The best part isn't even the appearance of the joint — it's Marilyn laughing and making "stoned" faces afterward. Not since Anna Faris in Smiley Face has a bombshell actress looked so convincingly stoned on screen:

New Marilyn Monroe Home Movie Shows Starlet Inhaling [NBC]
Marilyn Monroe Smoking Marijuana [Allegedly] In New Home Movie [HuffPo]

Steve Lopez' L.A. Times piece is ostensibly part of his ongoing investigation into the difficulty - or lack thereof - of obtaining medical marijuana in California. And Patel is a known source for herbal medicine, which she feels is often as effective and far gentler than chemical treatments.

Patel said she grew up in Chino Hills and went to medical school in the Caribbean, having wanted to be a doctor from the time she was 5.She ran a family practice and clinic in Hollywood, but grew weary of prescribing pharmaceuticals with potentially serious side effects to patients suffering from diabetes, AIDS, migraines and other maladies. Some of those patients asked if she would recommend marijuana instead...Patel said that if you haven't been previously diagnosed with a condition that has existed for at least six months, and you haven't tried conventional medicine, don't bother making an appointment with her. But she's convinced that marijuana, used properly, is improving the quality of life for many patients who got no such relief from prescription drugs.

Patel, although highly successful, doesn't seem to be taken very seriously by the press: as a scathing piece from 2007 pointed out, she uses the web address doc420.com. She uses old modeling shots in her ads. And on his visit, Lopez describes her as "wearing high heels, a tight-fitting white lab coat and lots of gold jewelry." Not, he implies, exactly helping the cause of medical marijuana as legitimate alternative. Patel says the 2007 piece was an unfair hatchet-job. Nevertheless, the photos are a...strong choice, as one of my friends in retail has been known to put it. Her website is full of glamour shots - and, it must be said, sexy music.

Patel should not be help up as the exemplar of either the medical marijuana cause nor women in medicine - although inevitably, she will be to a degree. And I'm guessing she's gotten a lot more press than other doctors prescribing the same course of treatment on equally defensible principles. Now, she's at liberty to advertise and present however she likes - but are, ahem, choices these strong doing a disservice to the cause? And in the land of Dr. 90210, is that her responsibility?

High Fashion In The Medicinal High Business [LA Times]

Dr. Sona Patel Official Myspace
I-Team investigation: Who is Doc 420? [ABCLocal]

The plaintiff did, in fact, have a prescription for medical marijuana due to a neck injury, but JJ knew it was baloney when she found out that he's a surfer. Still, she dismissed the plaintiff's case, because he had no legal standing.

Q: How bad did it get with the drugs?
A: "We were payin' money."


Q: When did the drugs start?
A: Time is categorized as either "Before The Bodyguard" or "After The Bodyguard."


Q: What did she do when she was high?
A: Read the bible.


Q: What did Bobby Brown do when he was high?
A: Arts and crafts.


Q: How frequently did she do drugs while filming The Preacher's Wife?
A: Every day.


Q: Was Bobby Brown jealous of her?
A: Hell to the yes.


Q: Does Whitney still worry about pleasing Bobby?
A: Hell to the no.
Q: Was Bobby Brown Abusive?
A: Emotionally, yes.


Q: Did Whitney realize what she was getting herself into when she signed up for Being Bobby Brown?
A: Hell to the no.


Q: What was Whitney's drug of choice?
A: Bobby.

The survey has 68 questions (all posed as statements) and is supposed to take 20 minutes. You're instructed to respond on a scale, with choices like "Totally Disagree, " "Very Slightly Disagree," "Strongly Agree" and "Totally Agree."

But: However loosely your moral compass is wound, it's pretty easy to cheat this test, since with many of the questions, it's so obvious how you should respond, if you want to get hired.

For instance, Question 13:

I have problems with long hours at work.

Who in their right mind — who really wants a job — is going to admit this?

Question 14:

Most employees get high on the job at one time or another.

Question 41:

Smoking a marijuana cigarette is the same as having a drink.

Question 5:

In previous jobs I've had problems getting to work on time, but that's behind me now.

Question 30:

Some people work as well slightly high as they do sober.

You know what? Some people do. Some people work better high. Are you going to say so when you want to work at Urban Outfitters? No. No, you are not.

Even more amusing are the questions about stealing. As you may know, Urban Outfitters has quite frequently been accused of ripping off other designers. (More here, here, here, here; and then there's an entire site called Urban Counterfeiters.)

But there were several questions hinting that prospective employees had better not even think about stealing from UO.

Question 32:

In some instances an employee who steals small items should be overlooked if he/she does an otherwise outstanding job.

Hey, I'm gonna work super hard and only walk out of here with some earrings. Or a purse. Hire me?

Question 55:

Most employees steal at one time or another.

Psst. Everybody's doing it. Hire me?

Question 44:

A person who takes $5.00 a year from his/her employer is a thief.

I steal, but only a little. Hire me?

Question 20:

In previous jobs I've stolen small items, but I will never do it again.

Unless I go back on crack. Hire me?

It would be really interesting to see how the creative types at Urban Outfitters — who knock off T-shirts, shoes and jewelry — and whose sister company, Anthropologie, doesn't like black people — would reply to these questions:

Question 24:

A company's policies and procedures should be followed without deviation.

Question 38:

Cheating is the way a majority of individuals succeed in business.

Question 23:

An employee should criticize his/her company when he/she believes it to be wrong.

But maybe the answers lie here:

Question 4:

A good employee should always support the organization when outsiders criticize it.

Question 7:

Some rules should be altered to fit the specific situation.

Related: Urban Counterfeiters
Earlier: Anthropologie Doesn't Care About Black People

• Barack Obama had a meeting and a bunch of potheads showed up. Somebody told them there would be brownies. [NY Times]

• Then the Republicans held a meeting to talk about their alternative budget and a bunch of people expecting numbers showed up and there were neither numbers OR pot brownies because the Republicans ate 'em. Jason Linkins calls that "happy hour at the Chuckle Hut." [Huffington Post]
• Then Robert Gibbs went all Jon Stewart on them, harshing their mellow. [Washington Post]
• And then Michelle Bachmann introduced a bill to prevent the establishment of a world currency and everyone got really pissed that the Republican leadership had bogarted all the weed. [CBS News]
• Lacking in mind-altering substances, John McCain finally admitted everyone voted for Sarah Palin instead of him. [Washington Independent]
• His former lead staffer Steve Schmidt came out for gay marriage but not in that way, and McCain turned to the bottle and some old Vicodin he found. [Huffington Post]
• Sarah Palin sought to blunt Republican criticism of her plan to reject one-third of the federal stimulus money by not showing up to a meeting with Republican legislators. [Politico]
• New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand prefers straight nicotine to weed by, like, a lot. [NY Times]
• Papa's got a brand-new Afghanistan strategy that includes Pakistan and doesn't make your heroin any cheaper, so stick to weed. [NY Times]

• 1 in 10 have used marijuana in the past year.
  
• 7 out of 10 have never stolen supplies from their office.
  
• 80% would rather be a CEO than the next Canadian Idol.

How about they're:

• Stoners.
  
• Goody-two shoes.
  
• And clearly can't sing half as well as, like, Clay Aiken and Fantasia.