All articles tagged with #marilyn monroe
A new genealogical study by MyHeritage confirms that actress Sydney Sweeney and the late icon Marilyn Monroe are ninth cousins, once removed. The connection traces back to a shared 17th-century ancestor, Ezra Perry, an early settler in Sandwich, Massachusetts. While the two women share a similar public image and fashion choices, the biological link is distant, stemming from their fathers' lineages.
Renowned costume designer Bob Mackie, famed for glittering, bedazzled, and feathered couture worn by stars from Marilyn Monroe to Cher and Beyoncé, has died at 87, leaving a lasting legacy that shaped Hollywood fashion across decades.
Jay Maisel, the legendary photographer who captured Marilyn Monroe and shot the cover for Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, has died. For about 50 years he lived in a vast graffiti-covered bank building, embodying spontaneity and hands-on artistry in his work.
At the Venice Film Festival, Maggie Gyllenhaal described attempting to use AI trained on Marilyn Monroe’s licensed images to swap Dakota Johnson into a Monroe role for Flesh Impact, but she scrapped the idea because Johnson’s performance felt more human and moving, while also citing environmental concerns around AI data centers.
Maggie Gyllenhaal revealed she was asked to use licensable AI trained on Marilyn Monroe to recreate Monroe for the 17‑minute short Flesh Impact with Dakota Johnson. She tried it but ultimately discarded the AI version, saying Johnson’s performance felt more moving and that the AI approach “fundamentally did not work.” She also questioned AI’s hype about democratizing filmmaking and who would profit from it, amid Venice Film Festival discussions.
Mattel debuts a Marilyn Monroe Barbie Signature Doll to celebrate the icon’s 100th birthday, inspired by her pink satin gown and Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Priced at $81, the doll releases Aug. 18 in collaboration with The Estate of Marilyn Monroe LLC, continuing a line of Monroe-inspired Barbie dolls that honors her legacy as a fashion and film icon.
Dakota Johnson, 36, is set to play Marilyn Monroe in Flesh Impact, a Venice Film Festival short that imagines Monroe living past age 36. First-look photos show Johnson with a blonde bob, a departure from her brunette look, while Ellen Burstyn portrays a mature Monroe. The project, written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, honors Monroe’s 100th birthday and features two Monroes—Johnson as the younger version and Burstyn as the older one.
Dakota Johnson stars as Marilyn Monroe in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s 17‑minute short Flesh Impact, a nontraditional reimagining of the Hollywood icon that goes beyond public image and debuts at the Venice Film Festival, with Ellen Burstyn portraying an older version; Gyllenhaal initially worried Johnson didn’t resemble Monroe, but aims to explore identity and legacy for Monroe’s centennial.
Dakota Johnson undergoes a dramatic makeover to portray Marilyn Monroe in the Genesis-backed short film Flesh Impact, directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and featuring Ellen Burstyn. Johnson plays one of two versions of Monroe in a project described as a love letter to the icon, with the World Premiere set for the 2026 Venice International Film Festival where Burstyn will receive the Golden Lion. The look includes a curly blonde bob, rosy makeup, and Monroe’s signature beauty mark, marking a bold onscreen transformation for the actor.
Kim Kardashian arrived in Los Angeles with shoulder-length platinum-blond hair styled in soft curls, channeling Marilyn Monroe as she headed to a Beverly Hills cosmetic-dermatology appointment. She wore a trench coat, Gucci heels and a Dodgers cap, continuing a blond phase she’s revived since 2022, including a Met Gala homage she later said she regrets and discussed again in a May vlog.
A new National Portrait Gallery exhibition, Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, surveys 100 years of the star’s image through iconic photographs by photographers such as André de Dienes, Eve Arnold, Milton H. Greene, Cecil Beaton, Pauline Boty, Allan Grant, and Andy Warhol, tracing Norma Jeane’s rise from a factory worker to a global icon and the private struggles behind the public persona, with Monroe’s remark that it was the people who made her a star; the show runs in London until 6 September.
Variety explores how Marilyn Monroe’s image and artistry continue to shape today’s stars, profiling celebrities from Kim Basinger to Sydney Sweeney who channel her glamour, persona, and complex legacy to define fame across generations.
Marilyn Monroe’s final completed film, The Misfits, uses stark desert imagery and a trio of aging stars to reveal her unexpected dramatic depth in Roslyn—a wounded, complex woman tailor-made for her by Arthur Miller—while director John Huston frames the story as a meditation on mortality, foreshadowing the tragedy that would cut short Monroe's era.
A new book, The Marilyn Monroe Century, uses photographer Bruno Bernard’s diary to trace Norma Jeane’s evolution into Marilyn Monroe—from 1945 Sunset Boulevard shoots to her Hollywood ascent. Authors Josh Miller and Mark Fortin argue Monroe actively shaped her persona and navigated powerful figures and studios, rather than being a passive victim, and they discuss the tensions behind exploitation in the era. The piece also highlights Bernard’s archive and three favorite images, in the context of the Academy Museum exhibition Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon.
More than 1,000 fans dressed as Marilyn Monroe gathered in Palm Springs to celebrate what would have been her 100th birthday, setting a world record for the largest Monroe lookalike gathering near the town’s Monroe statue and local venues.