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Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe

Michelle Williams could end up playing Marilyn Monroe. Production Weekly has confirmed that she’s in talks to star as the iconic blonde, bombshell in the Simon Curtis film My Week with Marilyn, which starts shooting in June.

At first glance, Williams doesn’t exactly look the part. That’s particularly important with someone like Marilyn, who’s appearance is so iconic and whom playing will usually mean spending time in a wide variety of revealing outfits. But Williams’ is a great actress, one with an ability to completely transform herself.

I never thought Gretchen Mol would be able to pull of Bettie Page, she looks nothing like the famed pin-up, but if you’ve seen The Notorious Bettie Page you know that she pulls off not only her personality but the heavily photographed centerfold’s physical appearance as well. Williams seems capable of pulling off a similar makeover for Marilyn.

At one point Scarlett Johansson was rumored to be up for the part. While she might be a closer match for Marilyn physically, Williams is the better actress. Have you seen Wendy and Lucy? Get to Netflixing.

The movie is based on the diary of someone named Colin Clark, an employee of Laurence Olivier who was put in charge of keeping an eye on Marilyn while in London during 1957.

Via cinemablend.com

MARILYN MONROE HOME MOVIE SHOWING THE STAR SMOKING POT

Courtesy of NY DAILY NEWS

Top news sources including ABC and NBC are stating that there is yet another never-before-seen vintage reel out there of Marilyn Monroe. The first “home movie” was supposedly of  Marilyn giving oral sex when she was a young starlet. The owner of the film, Keya Morgan, said that he had bought the film from someone who remained to be annonymous.  The story was later found to be a hoax.

Now, Mr. Morgan is claiming to have purchased yet another “home video” of Marilyn, this time showing her smoking marijuana casually with a bunch of people. Of course the original owner wants to remain annonymous.  Anyone else see a pattern here?  The owner of the film is claiming to be in her 60’s and that she “rolled the doobie” herself and has kept the film in her attic all these years.

The difference this time around is that the film is real. Click here to view a clip (after the clip of Bill Clinton).

From what I’ve read of Keya Morgan, he is a man making a film about Marilyn that no one seems to care about investing in.  I’ve also read that he is very “fame-hungry” – which proves the motive behind the disgusting oral sex film hoax. The new film in question will be up for auction on ebay by Mr. Morgan.  Sounds money-hungry to me.

PHOTO SEARCH

Looking for this image and more from New York.

I am currently searching for high-quality images of Marilyn Monroe in a New York subway train and waiting at the Grand Central subway platform. If you have any or know where to find these images, please e-mail me at: info@ms-monroe.com

Thanks 🙂

NEW COLLECTION ITEM!

My prize: Authentic print of Marilyn Monroe in 1949 by Andre de Dienes

Back in June, I joined ThisIsMarilyn.com, which is an online Marilyn Monroe community similar to Facebook. Together with One West Publishing and Marilyn Remembered Fan Club, ThisIsMarilyn held a contest giving away $100,000 worth of vintage Marilyn Monroe prints!  All you had to do was become an active member and upload photos, videos, write blogs and interact with other fans. The more active you were, the more points you would receive. The contest lasted from June 1st (the launch of the website and Marilyn’s birthday) and ended on August 4th (Marilyn’s death anniversary).

I came in 13th place and received a 16×20 inch silver gelatin print of Marilyn Monroe photographed by Andre de Dienes in 1949! It’s a gorgeous print and I can’t wait to have it framed for my new home. I would like to thank Alex Brunning of ThisIsMarilyn, Mr. Chuck Murphy of One West Publishing and Mrs. de Dienes for such an amazing prize!

CELEBRATE THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ‘SOME LIKE IT HOT’

Marilyn on-st of Some Like It Hot 1958

LATIMES.COM:
“It’s the story of my life. I always get the fuzzy end of the lollipop.”

If you can pin down that quote immediately, and it puts a smile on your face, it’s time to book a trip to celebrate the 50th anniversary year of “Some Like It Hot,” the 1959 film directed by Billy Wilder. Featuring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, the film also starred the beautiful and historic Hotel del Coronado,  where its external scenes were shot.

The San Diego County hotel celebrates this legendary comedy with a special package this September, with Curtis (who played Joe, as well as “Josephine” and “Junior”) among the special guests slated to attend.

Package: The “Mingle with the Stars! Some Like it Hot Weekend Celebration Package” includes your accommodations as well as the following: a DVD of “Some Like It Hot,” a copy of the book “Some Like It Hot: The Official 50th Anniversary Companion,” and tickets for two for a few weekend events.

On Friday evening, you’ll attend a reception with a chef’s tasting menu and a special cabaret performance with Broadway performer Nancy Anderson. Plus, you’ll get to meet the original band members in the film and a Marilyn Monroe look-alike.

Saturday evening kicks off with cocktails and appetizers during a reception that will include the film’s producer Walter Mirisch. A buffet dinner comes later, along with a presentation by Tony Curtis that will include behind-the-scenes stories of the filming.

The advertised package rate starts at $340 per night (pre-tax and based on double-occupancy) at the Hotel del Coronado, but once you figure in taxes and the $25 daily resort charge for the two nights, your total will be at least $786. The starting rate, pre-tax and not including resort fee, is $595 per night at Beach Village at the Del. A Friday and Saturday night stay is required.

When: Sept. 18-20.

Note: Though Monroe was reportedly not the easiest of actors to work with during the production of Some Like It Hot, she was “on her mettle” while the production was in Coronado. Read more here about this and other fun facts related to the film at Hotel Del.

Contact: Hotel del Coronado, (800) HOTEL DEL

– Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

[Photo: Marilyn Monroe played ‘Sugar’ Kane Kowalczyk in this film shot at Hotel del Coronado. Credit: Hotel del Coronado]

LADY MARILYN?

Lady Gaga in Korea June 2009

Lady GaGa arrives in Korea sporting a “new” look. Very Marilyn Monroe. This isn’t the first time she’s sported a MM look.

MARILYN MONROE STILL DESERVES AN OSCAR

Marilyn with her Golden Globe Award

Please read the following article written by Jeffrey Bento-Carrier:
(original link: http://thenorthernlight.canadaeast.com/whatson/article/700333)

 

She was Hollywood’s biggest light for nearly 20 years, but her brightness dimmed, and eventually faded away, much too soon.

It’s been 47 years since Marilyn Monroe, arguably the most recognizable big screen star from the silver era of the movies, passed away under suspicious circumstances for the entire world to mourn.

Monroe was a person who had something filmgoers call ‘it.”

A person who has “it” on celluloid doesn’t know how it happened, but the public always knows what this intangible means.

In Marilyn’s case, it was being sexy without being sleazy, glamorous without being stuck-up, and talented without being conceited.

The ever-sarcastic Groucho Marx, who noticed Marilyn’s appeal many years before she hit it big, was one of the first people in the know who “got” Monroe’s style-over- substance plan. The famed comedian once said she was the type of actor who you couldn’t take your eyes off walking to, or away, from you.

Monroe received numerous awards during her short career, including a Golden Globe for Billy Wilder’s classic Some Like It Hot, but Oscar always snubbed the platinum one.

Maybe it was because she had too much sex appeal, or because of the Actors Studio-style of multiple takes she brought forth in her later work, which alienated her from those who cast the winners’ ballots.

Either way, those who were then in control of the Golden Boy always found an excuse to not make Marilyn a part of the big show.

Although we may never see it, because of politics seen and unseen amongst Academy voters, I think it’s time for the art and sciences guild to honour Ms. Monroe with a lifetime achievement award, or a posthumous Oscar.

In the five decades since she perfected the romantic comedy lead category, few thespians have matched her box office boffo, her amazing screen presence, and her natural style of body movement and diction.

She paid her dues in small parts at the start of her career just like Glenda Jackson, Goldie Hawn, Jane Fonda, and Meryl Streep did, yet Monroe is not taking seriously when her name is brought up with the above-mentioned Oscar winners as one some of the best comediennes of all-time.

People have always looked at the outside when they judged Marilyn, which I think did her a disservice.

Just because, as we say in the North Shore, she was “built” doesn’t mean she wasn’t the best at what she was.

In classics like Bus Stop, The Misfits, Asphalt Jungle, All About Eve, Some Like It Hot, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, she owns ever scene she’s in, because you’re fascinated with how someone with skin like alabaster can hold a moment in time without overwhelming the ones around her with her star power.

In our lives, there was only one Marilyn. To go by another year without her finally being inducted into the Academy’s unofficial hall of fame roll call is a disgrace to her memory and those who knew Norma Jean, the person, better than Ms. Monroe.

The Academy shouldn’t wait until 2012, on the 50th anniversary of her passing, for some backward tribute.

They should get on the ball right now, towards the 2010 award, to finally let her legacy enter the bastion of greatness we all agree she should, finally, be a part of.

 

Jeffrey Bento-Carrier is sports editor of the Bugle-Observer newspaper in Woodstock and a longtime movie buff.

MARILYN MONROE ITEMS SOLD AT BONHAMS & BUTTERFIELDS AUCTION HOUSE

Marilyn Monroe’s contract with actor John Carroll in 1947 for sold $3,660. Her rare black and white photograph by Andre de Dienes, which was estimated to sell for only $400 to $600, sold for $3,355. Other set of her black and white pictures in Korea in 1954 sold for $2,196.

Also up for auction was Marilyn posed as Clara Bow in a photo by Richard Avedon (also autographed by the photographer) estimated at $500-$700. The item sold for only $153 (economy?).

RICHARD AVEDON EXHIBITION TO OPEN IN SAN FRANCISCO

ARTDAILY.ORG

As a highlight of its summer exhibitions schedule, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is pleased to present Richard Avedon: Photographs 1946–2004, on view from July 11 through November 29, 2009.

Widely celebrated as one of America’s preeminent photographers, Avedon was among the first to challenge the conventional boundaries between studio photography and reportage. Some of his best-known portraits—a young Bob Dylan standing in the rain, Marilyn Monroe caught in a vulnerable moment, Nastassja Kinski wearing nothing but a boa constrictor—are the most iconic of the 20th century.

Whether photographing politicians, artists, models, or Hollywood stars, Avedon revolutionized the genre of portraiture. His daring style rejected conventional poses and instead captured both motion and emotion in the faces of his subjects, often encapsulating their intrigue in a single honest moment.

SFMOMA is the only U.S. venue for this exhibition, which is the first major retrospective of the Avedon’s work since his death in 2004. A selection of more than 200 photographs spanning the artist’s entire career are presented roughly chronologically, highlighting major themes and benchmarks of Avedon’s output: his early, post–World War II street scenes; his breakthrough Paris fashion work in the 1950s; his far-reaching survey of American counterculture in the 1960s and ’70s; his Reagan-era series, which focused on ordinary people living in the western United States; and his portraits of the nation’s most influential people.

The exhibition was organized by Helle Crenzien for The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, in cooperation with The Richard Avedon Foundation. Its San Francisco presentation is overseen by SFMOMA Senior Curator of Photography Sandra S. Phillips and is made possible by generous support from the Bernard Osher Foundation and Credit Suisse.