Marilyn Monroe

It has been a Year of Marilyn, full of tributes and homages, but "Blonde" explores the darker side of the entertainment icon.

And of course, it comes to the now-familiar conclusion that there was much more to the story than was apparent at the time. But Dominik’s film certainly meets Bolton’s other expectation: “Respect and fidelity to the complexity of the person.” Still, “Blonde” the movie covers many of the major known tragedies and trials of Monroe’s real life, such as her mother’s mental illness as well as her own, her failed marriages, her substance-abuse issues and her unrealized desire to become a parent. (It skips over a few famous beats, too, such as Monroe’s early marriage in her teenage years to a policeman — as well as the fact that she had half-siblings, one of whom she reconnected with later in life. Vogue recently heralded [“Barbiecore”](https://www.vogue.com/article/barbie-fashion-is-everywhere-this-summer) as the hottest trend of summertime, and a TikTok genre known as “BimboTok” was the subject of many a concerned-but-fascinated [trend story](https://www.thecut.com/2021/12/reclaiming-bimbo-bimbotok.html) [in 2022](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/bimbo-reclaim-tiktok-gen-z-1092253/). But the genre does seem to take cues from Monroe’s bubbly public persona — and her apparent enjoyment of being a beautiful, hyperfeminine woman. “Blonde,” however clumsily, attempts to answer that question, as it’s the rare Monroe tribute that looks closely at the mortal person behind the immortal image. Chrissy Chlapecka, 22, is one of the most prominent TikTokers associated with BimboTok, and she names Monroe among her lifelong inspirations. Her image has “come to stand for the very essence of glamour and beauty,” Bolton says, while her life story “stands for the classic hard-luck, rags-to-riches” tale of making it big in Hollywood. “I have noticed once again that clothing is coming around to the ’60s,” says Donelle Dadigan, president and founder of the Hollywood Museum in California (where interest in the Monroe items spikes yearly in June around her birthday). But none of this year’s moments of Marilyn fixation have engaged quite as directly with the latter as “Blonde,” which focuses on Norma Jeane Baker, the woman who became Marilyn Monroe. A few forces have converged this year to create a period of renewed fascination with Monroe — or perhaps more accurately, with Monroe iconography.

Ana De Armas at Marilyn Monroe in Blonde. Getty Images. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. I know all too well the excruciating agony ...

The pain she lived with is unquestionable, and ultimately her extremely sad death at the age of 36 was ruled to be suicide. [affects 1 in 10 women](https://www.endometriosis-uk.org/endometriosis-facts-and-figures) and the average time between first visiting a doctor and [receiving a diagnosis](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/body/health/a34192345/endometriosis-diagnosis-times/) is still an unforgivable 7.5 years. [Endometriosis](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/body/health/a40252558/adenomyosis-vs-endometriosis/) is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes. In Monroe’s case, this life was lived in a different era and as medical misogyny exists today, it can be fairly reasoned she would have been on the receiving end of much more archaic treatment back in the 1950s and 60s. Marilyn Monroe’s image is inextricably linked with pop culture and perhaps that’s why so many have tried to take a figurative piece of her. But when doing that, we must recognise the extent of her lived reality. All of which, living with the sheer agony of endometriosis may have contributed to. [Marilyn Monroe](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a41385580/blonde-marilyn-monroe-real-life/) has been the subject of global fascination for several decades and she’ll always be seen as a sparkling Hollywood star. I’ve passed out from its crashing waves flooding my body and have desperately willed the sharp stabbing agony to stop. And now following the release of the [new Netflix film Blonde](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/a40443520/ana-de-armas-blonde-release-date-trailer-cast/), Monroe’s life is in the spotlight once more. Symptoms include pain, fatigue, heavy bleeding and depression, with endometriosis potentially affecting every part of a sufferer’s life, including their fertility. With scenes in Blonde said to be sexist, exploitative and invasive (with rape, forced abortion and abuse featuring throughout), the pain endured in her short life is being pored over for entertainment purposes again.

The film, written and directed by Andrew Dominik, is based on the 2000 biographical fiction novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates.

The 166-minute film, which stars [Ana de Armas](https://www.hellomagazine.com/tags/ana-de-armas/) as the Hollywood icon, is added to the long list of dramatisations of the actress's life, but just what makes the movie different to other biopics that have been made about the star? I think they probably just erred on the side of caution." He went on to say: "I know the ways in which this is different from what people seem to agree happened. And I actually felt that we coloured between the lines. Perhaps unlike other biopics that have been made about the famous sex symbol, Andrew Dominik's new film is a fictionalised narrative of Marilyn's life and does not claim to be historically accurate. She was the Aphrodite of the 20th century, the American goddess of love.

From Some Like It Hot to The Misfits (and with a Millionaire in between), here's a look at Marilyn Monroe's accomplished onscreen legacy.

The performances in this countdown showcase her unforgettable work as a dynamic leading lady. While some consider Monroe to be synonymous with a life of scandal, and others see her simply as a bubble-headed sex symbol, this list forcefully counters those misconceptions. As an actor, Marilyn Monroe embodied glamour, tragedy, romanticism, and wit.

Blonde tells a fictionalised story of the life of the iconic Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jean Mortensen, and here played by Ana de Armas.

What else has Toby Huss been in? What else has Xavier Samuel been in? [subscribe now](http://radiotimes.com/magazine-subscription?utm_term=evergreen-article) and get the next 12 issues for only £1. [Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/gb/) from Wednesday 28th September. The 35th President of the United States of America and is portrayed here as the lover - and abuser - of Marilyn Monroe. Kennedy in the film Jackie and having a close likeness to the iconic president. The American actress has starred in the films August: Osage County, Tully, Kinsey, Conviction, Black Mass, Togo, and I, Tonya. Brody also starred in the fourth season of Peaky Blinders. An Oscar-winner for his performance in The Pianist, Adrien Brody is an American actor who has also starred in films The Thin Red Line, The Village, King Kong, The Darjeeling Limited, The Fantastic Mr Fox, Predators, Midnight in Paris, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The French Dispatch. What else has Bobby Cannavale been in? Who is Arthur Miller? Born Norma Jean Mortensen, Marilyn is, of course, a global icon, sex symbol, Hollywood star and committed actress.

New film Blonde suggests the trio were in a three-way relationship – but is this based on facts?

[subscribe now](http://radiotimes.com/magazine-subscription?utm_term=evergreen-article) and get the next 12 issues for only £1. [Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/gb/) from Wednesday 28th September. The relationship is again suggested in Cass's own book My Father, Charlie Chaplin. [terms and conditions](https://www.immediate.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/) and [privacy policy](https://policies.immediate.co.uk/privacy/). [Blonde](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/blonde-movie-release-date-netflix-marilyn-monroe/) has finally arrived on [Netflix](http://www.radiotimes.com/netflix) – and it looks set to be one of the most talked about films of the year. [learn more](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/commercial-links-on-radiotimes-com/))

The “behind the scenes footage” of the current moment is Blonde, the new Andrew Dominik movie starring Ana de Armas, based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates.

Marilyn’s longtime makeup artist, Whitey Snyder, tended to say the same thing about the establishment of the iconic Marilyn look: that it was a collaboration, and that Marilyn was intimately involved. Marilyn even talked about her own sex appeal in the way an artist might, with detachment and a close attention to the ironic effect she wanted to achieve. What happens if we imagine a Marilyn Monroe who was the author of her own persona? In her version of events, the choice is a collaboration. In The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Churchwell argues that in the end, all the Marilyn Monroe stories come down to dead bodies. We meet Norma Jeane first as a child and then as a young actress on the come-up, and pause only to depict her rape by the head of the studio who gives her her first break. Always, though, in Blonde, creating Marilyn is a torment and a torture: She must be summoned out of the mirror laboriously, moment by moment, like a demon being conjured. In fact, “the writing about Marilyn in the 1950s,” remarks Churchwell in The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, “insists with such obsessive redundance upon her naturalness that it seems to be trying to persuade itself of something it is afraid isn’t true at all.” Sometimes, “Marilyn” appears to emerge out of Norma Jeane as a trauma response: “Marilyn” is the reaction the camera has to Norma Jeane’s pain, panic, and dissociation. Yet so focused is Blonde on her miseries that it feels more as though Marilyn is being punished by the sadistic eye of the camera, which called her back to life for the sole purpose of reveling in her miseries. Even as the culture at large celebrated Marilyn for her easy, organic sexiness, it also turned a suspicious eye to the question of just how natural it might be. In a cultural moment obsessed with sex and how women have it, Marilyn Monroe was the woman of the moment.

Netflix's Blonde biopic starring Ana de Armas takes liberties with the truth and overlooks crucial aspects from Marilyn Monroe's life.

Monroe knew she had power in her fame, and her decision set the wheels in motion for the end of the studio system in 1954. Instead, the filmmakers seem set on telling the story of a woman responsible for her own mental deterioration, isolation and objectification. One of the most damning elements of Blonde is its use of pregnancy as a way to define and punish its protagonist. She has no one to trust and the people who keep her company ultimately hurt, betray and damage her. Monroe was an isolated figure, but she had people she loved and who loved her in return. In reality, Monroe was acutely aware of the perception of her and how, where possible, she could fight it. While these things are considered true, it’s not clear how many times or by who she became pregnant, and her inability to sustain a pregnancy is considered a core reason why her mental health deteriorated. [Blonde](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/jfk-scene-blonde-netlfix) is the latest in a string of stories to hit the public realm, and between documentaries, podcasts and dramatic portrayals, seemingly no stone has been allowed to remain unturned about the minutiae of a life tragically cut short. While it’s true female stars in Hollywood’s exploitative 20th-century studio system had little say in their careers, Monroe fought for her worth as an actress and financial asset. In a brutal, almost three-hour-long journey through Monroe’s life, [Ana de Armas](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/ana-de-armas-marilyn-monroe-ghost-blonde) plays a version of the troubled star that’s moulded by trauma. A previous 2001 adaptation tells viewers that what they’re about to watch is fiction, but [Andrew Dominik](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/netflix-blonde-marilyn-monroe)’s latest version, crucially, does not. [Netflix](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/gallery/best-netflix-series-uk)’s already highly divisive Marilyn Monroe biopic [Blonde](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/blonde-netflix-review-marilyn-monroe), questions are being raised about what is fact and fiction in the film's portrayal of the woman born Norma Jean Mortenson.

The Internet has pointed out a rather trippy connection that Marilyn Monroe has with Queen Elizabeth II.

[When Marilyn Met The Queen](https://www.amazon.com/When-Marilyn-Met-Queen-Monroes/dp/1639361499), the late monarch became quite taken with the star and her films after meeting her. "She apparently told the friend, 'I thought Miss Monroe was a very sweet person. And that wasn't all Queen Liz observed. [reads](https://twitter.com/edenofnubian/status/1572960364421173250): “Idk why but Marilyn Monroe and [the Queen](https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/queen-elizabeth-lipstick-signal) in my head seem to be from two different eras but the fact they were born the same year is so wild”. [posted](https://twitter.com/PoliticoRyan/status/1574172023483293697): “Amazing to think that Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth were born only a month apart”. [Marilyn Monroe](https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/marilyn-monroe-body-shape-opinion) is undoubtedly at the front of our minds after the release of controversial [Netflix](https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/topic/netflix) film [Blonde](https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/blonde-netflix), a fictional retelling of the starlet's life.

If Netflix's latest about the blonde bombshell leaves you eager for more Monroe, here's where to start your own exploration.

In order to escape, she would act increasingly erratic, telling staff, “If you’re going to treat me like a nut, I’ll act like a nut,” as Monroe wrote to Dr. [admitted](https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2010/11/marilyn-monroe-201011) to Payne Whitney’s psychiatric ward, where she would be held in a locked and padded room for three days. After bit parts in rowdy comedies (Ladies of the Chorus, Love Happy) and an Oscar-winning drama (All About Eve), Monroe’s first star-making turn would arrive with this 1952 psychological noir, scenes of which are prominently replicated in Blonde.

Netflix users have had their say on the new Marilyn Monroe biographical film, Blonde. See what they said here…

Yes, the depiction of #MarilynMonroe is demeaning but then a lot of her life was demeaning. A second added: "Just watched #Blonde and it was a great watch. It's always such a journey to see the lives of public figures from their lens. Ana de Armas is phenomenally good, but the film casts Marilyn Monroe as a helpless victim. HELLO!'s selection is editorial and independently chosen – we only feature items our editors love and approve of. If you can't handle that then continue to delude yourself that her life was all glamour." As a piece of daring cinema, it's astonishing, but it's also pretty morally suspect. An unfair fiction of her that was way too long." One person wrote: "In a technical level, #Blonde is perfect. One person wrote: "Is #Blonde pleasant to watch? Ana de Armas gives a chilling performance. Despite Ana de Armas giving a stellar performance, it felt very exploitative of Marilyn Monroe.

Many viewers specified on social media that they had been unable to make it more than 20 minutes into Blonde before abandoning it. The 18-rated movie ...

Please, i’m begging you leave this woman alone and quit slapping SA survivors and women in the face.” [Terms of use,](https://www.independent.co.uk/service/user-policies-a6184151.html) [Cookie policy](https://www.independent.co.uk/service/cookie-policy-a6184186.html) and [Privacy notice.](https://www.independent.co.uk/service/privacy-policy-a6184181.html) “While the film is beautifully shot (most of the times) and Ana de Armas gives a luminous performance, it falls apart fast... [Privacy policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en) and [Terms of service](https://policies.google.com/terms?hl=en) apply. “Couldn’t stomach more than about 20 minutes of the nearly three hours length. “Started Blonde and turned it off in record time,” one person revealed. It’s bad because it’s boring, pleased with itself and doesn’t have a clue what it’s trying to say.” “Tried to watch @netflix Blonde,” commented another. An absoute head-scratcher of a movie,” one person wrote. and that last hour... That 20 minutes was nothing but cruel and heartbreaking. [one-star review for The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/blonde-review-ana-de-armas-marilyn-monroe-b2177855.html), Jessie Thompson wrote: “Blonde is not a bad film because it is degrading, exploitative and misogynist, even though it is all of those things.

Days after Netflix dropped their new Marilyn Monroe biopic, Blonde, starring Ana De Armas, the negative reviews are flying in.

None of the original light to contrast the darkness, her open sexuality is denied and made a never ending rape etc. I have never seen such a bad movie with such a disgusting intention from the makers,” Marilyn Monroe was by no means a victim. [Digital Spy](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a41401688/blonde-review-netflix/) said the film, which is almost three hours long, is almost exclusively dedicated to “subjecting Marilyn to an endurance test of abuses” including being raped twice, blackmail, and two forced abortions. But that’s really looking at it through a lens that’s not so interesting to me.” “Blonde is almost three hours of trauma sadistic voyeurism and porn. “But in focusing exclusively on the most miserable aspects of her life, Dominik is doing the same thing he’s supposedly criticizing. “I think Marilyn was a guy’s girl. It’s about a person who is going to be killing themself. So it’s trying to examine the reasons why they did that. And not even because all of the abuse that was being shown, but because this was a real person and she was portrayed as some sort of fictional doll the whole time. The film ends with Monroe’s suicide at the age of 36.

Blonde tells the story of Norma Jeane Baker, from her childhood with an absent father and unstable mother, through her rise to stardom as Marilyn Monroe and ...

It's also the story of a person who had everything that our culture is always screaming at us is desirable," he explains. "She was famous, she was beautiful, she had a glamorous job, she dated all the cool guys of the day—and she killed herself. "It's the story of a person who kills herself. "I think a lot of it was how it portrayed the men in the story. And I was stunned because within 10 years, she was going to be one of the most famous names in the history of show business," she says. And then it seemed to me that there was a way to see the adult life through the lens of that trauma." Why is that woman on the subway grating the sort of American equivalent of Venus in the Shell, rising out of the sea? One shot in an abortion sequence is presented from the fetus' point of view. And there's a sense of the past, or the unconscious terror rising up. "I was drawn to write this story of a very ordinary-seeming American girl, from a very lower economic background, who rises and becomes enormously successful. The idea of the desire for the absent father to return and stabilize her mother. Of how to take what she set up in the book, which is the childhood trauma.

From Joe DiMaggio to John F. Kennedy—a look at the icon's past romances and an answer to the vital question: Was she ever in a throuple?

Chaplin made reference to their affair in [his 1960 memoir](https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.136201/2015.136201.My-Father-Charlie-Chaplin_djvu.txt), and biographer Anthony Summers details the relationship in 1985’s [Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Goddess/g8gJZltbC2MC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=chaplin). [noted](https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Many_Lives_of_Marilyn_Monroe/vxx8QUeHHsUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=chaplin) by biographer Sarah Churchwell in 2004’s The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe. [reported by Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2010/11/marilyn-monroe-201011) in 2010. The trio, who brand themselves “the Geminis” and declare that they “can’t be divided” are just that when Monroe’s talent agent urges her to keep the relationship a secret. In 1946, she would file for divorce the same year she [signed a studio contract](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/09/blonde-marilyn-monroe-show-business-tales-debunked) at 20th Century Fox. [Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/07/blonde-ana-de-armas-marilyn-monroe-exclusive-photos), Oates compared Monroe to 19th-century literary character Emma Bovary in matters of the heart. Doughtery would later tell [People](https://people.com/movies/marilyn-monroes-most-famous-lovers-truth-vs-rumor/) in 1976, “If I hadn’t gone into the Merchant Marines during World War II, she would still be Mrs. (Xavier Samuel) and Edward “Eddy” G. “Both are young women who have a very romantic and probably unrealistic vision of love,” she explained. Long before Monroe’s higher-profile marriages, she was betrothed to James Dougherty when she was 16—a period that Blonde skips entirely. And Caspar Phillipson brings “The President,” or her rumored paramour John F. Adrien Brody is “The Playwright,” or Monroe’s third spouse, Miller.

Everything you need to know about Monroe's three marriages as Blonde arrives on Netflix. Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe. Netflix © 2022.

[Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80174263) now, and you can [listen to the soundtrack on Amazon Music](https://www.amazon.co.uk/music/player/albums/B0BG6BRKL6?tag=radtim0b-21&ascsubtag=radiotimes-1713497). [subscribe now](http://radiotimes.com/magazine-subscription?utm_term=evergreen-article) and get the next 12 issues for only £1. He married one further time, to Rita Lambert in 1974, and passed away in 2005 at the age of 84. Monroe actually had two miscarriages during their marriage – one in 1956 and another in 1957. "And once someone starts getting into pills –uppers and downers, the way she was – people can go downhill. Monroe married her first husband, Jame Dougherty, at the age of just 16 in 1942. The pair rarely met again after, although Dougherty continued to follow her career from afar, and in 2002 he told Associated Press: "Fame was injurious to her. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the [Radio Times podcast](https://www.radiotimes.com/podcasts/). Check out more of our [Film](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/) coverage or visit our [TV Guide](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/tv-listings/) to see what's on tonight. She wasn't tough enough for Hollywood. During their marriage, Monroe converted to Judaism in an attempt to fit in with Miller's family, and her life appeared to become more normal for a while during the start of their time together. [terms and conditions](https://www.immediate.co.uk/terms-and-conditions/) and [privacy policy](https://policies.immediate.co.uk/privacy/).