneth Paltrow ended up posing in S&M garb that didn't fit either her career arc or any of her personal needs. Paltrow says that "there were certain favors that he asked me to do that I felt were not exploitive but not necessarily as great for me as they were for him."
As Enlow details, Weinstein was behind heavy publicity pushes for
Mira Sorvino(Oscar for
Mighty Aphrodite in 1995, no longer a household name),
Jessica Alba(Weinstein gave her a shot at a prestige role with
Awake in 2005), and
Sienna Miller(Weinstein gave her
Factory Girl and touted both the actress and the film as the next big thing), among many others.