Anyway, the photographs are indeed amazing and I love how Marilyn looks in them.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Photographs of Marilyn Monroe appearing relaxed and lounging around a New York apartment nine months before she died were unveiled on Friday after being held in a private archive for more than 45 years.

Photographer Len Steckler shot the black-and-white images of Monroe when she unexpectedly arrived at his apartment in December, 1961, to visit his friend, Pulitzer-prize winning poet Carl Sandburg. Steckler is offering them for a sale as a limited edition series called “Marilyn Monroe: The Visit.”

The pictures to be sold — four single images and two triptychs, or pictures in three parts — show Monroe wearing pointed, thick-rimmed sunglasses and a short sleeve dress while talking and laughing with Sandburg. Also offered will be 250 prints of each piece.

“It was serendipitous with these two icons in their moment and me there with my camera,” Steckler told Reuters, saying he was “like a fly on the wall” while he shot Monroe, then 35, and Sandburg, 83, while they chatted and held hands.

Steckler, a former commercial fashion and beauty photographer who is now “about 80″ and lives in Los Angeles, said on the afternoon Monroe visited, Sandburg had mentioned in a casual manner that they would soon have “a visitor.”

“Hours later I went to open the door and there I was face to face with Marilyn Monroe, and she looked more ravishing than on the screen,” he said. “She said ‘I am sorry I am late. I was at the hairdressers, matching my hair to Carl’s.’”

Monroe’s hair does indeed appear like Sandburg’s in the pictures, almost white, said Steckler, and he added that after he took the photos, they all drank Jack Daniels whiskey.

“As we know, Marilyn loved older men, she loved the intellectuals — and Carl was very parental with her,” said Steckler. “It was a lovely thing to see.”

The actress died in August, 1962, and Sandburg, who won Pulitzer prizes for his poetry and for a biography of Abraham Lincoln, died seven years later.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — You can learn more about Marilyn Monroe beginning Fri. Jan. 22. The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville will be hosting an art exhibition and one-person play.

The art exhibition “Life as A Legend: Marilyn Monroe” begins Friday and runs through Sunday April, 4. Organizers say it captures the beauty, sensuality and vulnerability of the American icon. Tickets are $8 non-members and $5 for seniors, students and military.

The art exhibit is just one part of the exhibition. An one-woman play that tells the actress’ story in her own words and music will be running every weekend starting Feb. 11 through March 7. Tickets for “Marilyn… Forever Blonde” are $29 dollars for members, $34 for non-members and $24 for students and military.

Tickets for both the art exhibit and the play can be purchased at MOCA at 904-366-6911 or www.mocajacksonville.org.

Production Weekly has now learned that Johansson is out of the running and that its Williams who is in-talks with Curtis to top line the movie, set to begin lensing in June, 2010.

My Week will be based on the diary of Colin Clark, an employee of Laurence Olivier, who looked after Monroe when she came to London to film Olivier’s “The Prince and the Showgirl” in 1957. Although Colin was technically considered the third assistant director, his unofficial role was to keep Monroe out of Olivier’s way.

Clark published excerpts of his diary a year later, but left out the details of one week. Those unreleased chapters form the basis of the movie.

Frankly, it’s probably one of the toughest roles to cast. Monroe’s body movements, mannerisms and vocal inflections are legendary. Difficult to master, impersonators who have done so typically haven’t looked that much like the late actress. Alternatively, those who look somewhat like Monroe have more often than not had a tough time duplicating her essence. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out…and if Curtis decides to employ today’s current state-of-the art CG to give his leading lady a little extra “authenticity,” or if he simply allows her to develop a close individual interpretation of the Monroe essence, sans special effects.

Source: Cinemaspy.com

As read on the CNN website:

Los Angeles, California (CNN) — The copyright to a home movie of Marilyn Monroe “just sitting around” with friends will be offered through an online auction this week, according to a man who found the film while researching the actress’ death.

A short clip of the four-minute, silent 16 mm film provided to CNN to shows Monroe puffing on a cigarette, laughing and drinking wine on a couch.
An FBI agent involved in the investigation of Monroe’s death on August 5, 1962 — which was ruled a suicide by drug overdose — tipped off collector Keya Morgan to the film’s existence. Morgan was interviewing the agent for a documentary titled “Marilyn Monroe: Murder at 5th Helena Drive,” he said.
The documentary, due out next year, examines the theory that Monroe was killed by government agents because of her affair with President John F. Kennedy. Morgan said he paid $275,000 for the faded color film because it is “very rare” to find images of the actress’ private moments.

“It’s a side of Marilyn that no one has ever seen before,” he said. “You see the private Norma Jeane, the girl. You don’t see Marilyn Monroe, the movie star.” Monroe changed her name from Norma Jeane Baker to Marilyn Monroe early in her acting and modeling career.While she puffs the cigarette, “she’s also sniffing her armpit and acting silly,” Morgan said.

The woman who made the film asked that CNN use only her first name, Gretchen, to protect her identity. “We were just getting together,” Gretchen said. They were “just sitting around” in a New Jersey apartment, singing songs, she said. The film was made in the late 1950s; Gretchen said she could not recall the exact year. She kept it packed away for 50 years, except for loaning it to FBI investigators, she said.

Gretchen retained the copyright, which Morgan is helping her sell through an eBay auction expected to begin Thursday, he said.

Marilyn and Ella is the true story of two iconic females, forging a bond in 1950s’ America, interspersed with hit songs from the era including Mack the Knife, Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend and My Funny Valentine.

Ms Greer is resident in the UK and is also a trustee of the British Museum. She is an occasional contributor to BBC Two’s Newsnight Review, and was a panel member on BBC One’s Question Time when Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party, was invited on for the first time.

Why did you want to write a play about Marilyn Monroe and Ella Fitzgerald?

I was working on a book, and I turned the TV on in the background. There was a programme on called Marilyn in Manhattan, about how Marilyn went to New York in 1955 to kick start her career. She was starting her own production company, the first woman in films to do that. Ella Fitzgerald’s face popped up on the screen and it caught my attention.

Tell me about the significance of the Mocambo club?

There was one line about how Marilyn went to Mocambo, the biggest club on the West Coast, and said to the owner if you book Ella Fitzgerald for five nights I will be there every night, which is the equivalent today of Angelina Jolie going to the local club and saying you book Claudia in there I will be front row every night!

Suzie Kennedy and Hope Augustus as Marilyn and Ella

It was revoluntionary. For Marilyn to put herself on the line like that, to put her career on the line, was enormous. Playing Macambo allowed Ella to go to another step. And I just thought what a beautiful story – it made me cry.

Did these two ladies have anything in common?

Yes they were both poor and came from sexually abused childhoods. Ella lost her mother very young and Marilyn’s mother was in and out of mental institutions. Both girls were terribly ambitious but were pigeonholed: Marilyn the dumb blonde and Ella the girl who always made you smile. Nothing deeper than that.

Tell me about the director?

Colin McFarlane is the first black British director, actor and producer to use his own money to be in the West End. It is very important that this is known because the United Kingdom is changing so rapidly, it is leading the way with so many cultures influencing and shaping things.

What is exciting about being in the UK today is we have all sorts of problems but this island is a beautiful template for the way the world is changing and moving. There are formats being created that are impacting all over the world.

What is your favourite number in the show?

It has to be I’ve Got You Under My Skin. Marilyn is really optimistic during the production about getting married to a new man, and starting a production company, and feels she won’t have to be the dumb blonde anymore. Ella sings ‘don’t you know, you fool, you never can win’. That is my favourite moment.

Has the production been in America?

No, I hope it goes to America. People who have seen the show say what they like is that the story is about two women who are not clawing each other to death. It is about a black woman and a white woman, who you wouldn’t think have anything in common and yet have everything in common. It also has great songs and gives you a different picture of Marilyn.

Tell me about your new book Obama Music?

It is a little bit about my life growing up on the south side of Chicago and growing up in the 60s. Obama says even though he was a little boy in the 60s he is very much rooted in the 60s.

In the book I take you all the way back to the great migration of African Americans to Chicago. I look at it through the portal of Jazz , Blues, Gospel and Soul and talk about Obama as the epitomy of all these great music styles.

Tell me about your involvement with the British Museum?

I have been part of the British Museum as a trustee for five years. The museum is becoming a place where distortions about history are being met and challenged. I think the big issue now for the 21st Century is the clarification of history. We are building a new world conservation centre which I urge everyone to help us to build .

I have to ask you about your recent appearance on Question Time, what was it like for you?

There was a lot of pressure two weeks before, I was getting something like 40 calls a day. I thought to myself I am not here to represent anyone but me. If it doesn’t work for you then I am sorry, but I was determined to be the best me.

Within five minutes of Nick Griffin talking, I just thought ‘this guy is like your brother-in-law’s friend from the pub talking at Sunday lunch’. This guy isn’t worth you justifying your existence, he doesn’t care about you he only cares about himself and just seemed so chuffed to be on Question Time.

Bonnie Greer was talking to BBC News reporter Claudia Redmond.

Marilyn & Ella playing at the Apollo Theatre on 15, 22 and 29 November.

If you’re interested in ordering this book, click the ‘Read more’ link below! You will find a link to the Amazon website.

Title: Some Like It Hot: The Official 50th Anniversary Companion
Author: Laurence Maslon
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Collins Design (September 22, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061761230
ISBN-13: 978-0061761232
Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.5 x 1 inches

This is what Amazon writes about it:

Selected as America’s Funniest Movie by the American Film Institute, Some Like it Hot remains an undisputed classic fifty years after its release, as it continues to capture three of American culture’s great preoccupations-jazz, gangsters, and Marilyn Monroe. The Official 50th Anniversary Companion details the history of this side-splitting farce from its roots as an obscure 1951 German film to its Hollywood conception, where Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond transposed the material to the Roaring Twenties and director Wilder cast the brilliant Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon in the starring roles.

As well as previously unpublished images, posters, and documents from the MGM archives, this book includes selections from the screenplay, casting notes, on-set production anecdotes, and location shots from the fabled Del Coronado in San Diego (doubling for Florida). In addition, songs and music used in the film’s jazz era setting, background information on Chicago during Prohibition, the story of the Broadway and West End musical versions (one of which starred Tony Curtis), the previously undiscovered television pilot based on the movie, and the ongoing legacy of the most famous drag comedy in film history.
Featuring cameo appearances by Arthur Miller, Edward G. Robinson, Al Capone, Tommy Steele, Robert Morse, Tina Louise, and Tom Hanks, The Official 50th Anniversary Companion is the first book to tell the full story of Some Like it Hot from start to finish, from wig to high heels.

I was trying to see if I could get into contact with mister Goodwin because I think it would be really interesting to interview him for the website about his love for Marilyn and his dolls. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a way to contact him. If anyone else does know a way, please let me know!

If you click ‘Read more’ you will find images of the dolls Kim Goodwin made and also a video of the dolls.

I’ve added new pictures to the gallery, made by Richard C. Miller.

Photographer Richard Miller photographed Marilyn in 1946, when she just started her career. The result is beautiful, with lots of colours and poses. Under the cut you find a video in which Richard Miller talks about Norma Jeane. He said: “She was a very charming, lovely, young lady. She wasn’t smart, not a bright intellectual, but she was nice, pleasant and cute. She posed very well, she was creative about her modeling.”

I’ve noticed that my doll has other earrings than she has on the website. I’m curious whether your Blonde Ambition doll has the round earrings too?

If you like the doll you can order it from Amazon:

I’ve added some pictures of my doll, brand new in its box:

Although my French is pretty rusty (considering I have studied it for 6 years), I still think this is a great value, even if you don’t understand a word of French. It’s beautiful for its footage!

Under the cut you can find some screencaptures I made of the DVD.