“Marilyn’s an icon, plain and simple. Her look not only defined a generation but also is relevant today,” MAC senior vp James Gager told THR. Monroe’s presence is felt everywhere, even 50 years after her death, from NBC’s new hit show Smash, which stars American Idol alum Katharine McPhee and Broadway vet Megan Hilty, to the Oscar-nominated My Week With Marilyn with Michelle Williams. “Marilyn’s back in the zeitgeist,” says Gager.

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Gaining from Monroe’s enduring fame hasn’t been easy for her heirs. Over the past decade, Marilyn Monroe, LLC, in conjunction with its manager CMG Worldwide, have been attempting to gain a cut whenever the late actress’s image has been used in commercial endeavors. This aggressive stance has put them at odds with others who have a stake in the Monroe mystique, such as the various photographers who captured Monroe’s life.

For nearly six years, Monroe’s estate has been in court with the family of one such photographer, Sam Shaw, who is now deceased. The litigation became closely followed by many observers, but it also caused Shaw Family Archives LTD to go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. On Friday, Shaw’s estate told a bankruptcy court about a new plan to regain financial footing and revealed that it had entered into a deal whereby the Monroe estate gets exclusive rights to images of the blonde bombshell in return for $3 million in guaranteed royalties.

The deal also leaves important legal questions unanswered.

Shaw was a legendary photographer who captured some of the biggest stars from old Hollywood, including Marlon Brando, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor. His images of Monroe were the most iconic, and after the photographer’s death, his family began to license the images around, including to Target for T-shirts and to one documentary producer who was making a film entitled Marilyn’s Man about the star’s first husband.

Then CMG Worldwide, an Indiana-based intellectual property management firm, entered the picture. The firm had previously lobbied its home state to pass laws that generously conferred post-mortem publicity rights to deceased celebrities. When Monroe’s photographer later sought to exploit Monroe images, CMG demanded a cut.

That set off litigation — first in Indiana, where CMG demanded an injunction, and then in New York, where Shaw Family Archives argued Monroe was a citizen at the time of her death. Importantly, New York law wasn’t as generous to dead celebrities as Indiana law.

The lawsuits ended up being consolidated in a New York federal court, and in 2007, Judge Colleen McMahon ruled that regardless of Monroe’s domicile at the time of her death, “Monroe could not devise by will a property right she did not own at the time of her death in 1962.”

That might not be so in various other states outside of New York. Among the places where post-mortem publicity rights statutes have passed are California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington.

Still, since publicity rights exist only at a state level, that leaves most states without this benefit to celebrity’s heirs, forcing estates like Monroe’s to fight for the right to enforce it through interstate commerce. On December 30, Marilyn Monroe, LLC, filed an appeal up to the 2nd Circuit in its long-running legal battle with the Shaw family.

But now, in a sudden swerve, the two sides seem to have made peace.

According to the documents filed by the Shaw family in its bankruptcy proceeding, $3 million from the Monroe estate will cover exclusive rights to license the image for a five-year term, with options to extend the agreement further. Although publicity rights differs on a state-by-state basis, there’s no question about the reach of the copyright to Shaw’s photographs of Monroe,

Reached for comment, one attorney for the Monroe estate wouldn’t discuss whether this means the recently-filed 2nd Circuit appeal would be dismissed.

But an end seems likely, leaving legal observers to turn their attention to other ongoing cases, such as a coming hearing at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In that dispute, concerning the exploitation of Jimi Hendrix’s and likeness, a judge determined that the Washington Publicity Rights Act violated the due process and full faith credit clauses of the U.S. Constitution by allowing non-domiciled celebrities to essentially forum-shop.

Article Source: hollywoodreporter.com

The blonde beauty, who’s surrounded by her male suitors including Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), Prince Louis (Hugo Becker) and several others, is decked out in piles of dazzling jewelry and a red strapless gown with matching opera-length gloves.

Also in the montage? Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) dressed as another late, old Hollywood icon, Audrey Hepburn.

Yahoo TV writes, “According to executive producer Josh Safran this Marilyn number has been something he’s wanted to film since the show’s first season. ‘It’s something we’ve never done before. From Season 1, I said, ‘I want to do this.’ But it just wasn’t the right time. I’ve been pushing it for five years, and it finally happened.’”

Article Source: usmagazine.com

MICHELLE Williams might be getting another week with Marilyn! The former Dawson’s Creek actress is said to be wanted for a second movie about Marilyn Monroe, this time focusing on her tragic death. “The story of Marilyn Monroe is something that many producers have wanted to put on the big screen and now may be the right time,” says a Hollywood insider. “Michelle was sensational in My Week with Marilyn and she is wanted for another project that would be a full biopic of the star. It’s got to the point where if Michelle doesn’t do it, the film may never get made.”

Article Source: showbizspy.com

Also I will be upload tons of Marilyn photos in the next coming days, so please look for them.

The photos, taken in 1946 when she was still Norma Jeane Dougherty, were the highlight of the Beverly Hills auction known as “Icons & Idols,” Julien’s Auctions spokeswoman Caroline Galloway tells The Associated Press.

The photos come with negatives and the rare right to sell and distribute them. A judge in September ruled they must be auctioned to settle debts of photographer Joseph Jasgur.

A Lady Gaga dress sold for $31,250, and the prop gun used in her video for “Born This way” went for $7,680.

A 1969 caricature John Lennon drew of himself and Yoko Ono went for $90,000.

Article Source: CBSNews.com

With the new film, My Week With Marilyn, opening on November 23rd, we suddenly want to make over our wardrobes and dress exactly like the sexy screen siren. Here are the key pieces to get it right.

How to Channel Marilyn Monroe

But Michelle Williams has admitted that playing Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe was daunting and terrifying and that was before she had even begun filimg.

The 31-year-old actress plays the screen siren in new film My Week With Marilyn which tells the story of Monroe’s four-month stay in the UK to film The Prince and the Showgirl alongside Laurence Olivier.

And Michelle said she almost didn’t take on the role at all, even thought she knew she wanted to the moment she read the script.

And even when director Simon Curtis flew to her New York home to offer her the part, Michelle said she wasn’t sure she could accept and begged him to audition her properly.

Speaking to Elle magazine, she said: ‘I said, “I want both of us to know that I can do this, I don’t want to be offered this role for any other reason than we know that I’m capable of it”.

‘I was so apprehensive. It was daunting living up to people’s expectations as well as my own expectations. I wanted to hop on the next train to the Alps or something and get the hell out because it was terrifying.’

And less than a month before the film is released in the UK, she admitted that the fear hasn’t left her yet, adding: ‘I’ve never been so hanging on a cliff waiting to hear what people think of a movie.’

Michelle, who has six-year-old daughter Matilda from her relationship with late actor Australian Heath Ledger, said she has always admired Monroe, who died aged 36 in August 1962.

She said: ‘Something I really appreciated about her is what a simple dresser she was. She’s really, in her personal life, completely unadorned.

‘Everything that she wore looked like she could take hr shoes off and run through a field. And I like that.’

And Michelle said she was always more interested in Monroe’s private life as opposed to her acting career.

She said: ‘I had always been more interested in the private Marilyn, and the unguarded Marilyn.

‘Even as a young girl, my primary concern wasn’t with this larger than life personality smiling back from the wall but with what was going on underneath.’

The film also stars Dame Judi Dench, Dougray Scott, Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson and is released in the UK on November 25.

Article Source: dailymail.co.uk

Darren Julien, president and CEO of Julien’s Auctions, said Saturday that the dress was sold at an auction in China. Monroe wore the green velour dress while she sang “I’m Gonna File My Claim” in the 1954 Western in which she portrayed Kay Washington, a gambler’s wife.

Among other items that have been sold at the auction were the bustier that Madonna wore during her “Who’s That Girl” tour in 1987. It has sold for $72,000.

The famous white dress Monroe wore in “The Seven Year Itch” was sold for $4.6 million at an auction this summer.

Article Source: yahoo.com

Fans and collectors of Monroe will have another chance of owning costumes worn by the late actress, priced between $150,000 and $300,000 at the Debbie Reynolds Collection Part II auction.

Monroe’s provocatively sexy costumes were known for pushing the barrier set by strict film censorship codes. The December auction will feature Monroe’s saucy showgirl leotard from the Oscar-nominated 1956 film “Bus Stop,” designed by William Travilla, auctioneers Profile in History said on Tuesday.

The screen legend’s gowns from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” the 1953 thriller “Niagara,” and the 1960 Oscar-nominated comedy “Let’s Make Love,” will also be up for auction.

Reynolds, 79, began amassing the impressive collection when she was a young actress under contract at MGM. When the studio auctioned off everything except its real estate in 1970, she turned a pastime into what she called an “obsession.”

But her dream of displaying her beloved costumes in a museum was dashed several times and she was forced to sell them to pay back creditors.

Monroe’s four costumes will be auctioned in Beverly Hills as part of the Debbie Reynolds Collection Part II on December 3.

Article Source: reuters.com