The only thing Vanity Fair loves more than dressing current starlets like olde-tymey silver screen sirens is poor dead Marilyn Monroe. The actress passed away in 1962, But here she is again, on the brand-spanking-new June 2012 cover. This time, the story is about some "lost" nude photos. The photographer, Lawrence Schiller, claims that Monroe was jealous of Elizabeth Taylor's success, and came up with a plan: To emerge from a pool naked:
"Larry," she said, "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." Marilyn was making only $100,000 for what would be her last film, Something's Got to Give, in 1962, while Taylor was receiving a million dollars for Cleopatra. She wanted to show Fox that she could get the same kind of coverage as the publicity bonanza generated by Taylor's very public affair with her co-star, Richard Burton. When Hugh Hefner agreed to pay $25,000 for a nude shot of Marilyn-the most money Playboy had ever paid for a photograph-Schiller thanked her for creating such a big payday, joking, "See what tits 'n' ass can do?" "That's how I got my house and swimming pool," Marilyn said, laughing. "There isn't anybody that looks like me without clothes on."
But if Monroe on the cover of VF seems very familiar, that because it is.
In November 2010, Vanity Fair's cover shouted, "Marilyn's Secret Diaries." Inside, the story was mag titled "Marilyn and Her Monsters." Private letters and diaries were published, the handwriting analyzed by an expert.
In October 2008, the cover was "Marilyn Monroe Mystery." The story was about "The Things She Left Behind," secret papers from filing cabinets. From My Week With Marilyn to Smash and the new show promising to find the "new Marilyn," you'd think we'd reached full saturation. But no one wants to let this woman rest in peace.
In case you're wondering, Marilyn Monroe isn't the only deceased luminary Vanity Fair won't let go of: The mag loves the dead Kennedys, too.
The Lost Marilyn Monroe Nudes: Outtakes from Her Last On-Set Shoot Revealed in June's V.F. [Vanity Fair]