Edinburgh actor Louise Linton becomes US film studio boss

A Scottish actor has become one of Hollywood's most influential women as the new head of a US film studio.

Louise Linton, is the new CEO of Dune Entertainment.

Louise Linton who has shared screen-time with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, is now the chief-executive of Dune Entertainment, the production and finance company behind blockbusters such as Avatar and Black Swan and founded by her fiancé Stephen Mnuchin.

Mr Mnuchin resigned as CEO of the company after being appointed as Donald Trump’s US Treasury Secretary in a ceremony at the White House attended by Ms Linton.

The former Fettes College student took to social media to announced her new occupation, posting on her official Facebook page, “As the new CEO of Dune Entertainment I’m very excited about Dunkirk which we co-finance with Warner Brothers.”

US Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin. Picture: Getty Images

Ms Linton, 35, who graduated from The Edinburgh Drama Academy, met her husband, Goldman Sachs financier turned movie producer Mr Mnuchin, at a conservation charity event in Los Angeles.

Last year the Edinburgh actor faced a backlash over claims in her memoirs that she almost died at the hands of African rebels while volunteering in Zambia in 1999.

Her self-published book, In Congo’s Shadow was described as “the inspiring memoir of an intrepid teenager who abandoned her privileged life in Scotland to travel to Zambia as a gap year student where she found herself inadvertently caught up in the fringe of Congolese War.”

Zambians reacted, declaring that the story was fiction, one claiming “the only thing missing is Tarzan and Mowgli.”

US Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin. Picture: Getty Images

Ms Linton later apologised for any offence caused by the memoir.

Mr Mnuchin created Dune Entertainment in 2006 and would go on to produce blockbusters such as Mad Max: Fury Road and Suicide Squad.

In January he was named as Treasury Secretary and said that he would distance himself from the film industry. He has vowed to divest his interest in 42 firms but Hollywood commentator Anita Busch of Deadline.com, said: “The appointment could raise eyebrows over a potential conflict of interest.”