‘Waiting for Hockney’: Billy Pappas and Richard Avedon’s ‘Sad Marilyn’

First posted here on March 12th, 2011 Waiting for Hockney (2008) is Julie Checkoway's feature-length documentary about the artist Billy Pappas - who spent eight years recreating Richard Avedon’s iconic 1957 portrait known as 'Sad Marilyn', using magnifying lenses, in a large, finely detailed pencil drawing. This ambitious, if befuddling project, which Pappas aimed to present...

Rebecca Miller on Arthur, Marilyn and More

First posted here on March 11th, 2018 The author and filmmaker Rebecca Miller has spoken with Maureen Dowd for the New York Times about Arthur Miller: Writer, a documentary about her father which makes its US television debut on HBO on March 19. Unlike Arthur’s older children, Robert and Jane, Rebecca never knew Marilyn personally, but her marriage...

Richard Meryman: Marilyn’s Last Interviewer Dies at 88

First posted here on February 19, 2015 Journalist Richard Meryman – who was the last person to interview Marilyn, and went on to become an acclaimed biographer – has died aged 88, reports the New York Times. The son of artist Richard Sumner Meryman, ‘Junior’ was born in Washington, and grew up in Dublin, New Hampshire....

‘Zimbelism’: New Documentary + Book On Marilyn, and More

First posted here on May 15, 2016 Zimbelism, the long-awaited documentary about photographer George S. Zimbel, had its premiere at the recent Hot Docs Festival in Toronto. Zimbel, now 86, spoke to Laura Goldstein for mashumashu.com about his 72- year career in ‘humanist’ photography, and his memories of Marilyn as she filmed the ‘subway scene’ for The Seven...

New York Shows Love for Marilyn

First posted here on June 14, 2013 A launch party for Liz Garbus' documentary, Love, Marilyn, was held in New York yesterday, celebrating its upcoming broadcast on HBO. Variety reports on the event: “In a room in HBO’s corporate headquarters, attendees enjoyed a beautiful view of Bryant Park and were left to wonder what the exact...

Bert Stern’s Last Sitting: An Ever-Changing Story

First posted here on April 4, 2013 In Bert Stern: Original Mad Man, Shannah Laumeister’s 2011 documentary about the photographer, Stern discusses his infamous ‘last sitting’ with Marilyn. He spoke to TIME magazine recently, and you can watch a clip from the film at Nowness. “After I set up the studio [at the Bel-Air Hotel] the front desk rang...

Liz Smith on Marilyn’s Last Cheque

First posted here on July 10, 2012 Last week, a forensic psychologist commented on what may be Marilyn’s last signed cheque, for a chest of drawers, dated August 4th. (The cheque goes under the hammer at Heritage Auctions on July 24th.) “‘People about to kill themselves frequently engage in self-soothing behaviors,’ Dr. S. David Bernstein told The...

When Marilyn Snubbed Norman Mailer

First posted here on May 29, 2012 This New York author’s infatuation with Marilyn is the stuff of legend, but according to a new documentary, Norman Mailer: The American, the feeling wasn’t mutual, as Bloomberg reports. “Mailer tells a revealing story about how he almost met Marilyn Monroe, the subject of his fawning, conspiracy-mongering 1973 book,...

Remembering Marilyn at the Hollywood Studio Club

First posted here on August 18, 2011 When she was a 22-year-old model and aspiring actress, Marilyn lived at the Hollywood Studio Club, 1215 North Lodi Place, a hostel for young actresses, between 1946-47, sharing room 307 with Clarice Evans - who would share her memories in a 1954 interview with This Week, a US...

Catherine Deneuve: ‘Marilyn Has My Greatest Admiration’

First posted here on April 12, 2011 Catherine Deneuve, the 67 year-old star of such classic films as The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Repulsion and Belle De Jour, has spoken about her favourite actresses, past and present: "Who are the actresses you admire? I admire Cate Blanchett and Kate Winslet. I like a lot of comedians. I like Cameron Diaz—she’s...