‘The Hook’: Marilyn and Arthur Miller’s Lost Screenplay

First posted here on June 10, 2015 The Hook, Arthur Miller’s long-buried screenplay about a bitter conflict between workers on the Brooklyn docks – a district still known as Red Hook – is finally being staged at the Royal and Derngate Theatre in Northampton after more than sixty years on the shelf, as Matt Trueman...

Marilyn: The Quest For An Oscar

First posted here on January 6, 2016 As this year’s awards season gets underway, many MM fans will bemoan the fact that she never won, or was even nominated for an Oscar. Of course, there will always be sceptics who believe she was more of a star than an actress. However, when we consider how...

Death in Hollywood: Amber Tamblyn on Marilyn

First posted here on April 8, 2015 Actress Amber Tamblyn – who has appeared in TV shows including Joan of Arcadia, House M.D., and Two and a Half Men, and films such as Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Ring – is also an accomplished poet. Her third collection, Dark Sparkler, focuses on tragic...

Jack Allen To Sell Marilyn’s ‘Down Boy’, and More

First posted here on December 4, 2018 Marilyn By Moonlight author Jack Allen is selling off some items from his collection in the Essentially Marilyn auction on December 11, 2018, at Profiles In History – including photographs and the unreleased song, ‘Down Boy‘, as Mike Szymanski reports for Dreamweaver Arts. (The auction also features the...

‘Down Boy!’ Rare Marilyn Song Resurfaces

First posted here on August 23, 2015 Marilyn has been making news in the music world this week, with a story that ‘Down Boy’, an unreleased song cut from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, may be sampled on a new track by hip hop producer Timbaland (who is currently working on his fourth solo album, Opera Noir.)...

Marilyn’s Directors: Howard Hawks

First posted here on December 9th, 2011 In this extract from the filmmaker and critic Peter Bogdanovich’s anthology, Who the Hell’s In It? (2004), he recalls an interview with classic Hollywood maestro Howard Hawks, who directed Marilyn in Monkey Business (1952) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953.)   “Monroe was frightened to come on the stage...

Remembering Jonas Mekas, Arthur Miller and ‘Misfit’ Marilyn

First posted here on January 23rd, 2019 The Lithuanian-born filmmaker, poet and artist, Jonas Mekas, has died aged 97. During World War II, he was imprisoned for eight months in a German labour camp while trying to flee his home country. In late 1949 he emigrated to the US with his brother, settling in Williamsburg, New...

Richard Avedon: Waiting for Marilyn

First posted here on February 4th, 2018 Frederick Eberstadt, who was Richard Avedon’s studio manager from 1958-60, shared his memories of the Some Like It Hot photo shoot in the new oral biography, Avedon: Something Personal. "When Dick was doing the publicity photographs for Some Like It Hot, Tony Curtis came in carrying the most elaborate...

Behind Margot Robbie’s Marilyn Homage in ‘Birds of Prey’

Having recently starred as Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood, Margot Robbie is no stranger to playing iconic blondes. Now, as she reprises her Harley Quinn role in Birds of Prey (2020), she has recreated Marilyn’s 'Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend' number from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, albeit with...

Marilyn’s Lost ‘Seven Year Itch’ Footage

First posted here on January 17, 2017 Amateur footage from the set of The Seven Year Itch has resurfaced, as Helene Stapinski reports for the New York Times. Shot by Jules Schulback, a furrier and home movie enthusiast, in September 1954, the missing reel – in pristine condition, and lasting for three minutes and seventeen seconds in total...