It was 1962 and Schiller, on assignment for Look magazine, captured a near-naked Monroe as she frolicked by a shimmering swimming pool. In one photo, she holds a towel to her chest as she climbs out of the pool, smiling softly at the camera, one leg pointed towards the sky. But before you start assuming that the male photographer talked a vulnerable Monroe into shedding more than she wanted to, check out some of what Schiller reveals in an adaption of his memoir, Marilyn & Me: A Photographer’s Memories, excerpts of which are included along with the photos in Vanity Fair.

“Fox [Studios] should start paying as much attention to me as they are paying to Elizabeth Taylor,” Schiller recounts Monroe telling him, referring to her disappointment that not only was the movie studio not taking her seriously enough, but she was also jealous of her fellow actress’ success, especially after Taylor got a huge publicity boost from her affair with “Cleopatra” co-star Richard Burton and a media frenzy ensued.

According to Schiller, Monroe hatched a plan to make their shoot a lot sexier by offering to jump in the pool with her swimsuit on, and emerge without it. “If I do come out of the pool with nothing on, I want your guarantee that when your pictures appear on the covers of magazines Elizabeth Taylor is not anywhere in the same issue,” she insisted. Monroe was only being paid $100,000 for what would be her last film, “Something’s Got to Give,” (she died before it was finished) while Taylor was collecting a cool $1 million for “Cleopatra.”

Eventually Playboy founder Hugh Hefner agreed to shell out a record-breaking $25,000 for a nude shot of Monroe and when Schiller thanked her for the windfall, joking about what a little nudity can do, the actress responded with, “That’s how I got my house and swimming pool. There isn’t anybody that looks like me without clothes on.”

Despite her beauty and movie-star status, Monroe began revealing her unhappiness to Schiller, pointing out that she’d never been nominated for an Oscar, felt her whole life had been one big rejection, and feared she might end up in a mental institution the way her mother had. She also confided her thoughts on becoming a mother … something that never happened.

“I’ve always wanted a baby,” she said. “Having a child, that’s always been my biggest fear. I want a child and I fear a child. Whenever it came close, my body said no and I lost the baby,” Schiller recounts.

As for being Marilyn Monroe, she simply never felt like she actually was the famous sex symbol. “I never wanted to be Marilyn — it just happened,” she also told him. “Marilyn’s like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.”

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“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