Aujourd'hui marque le 45ième anniversaire de la mort de Marilyn Monroe. J'ai fait un reportage éco pour la Radio Suisse Romande sur son statut de star parmi les plus "productives" et mieux payées de Hollywood. Elle aurait gagné plus de 8 millions de Dollars en 2006, selon les estimations de Forbes. Marilyn a un agent, le fondateur de CMG Worldwide, qui gère son site Web, signe quelque 400 contrats de merchandising chaque année (aussi bien pour des T-shirts que pour une gamme de vin, le "Marilyn Merlot") et la place dans des spots publicitaires. Dans cette pub particulièrement curieuse pour Visa, elle est une professeur-hologramme dans une université du futur.
Ainsi l'image de Marilyn est numérisée pour ce genre de cameos ou pour intégrer des jeux videos comme Les Sims. J'ai demandé à l'agent de Marilyn, Mark Roesler, s'il avait l'intention de la "ressusciter" grâce aux nouvelles technologies afin de lui faire jouer de nouveaux rôles dans des films (ce que son agence a fait avec Laurence Olivier) mais il pense que Marilyn est de fait, intouchable: "Faire revivre Marilyn dans un film en tant que star... ce serait courir le risque de changer son image," a-t-il dit. "Les générations futures ne seraient pas nécessairement capables de distinguer la 'nouvelle Marilyn' de 'l'ancienne'... Ce serait très risqué... Ce serait courir le risque de changer son image et sa réputation."
Des fans qui se sont appropriés Marilyn sont très critiques de cette gestion de la carrière post-mortem de leur idole. L'un d'eux, l'acteur Mark Bellinghaus a assemblé un musée en ligne formidable de photos rares et d'objets personnels (la photo ci-dessus fait partie de sa collection publique fascinante à visiter ici. Il a entre autre plusieurs photos de Marilyn dans son appartement de Doheny Drive à West Hollywood.)
Chere Emmanuelle:
Merci pour vos commentaires de Mark Bellinghaus, le vrai défendeur de Marilyn Monroe. Il ne cesse jamais à travailler pour l'honneur de Marilyn Monroe. Je suis aussi très fière de Mark Bellinghaus et ses réussites et à aussi travailler avec lui et Ernest Cunningham.
Merci aussi pour la commentaire de kjgoodwin de YouTube. Ses videos de Marilyn Monroe sont excellent. Mark Bellinghaus a des videos de Marilyn Monroe qui sont excellent aussi: http://www.youtube.com/MarkBellinghaus
Jennifer J Dickinson
Hi Elspeth!
Actually it's interesting because Marilyn Monroe is at the center of a battle between photographers who want her image, likeness and persona to be in the public domain and the agency + the estate managing her post-mortem publicity rigths:
http://rarepattern.com/nodes/2007/05/marilyn-monroe-is-now-in-public-domain
And the photographers have won so far.
CMG, Marilyn's new agency was retained by Marilyn's estate, which is run primarily by the widow of Lee Strasberg if I understand well. Marilyn left some of her estate to relatives but the bulk of it went to her former acting coach and his family.
When managing dead icons, CMG takes a bigger cut because, I was told, managing the dead is more complicated than managing the living... Even though a former employee at Marilyn's first agency in the 50s tells me that she was sweet but always late, and slightly high-maintenance: you had to go knock on her door to get her out of bed, literally.
Wow, it's kind of like Dixie Flatline's construct. But I'm not sure I'm down for resurrecting screen icons -- it's bad enough having all those old Greta Garbo and Audrey Hepburn flicks around. It's a sad, weird experience to get a crush on a dead person, but probably unavoidable if you watch a lot of movies. What was that Godard said about how cinema is where the living commune with the dead? I think it was in Histoire(s) du cinéma, but my French still blows so I may have just misunderstood.
You made me want to look for the quote Paul but I can't find it. I found this video of Julie Delpy reading a Godard text -- an excerpt of the film you mentioned, right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svqq33vdHn4
Going to see J.Delpy's movie tonight. Very excited
One and the same. Enjoy the movie! I loved it but my Delpy obsession naturally makes objective judgment impossible.
Merci, Emmanuelle,
C'est vraiment tres interessant et je crois que ce n'est pas juste aussi - quel dommage!
Dear Emmanuelle:
En anglais this time. Thanks for discussing the Right of Publicity. Part of the issue with the Right of Publicity is that CMG and MMLLC took the right of publicity of Marilyn Monroe when they were never entitled. http://www.pr-inside.com/marilyn-monroe-sensation-her-will-set-r132986.htm
Mark Bellinghaus provided an original copy of May Reis' (Marilyn Monroe's secretary) will to attorneys for the photographers. Mr. Bellinghaus had studied her will extensively and realized that something was very wrong.
Anna Strasberg had tried to minipulate the will saying that Marilyn Monroe gave the rights to Lee Strasberg when these rights were never passed on to him, nor were they in existence at the time of Marilyn Monroe's death in 1962.
For anyone who wants to continue to keep Marilyn Monroe free, please write to your California Senators in opposition of senate bill SB 771. As it is written it is very slanted in favor of CMG and MMLLC to regain control in this private interest legislation - for more information please click here. Thank you! Best Regards, Jennifer Dickinson http://dist23.casen.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={ED06AAC3-8E06-4148-A166-526DCBFEEA9A}&DE={85182199-BCEE-4D86-A65B-AA3CC265A717}
N'empêche qu'avec ces techniques il devient de plus en plus difficile de savoir qui est mort et qui est vivant
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So who, other than Mark Roessler, stands to gain from all this "work" that Marilyn is doing these days? I didn't know she had much family who would benefit from her estate. Or maybe it's all pro bono ... ? But 45 years is not long enough for her to have become Public Domain.