"This is all borrowed stuff. God kind of loans it to us, and somebody takes it afterward. Am I going to go to Heaven sitting on this couch?" Martha Camarillo
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Lisa Falcone is sitting at the head of a conference table, rapping to music by Swizz Beatz and waving her tanned arms above her head. She's meeting with the two employees of her fledgling company, Everest Entertainment. Just outside the room, her husband, Philip Falcone, is running his $9 billion hedge fund, Harbinger Capital, but that doesn't hold her back. She produced the song and sings along as it blasts from iPod speakers on the table: "Come on bitches, get your hands in the air, ugly bitches too, we don't care!"
Harbinger analysts walking by barely look up at Lisa, 41, who is striking in a low-cut leather dress and a huge diamond cross pendant. They know she's the boss's wife. Harbinger's young, blond British receptionist brings a tray with a mug of green tea for Lisa, who likes to point out that the space is as much hers as her husband's. "This is our office," she says. "Eighteen years and no prenup means family office." She quickly adds that Everest will soon move to a new location away from Harbinger, revealing a dilemma that is central to Falcone's ambition: how to leverage her husband's connections and resources while differentiating herself as an entrepreneur in her own right.
Philip, a former hockey-playing junk bond trader who founded Harbinger in 2001, made a fortune betting against subprime mortgages in 2007. His fund has since encountered rockier times, but that hasn't damped the Falcones' enthusiasm for lavish living. At the height of the financial crisis, when other billionaires were pulling back on ostentatious spending, the couple bought a $49 million townhouse that formerly belonged to Penthouse founder Bob Guccione and embarked on a series of high-profile philanthropic donations.
As eager as Falcone is to establish herself as a movie producer and patron of the arts, she relishes the role of an outsider. She comes from an underprivileged background and doesn't censor her behavior for anyone. By starting her own entertainment company, she has taken the traditional role of the Park Avenue spouse and turned it upside down, while also giving hope to independent filmmakers who have seen their opportunities dry up over the last few years. Falcone's venture has attracted Hollywood talent such as Annette Bening and Paul Giamatti, and Sony Pictures Classics and Fox Searchlight have agreed to distribute her first few movies. While she didn't have to go out and find investors to finance her projects like most independent producers, that doesn't mean she hasn't worked to get where she is. "Obviously, my husband's made the money, but we've been together 18 years, and the person behind the person isn't usually seen," she says. "So the money I'm using I've earned."
It was through the New York City charitable circuit that Falcone first made herself known to the world. In 2007 she appeared at the American Friends of Versailles tour in Paris, where tickets cost as much as $50,000 per couple. She was wearing a backless, white-and-purple gown with a matching hairpiece and arrived on the arm of a Filipino stylist named Zaldy Goco. Then, in 2009 she leaped—literally—into the public consciousness by grabbing the microphone in the middle of a speech by Joshua David, the co-founder of a charity that raises funds for New York's High Line park, and announcing a spontaneous $10 million donation. She later held the after-party for Everest's first production, Mother and Child, at the High Line, where she danced onstage with Kerry Washington and Alicia Keys. She also joined the board of trustees of the New York City Ballet. "She's something of an enigma," says New York Social Dairy editor David Patrick Columbia. "She looks out of place at all these things but she puts herself out there. She's a stranger in her own land."
Before they started the renovation of the Guccione mansion, expected to cost $10 million, the Falcones hosted an elaborate third birthday party there for their twin daughters, Carolina and Liliana. Lisa had muralists paint the walls with The Wizard of Oz scenes and sent out hand-calligraphed invitations, according to two guests. Little people wore uniforms monogrammed with her daughters' initials in green rhinestones. (The Falcones are living in the townhouse next door, which they also own, during the renovation.)
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