Who

Bartiromo is CNBC's scandal-tainted "Money Honey" and the host of Closing Bell.

Backstory

A native of Brooklyn—she attended an all-girls Catholic high school in Bay Ridge—Bartiromo worked as a coat check girl and helped keep the books at her family's Italian restaurant (Bay Ridge's Rex Manor) as a teen. She enrolled at C.W. Post, then transferred to NYU and got her first news experience with an internship at CNN's Showbiz Today. After graduating, Bartiromo took a job at CNN Business News and moved up the ladder to producer and assignment editor. Standing in front of the camera—not behind it—was the ultimate goal, but when she asked her boss Lou Dobbs for an onscreen role, she was turned down.

In 1993, Bartiromo left CNN for CNBC when then-chief Roger Ailes offered her a position at the upstart business network. Two years later, she started covering the stock market, eventually earning a spot hosting Marketwatch and reporting from the floor of the NYSE on Squawk Box. As the economy overheated in the late 1990s and everyone took up day trading, Bartiromo became a star, earning the nickname "Money Honey" for her sex appeal and general bodaciousness in an industry otherwise populated by old white dudes in suits. She's been with CNBC ever since.

Of note

Bartiromo's fame has receded in recent years and her plans to fashion herself into a mainstream TV brand à la Martha haven't exactly gone according to plan. It's not for lack of trying: Bartiromo had hopes to migrate from CNBC to NBC, and filmed a pilot for the network in 2006. The talk show, which followed an Oprah-like format (and was supposed to center around female empowerment) was never picked up. But Bartiromo still seems intent on branching out beyond business news. In January 2007, she filed papers to trademark the name "Money Honey" for products ranging from piggy banks and cookie jars to mouse pads, jigsaw puzzles, dishware, and backpacks. In the meantime, she continues to co-anchor Closing Bell (with Dylan Ratigan), host The Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo, and write for publications like Business Week and Reader's Digest. She published her first book at the tail-end of the dotcom boom in 2001.

Drama

Maria has gotten entangled in a handful of controversies over the past couple of years. After she was caught with Todd Thomson, the former head of Citigroup's wealth management unit, aboard one of the bank's company jets—the coy financial press avoided the word "affair," referring instead to a "private flight"—Thomson was sacked, and it was later revealed that he'd used $5 million from his marketing budget to finance a Sundance Channel program Bartiromo was hosting. Network brass, including NBC prez Jeff Zucker, stood by their girl, as did, apparently, Jonathan Steinberg—Mr. Maria Bartiromo—who remains with her to this day.

But that controversy was neither her first nor her last. In his book Trading with the Enemy, Nicholas Maier alleges that Jim Cramer (among others) profited by feeding Bartiromo sensitive info that she would then report on the air. (Maier didn't suggest Bartiromo as complicit; she was described as more of a dupe than anything else.) In May 2006, Bartiromo sent the markets into a tizzy when she reported on private, off-the-record comments made to her by Fed chief Ben Bernanke over dinner.

Grudge

Bartiromo is reportedly no fan of co-worker Erin Burnett, the CNBC personality who hosts Street Signs and co-anchors Squawk on the Street. The younger Burnett has been upstaging Bartiromo lately and has been dubbed "Maria 2.0" by the press.

Personal

Bartiromo is married to Jonathan Steinberg, the son of famed financier Saul Steinberg, whose empire crumbled in 2001 when his Reliance Group went bankrupt. They live with their Maltese, Ella Bella, in a five-level townhouse in the East 60s that they purchased for $6.5 million in 2007.

No joke

Bartiromo is the subject of a Ramones song, Maria Bartiromo, with lyrics like, "I watch you on TV every single day / Those eyes make everything OK."