A SCOTS actress who offended an entire African country is on the verge of getting a foot inside Donald Trump’s White House.
Louise Linton, who faced global criticism this year after publication of her gap year memoirs from Zambia, is engaged to ex-Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin.
Mnuchin is being heavily tipped by the American media to become Trump’s Treasury Secretary after serving as the finance chair of his presidential campaign.
And as the wife of the US’s equivalent of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mrs Louise Mnuchin would have regular social access to President Trump and his team.
Linton, who was educated at top Edinburgh private schools St George’s and Fettes College, became engaged to Mnuchin earlier this year.
According to the American financial press, Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs Group partner, “has been recommended by Donald Trump’s transition team to serve as Treasury secretary”.
Reports say the choice is awaiting the president-elect’s final decision.
“Mnuchin, the campaign’s national finance chairman, has been considered the leading candidate for the job,” said one report.
“Trump has displayed a pattern of loyalty to his closest campaign allies in early administration selections, and Mnuchin, 53, had signed on at a time when many from Wall Street stayed away.”
Linton made her big break in acting when Robert Redford cast her in Lions for Lambs, starring Redford, Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep, in 2007.
But her reputation was severely dented by the publication of her gap year memoir, In Congo’s Shadow, a story of “darkest Africa”.
The book contains a passage in which “armed rebels descended” on her village – entering the country from neighbouring Congo.
According to her book Linton was forced to hide from the rebels for fear of being murdered or raped.
But Zambians and UK readers alike took to social media to claim there are inaccuracies in her story – accusing her of having a “white saviour complex”.
Others claimed that there were no such raids in the areas at the time with one critic saying his 60-year-old step-mother – who has lived in the country since the age of 18 – has “never heard” of any such rebels.
The 290 page book includes a passage from Linton where she writes: “As the night ticked interminably by, I tried not to think what the rebels would do to the ‘skinny white muzungu with long angel hair’ if they found me.
“Clenching my jaw to stop my teeth chattering, I squeezed my eyes shut and reminded myself how I’d come to be a central character in this horror story.”
Following the backlash, Linton closed down many of her social media accounts but later took to Twitter to apologise for causing offence.
She wrote: “I am genuinely dismayed and very sorry to see that I have offended people as this was the very opposite of my intent.
“I wrote with the hope of conveying my deep humility, respect and appreciation for the people of Zambia as an 18yr old in 1999.”
As well as starring in Lions for Lambs, she has also appeared in movies such as Cabin Fever, Rules Don’t Apply and hit TV series CSI:NY.
When they tie the knot, Linton will become Mnuchin’s third wife.
He divorced his second wife, Heather deForest Crosby, in 2014.
