‘Blonde’: The Miniseries (2002)

First posted here on January 27, 2011 Blonde, a TV adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, was first aired in 2002, barely two years after the book’s publication. Directed by Joyce Chopra and starring Poppy Montgomery (Without a Trace) as Marilyn Monroe, it is currently available to watch on Prime Video. Although Blonde is based on Monroe’s...

Marilyn’s Journey to Judaism

First posted here on October 26, 2017 In a fascinating blog post, MM fan Simone Esther looks at Marilyn’s conversion to Judaism in 1956 in the context of a lifelong spiritual journey. “Norma Jeane’s interest in [Christian Science] drastically subsided when Aunt Ana tragically died of heart failure in 1948, but with her natural intellect and eager...

Atlanta Celebrates the Jewish Marilyn

First posted here on August 30, 2019 Bob Bahr explores Marilyn’s spiritual side in a cover story for the Atlanta Jewish Times (dated August 30.) “Monroe once told Paula Strasberg, her drama coach at the time, that she felt a special kinship with her newfound faith. ‘I can identify with the Jews,’ she said. ‘Everybody’s out to...

Michael Cohen’s ‘Place to Read’ With Marilyn

First posted here on January 31, 2015 Photographs of Marilyn reading are perennially popular, and author Michael Cohen has chosen this image – captured by Jock Carroll, while Marilyn was lying in bed and reading her script for Niagara in her hotel suite during the summer of 1952 – for the cover of A Place to Read: Life...

Marilyn and the House of Westmore

First posted here on January 31, 2015 More than sixty years before Max Factor chose Marilyn as their poster girl, her image was regularly used to promote House of Westmore, Hollywood’s homegrown beauty business. Mary Mallory has investigated the company’s glamorous past for her L.A. Daily Mirror blog. “Patriarch George Westmore introduced the family to the beauty...

Remembering Marilyn at the White Barn Theatre

First posted here on January 14, 2015 According to New Canaan Advertiser, the site of the former White Barn Theatre in Norwalk, Connecticut is being eyed by a housing development firm. The Save Cranbury Association opposes the plans to build on the two-acre site. "This is one of the last pieces of open space," said local...

Marilyn, Yves Montand and a ‘Secret Pregnancy’

First posted here on February 16, 2017 A series of gorgeous colour photos taken by Monroe Sixer Frieda Hull, whose incredible archive of candid snapshots were auctioned at Julien’s in November 2016, were published in yesterday’s Daily Mail. The images show Marilyn arriving for test shots for The Misfits in New York in July 1960. Unfortunately – and...

At Rainbow’s End: Marilyn Covers the ‘Globe’

First posted here on May 19, 2012 A series of lurid allegations from celebrity muckraker Darwin Porter’s forthcoming book, Marilyn at Rainbow’s End, are published in this week’s Globe. Most of these rumours are nothing new, and some I find hardly believable. You can read the article here. Among his unproven claims are that Marilyn had lesbian affairs with Joan...

Marilyn Conspiracy Hoax Goes Viral

First posted here on April 17, 2015 Occasionally, a rumour is spread about Marilyn that is so idiotic, it surprises even me. Most shocking of all is when large numbers of people believe these rumours. Usually, it’s something ridiculous – but when the subject is Marilyn’s death,  the joke becomes a little stale. In ‘The...

Remembering Marilyn and Judy Garland

First posted here on January 27, 2017 Showbiz impresario Sid Luft was married to Judy Garland from 1952-1965. He died in 2005, leaving behind an unfinished memoir, which is now being published as Judy and I. As Liz McNeil reveals in an article for People, the book also mentions Judy’s friendship with Marilyn. “According to Luft, Monroe’s...