Добавить новость
smi24.net
News in English
Сентябрь
2022

Here’s How Much of Blonde Stays True to Marilyn Monroe’s Life

0

During her lifetime, but perhaps even more significantly in the sixty years since she died, Marilyn Monroe‘s presence has loomed large in our collective imaginations, providing endless inspiration for film, television, books, music, and art. This fall, Monroe is once again at the center of cultural conversation with the Sept. 28 release of Blonde.

Written and directed by Andrew Dominik, based on the 2000 Pulitzer Prize-shortlisted novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates, the film stars Ana de Armas as Marilyn and uses Monroe’s life as an inspiration to delve into the mystery and fantasy that surrounds one of the world’s most famous women. While Blonde takes inspiration from real events, figures, and long-held rumors from the actor’s life as a jumping point to imagine what Monroe may have thought and felt, the film is by no means a biopic. Like Oates’ book, it’s a definite work of fiction, dabbling in the experimental and including fantastical elements.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Here’s what’s fact and what’s fiction in Blonde.

Her childhood and her mother’s mental health issues

In the film, Marilyn, or Norma Jeane, as she was known in her childhood, is growing up in Los Angeles. Her earliest memories are of her mother telling her about her absentee father, while showing her a picture of Clark Gable. Her mother, a heavy drinker fixated on being abandoned by Marilyn’s father, shows signs of mental instability, including being physically abusive to her daughter, attempting to drive into the flames of the 1933 Griffith Park fire, and trying to drown Marilyn in a scalding hot bath. Following one of her mother’s episodes, neighbors intervene and Norma Jeane is put into foster care, entering an orphanage while her mother is committed to a mental institution.

Monroe’s actual childhood was as turbulent and tragic as what is shown in Blonde. Her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker, a film cutter at RKO Pictures, became pregnant with her after having an affair with her work superior, Charles Stanley Gifford. Born as Norma Jeane Baker in 1926, Monroe never met her father and lived with her mother until Gladys had a mental breakdown in 1934 and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Gladys was committed to a mental institution and would remain in various hospitals for the rest of her life. Following her mother’s commitment, Monroe stayed with family friends and was later made a ward of the state and placed in various orphanages and foster homes, until she married James Dougherty in 1942 at the age of 16, to avoid having to return to the orphanage.

Read More: We Should Talk More About What a Brilliant Actor Marilyn Monroe Was

Her alleged affair with Charlie Chaplin, Jr.

Matt Kennedy/NETFLIX—2022 © NETFLIX Blonde. L to R: Xavier Samuel as Cass Chaplin, Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe and Evan Williams as Eddy G. Robinson Jr..

Among the more fantastic liberties Blonde takes with Marilyn’s life is the throuple relationship she embarks on with Charlie “Cass” Chaplin Jr. and Edward “Eddy” G. Robinson Jr. Their threesome, which they dub “the Geminis” becomes the scandalous talk of the town, with Marilyn’s talent agent urging her to end it to try and curb bad press. A pregnancy that ends in an abortion brings the end of “the Geminis'” relationship. In reality, there’s no no evidence that Monroe was in a throuple or that the relationship was ever a subject of Hollywood gossip, although a brief affair between Monroe and Chaplin was the subject of rumors at the time and was later confirmed by him in his 1960 autobiography.

Her marriage to Joe DiMaggio

2022 © Netflix—2022 © NetflixBlonde. L to R: Bobby Cannavale as The Ex-Athlete & Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe.

Blonde follows the rise and fall of many of Monroe’s relationship and marriages. In the film, she meets and falls in love with “The Ex-Athlete,” a character based on the baseball star and Monroe’s ex-husband Joe DiMaggio. Their romance starts with a mutual desire for marriage, children, and a quiet life outside of the spotlight. After they marry, however, some disparities between their hopes for the future arise: The Ex-Athlete doesn’t share her interest in poetry or fine art and on visits to his family’s home, Marilyn is gently mocked for her lack of homemaking skills. The real fissures in their marriage arise from his volatile jealousy and domestic violence, including a traumatizing scene in which he beats Marilyn with a belt after watching her film her famous subway grate scene for The Seven Year Itch.

In real life, DiMaggio’s jealousy and violent behavior led to the end of his marriage to Monroe. The couple wed in 1954 after two years of dating and began experiencing marital problems almost immediately, with the marriage lasting only nine months. Conflict began during their honeymoon, when the couple traveled to Japan for DiMaggio’s promotional baseball tour. On the trip, Monroe was asked to perform for American troops in Korea, much to DiMaggio’s consternation. DiMaggio was also controlling when it came to Monroe’s career: he wanted her to stop taking “dumb blonde” roles and avoid the sexualized public persona that had made her famous, and eventually become a full-time stay-at-home wife. It was clear that the newly retired baseball great did not enjoy being eclipsed by his wife, whose star was undeniably on the rise and there were multiple allegations, including ones made by his son, that DiMaggio was physically abusive to Monroe. Like in the film, the final straw for their marriage was the filming of The Seven Year Itch; according to photographer George S. Zimbel, who was on set photographing the scene, DiMaggio stormed off the New York City set in a fury after watching the crowd go wild for Marilyn’s skirt billowing up above the subway grate. A violent fight was reported at their hotel that night and Monroe filed for divorce when she returned to California after the shoot, citing “mental cruelty.”

Her marriage to Arthur Miller

2022 © Netflix—2022 © NetflixBlonde. L to R: Adrien Brody as The Playwright & Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe.

In Blonde, one of the happiest and most idyllic periods of Marilyn’s life is during her romance and eventual marriage to “The Playwright,” a character based on Arthur Miller. In the film, they meet in 1955 when she auditions to perform in one of his plays, while living in New York and attending the Actors’ Studio; the duo bond over a shared love of Anton Chekov’s The Three Sisters, with Miller being surprised and impressed by Marilyn’s intelligence and insight. A whirlwind courtship, marriage, and a relocation to the suburbs bring both wedded bliss, especially after Marilyn discovers she’s pregnant, but after a devastating miscarriage and the discovery that he’s been using her as inspiration for her material, Marilyn turns to drinking and drugs to dull her pain, causing a strain on the marriage.

This period in her life in the film is fairly accurate to Monroe’s actual time married to Miller. The pair met on the set of As Young As You Feel in 1951, while Monroe was casually dating Miller’s friend, Elia Kazan. They corresponded via letter for a few years, then reconnected after Monroe moved to New York in 1955 to attend the Actors Studio, beginning an affair that led to Miller establishing residency in Nevada so he could divorce his first wife and marry Monroe. Though their partnership was considered surprising to some, it was deeply devoted. When Miller applied for a passport to go to London with Monroe for a shoot, it triggered an investigation about his alleged ties to communism, opening both him and Monroe to scrutiny and surveillance, with Monroe supporting him publicly, despite the possible ramifications for her career. When the couple wed in 1956, Monroe converted to Judaism. Their five years of marriage started out with immense happiness, with Monroe even declaring “this is the first time I’ve been really in love,” but she later felt betrayed after reading some of Miller’s less than flattering observations of her in one of his notebooks. Multiple miscarriages added a strain and led to Monroe abusing alcohol and pills, which contributed to the eventual end of their marriage.

Read more: How Marilyn Monroe Became a ‘Real Actress’

Her alleged pregnancies and miscarriages

2022 © Netflix—2022 © NetflixBlonde. Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn is haunted by the memories of her unborn children in Blonde, with the film suggesting that she had an abortion out of fear that her mother’s mental illness was hereditary, while two other pregnancies resulted in miscarriages. There’s no evidence that Monroe ever had an abortion; she had three miscarriages during her marriage to Arthur Miller, which was devastating to her as she wanted to become a mother.

Her alleged affair with John F. Kennedy

One of the most horrific scenes in Blonde occurs when Marilyn is flown out to visit “The President,” who’s recuperating from back surgery. After being unceremoniously dragged through the halls of a hotel by Secret Service agents, she’s shown to the politician in a manner that she likens to “meat to be delivered.” She asks The President, who’s on a phone call while watching a rocket launch, how she can help, and he coerces her into giving him a hand job and oral sex, before the scene ends with him raping her. While this highly stylized and fictional scenario is meant to highlight how Marilyn was exploited, it draws on longtime real speculation over Monroe’s relationship with President John F. Kennedy.

Rumors began after Monroe sang a sultry rendition of “Happy Birthday” to JFK at Madison Square Garden in 1962, just months before her death, while wearing the notorious sparkling and skintight nude gown that Kim Kardashian would controversially sport on the Met Gala carpet fifty years later. But according to biographer James Spada, who wrote Marilyn, it’s likely that the actor was involved with both JFK and his brother Robert “Bobby” Kennedy. In an interview with People, Spada said “it was pretty clear that Marilyn had had sexual relations with both Bobby and Jack.” Conspiracy theories abound suggesting that Monroe’s probable suicide was actually a cover-up for a more nefarious cause of death to prevent the affairs with the Kennedys from coming to light. There’s, of course, no way to prove them, but the mystery surrounding Monroe’s death has long been a point of fascination, spawning books, and even a documentary.

Who are Whitey and Mr. Shinn?

In Blonde, two of the more consistent characters in Marilyn’s life are her makeup artist Whitey and her talent agent, Mr. Shinn. Whitey is present for many of Marilyn’s most vulnerable moments in the film, constantly helping her transform from Norma Jeane to her glamorous Marilyn Monroe persona. Unlike many of the other men depicted in the film, he’s one of the few people in her life who’s not using her or seeking to take something from her. In reality, Allan “Whitey” Snyder was a consistent presence in Marilyn’s life; he worked with her from her first screen test at Twentieth Century Fox until her final days. Monroe had even asked him that if she died before him, to do her makeup for the funeral, which he agreed to, fulfilling his promise to her after her death in 1962 and even serving as a pallbearer at her funeral.

On the other hand, the fictional Mr. Shinn in the film, is a pivotal figure in Marilyn’s early career, sending her on casting calls and carefully managing her public persona and press. While Marilyn is grateful for his guidance, looking at him somewhat as a father figure, he makes advances towards her at a movie premiere and seeks to control her personal life. The character is most likely based on Monroe’s real-life talent agent, William Morris Agency vice president, Johnny Hyde. Hyde discovered Marilyn in 1949 at the Palm Springs Racquet Club where she was doing a photo shoot; he quickly signed her on as a client and helped her to land her first roles in Hollywood, eventually securing her a contract with Twentieth Century Fox, just days before his death in 1950. According to biographer Donald Spoto in Marilyn Monroe: The Biography, Hyde was deeply in love with his client, going so far as to leave his wife at the time for her and proposing marriage multiple times.








Paul Oakenfold возвращается в Россию: легенда электронной музыки даст концерты в Москве и Петербурге спустя 7 лет

Делегация «ЛокоТех» посетила финал II чемпионата профессионалов ОАО «РЖД» в Екатеринбурге

Зеленая миссия примет участие в международном экоакселераторе

В студии Детского радио прошла церемония гашения почтовой марки


La UFC anuncia un mes de octubre mayúsculo

Why Juventus spent 111m this summer for only one new player

Félix Auger-Aliassime

Adil Rami carga contra Lamine: "No puedo ni verlo, que le den..."


Раздвигая горы - к единству и созиданию! Манифест лезгинского народа (письменное обращение, воззвание программного характера)

Предрассветная Нёнокса...

Дивеево ..

В студии Детского радио прошла церемония гашения почтовой марки


'I destroyed months of your work in seconds' says AI coding tool after deleting a devs entire database during a code freeze: 'I panicked instead of thinking'

Краткая биографическая справка о центральных персонажах Mafia: The Old Country

Microsoft warns of 'active attacks' on its government and business server tech, with one cybersecurity expert claiming that they should 'assume that you have been compromised'

The dairy industry would like Gen Z to drink more milk, so they made a Fortnite diner tycoon game



Оркестр полиции Республики Сербской впервые выступит на фестивале «Спасская башня» в Москве

«Каникулы с Росгвардией» проходят в регионах Центральной России

Оркестр полиции Республики Сербской впервые выступит на фестивале «Спасская башня» в Москве

Квалификационные испытания на право ношения знака отличия полицейского спецназа Росгвардии завершились в Подмосковье (видео)


Chef's table и новое пространство ресторана «Интеллигенция»

В студии Детского радио прошла церемония гашения почтовой марки

МИД РФ заявил о готовности подписать документ о безъядерной зоне в Юго-Восточной Азии

Трое российских бойцов две недели ползли к своим позициям


Суд над московской ячейкой «Фалуньгун»*: как опасная китайская секта попала в РФ

Суд арестовал продававшего сведения каналу Baza полицейского из Белгорода

Клуб Медиалиги «Амкал» предлагал Овечкину сыграть в Кубке России по футболу

РФ выступила против принятия Израилем декларации о суверенитете Иордана


Россиянин Сидоренко выиграл золото Универсиады в настольном теннисе

Теннисистка Саккари спасла жука во время матча на турнире в США

Медведев обыграл У Ибина и вышел в 1/4 финала турнира в Вашингтоне

Новак Джокович проводит 900-ю неделю в топ-10 рейтинга ATP


Ефимов: за лето к переселению по реновации приступили 10 тыс. москвичей

Клуб Медиалиги «Амкал» предлагал Овечкину сыграть в Кубке России по футболу

По речке в сутки. Ливни обрушатся на Москву с 4 августа

Суд арестовал продававшего сведения каналу Baza полицейского из Белгорода


Музыкальные новости

Невозможное возможно: две подопечные фонда «Жизнь в Движении» с ограниченными возможностями покорят вершину Эльбруса

Аранжировка Песен. Аранжировка Музыки. Создание Аранжировок.

Певица Вика Цыганова раскритиковала российских фанатов Оззи Осборна

Sky News: умерший Осборн с 2019 года страдал от травмы позвоночника


Оркестр полиции Республики Сербской впервые выступит на фестивале «Спасская башня» в Москве

Оркестр полиции Республики Сербской впервые выступит на фестивале «Спасская башня» в Москве

Квалификационные испытания на право ношения знака отличия полицейского спецназа Росгвардии завершились в Подмосковье (видео)

«Каникулы с Росгвардией» проходят в регионах Центральной России


Будь собой, а не "звездой": "Europarty" от White Queen

Лео Канделаки и Анжелика Стубайло сыграют в новую трэвел-игру «Кто куда» на ТНТ

«Плюнули в лицо сотням тысяч молдаван»: как Санду готовит тотальный захват власти в Молдове

Модель Анастасия Решетова перенесла вирус с осложнениями


На международном ралли «Шелковый путь – 2025» представили новое моторное масло для мотоциклистов

Водитель Audi сбил трех пешеходов, переходивших дорогу на западе Москвы

В Подмосковье на видео попало, как школьник на питбайке разбился в жестком ДТП

В Москве на видео попало, как самокатчица влетела в авто с правоохранителями


Сигналы становятся всё громче. Переговоры - только ширма. Главное решится не в Стамбуле

У Путина есть роскошный подарок для Китая: США схватились за голову, узнав о нем

Отношения с Трампом не сложились: Путин зол. Ультиматум США вышел боком

Путин отметил успех российских школьников на олимпиаде по физике.


Обнаружен новый штамм коронавируса: он очень заразный и забирает голос

Депздрав Москвы: новый штамм коронавируса "стратус" фиксируют в Москве с мая

Депздрав Москвы оценил ситуацию с распространением нового штамма коронавируса

В Алтайском крае распространяется новый штамм коронавируса



Косметолог-эстетист Наталья Рябинова: как правильно использовать масло для губ

В Алтайском крае распространяется новый штамм коронавируса

Новый штамм коронавируса "стратус" фиксируют в Москве с мая

Путин дал указание рассмотреть проблемы онкологии в Архангельской области.


Мединский дал неожиданный ответ на предложение Киева о встрече Путина и Зеленского 

Британский журналист: Зеленский - мелкий жулик и крыса, которому «недолго осталось» в этом мире

«Затрудняет путь в ЕС»: Урсула ждёт от Киева разъяснений по поводу ограничения полномочий НАБУ


«Каникулы с Росгвардией» проходят в регионах Центральной России

"Монсон о спортсменах, которые меняют гражданство в сложный период для России"

Делегация «ЛокоТех» посетила финал II чемпионата профессионалов ОАО «РЖД» в Екатеринбурге

Назначены судейские бригады на матчи 2-ого тура МИР РПЛ


Лукашенко посоветовал не злить его и не допускать падежа в животноводстве

Лукашенко поделился мнением о самой идеальной профессии.

Лукашенко заявил, что в Белоруссии «на всякий случай» готовятся к войне

Лукашенко с иронией отнесся к санкциям, запрещающим ему въезд в Эстонию


Сергей Собянин поздравил москвича — победителя международной олимпиады по физике

Сергей Собянин. Главное за день

Собянин поддержал проведение конкурса «Лучший книжный магазин Москвы»

Мэр Москвы: Улучшим транспортную доступность Южного и Северного Бутова


Детеныш краснокнижной боливийской обезьяны появился на свет в Московском зоопарке

В центре внимания: CorpSoft24 вошел в рейтинг крупнейших ИТ-компаний России

Московские студенты начали исследовать влияние климатических изменений на сток рек Ямала

6 лет вместе. В Москве пройдет выставка, посвященная пандам Жуи и Диндин


Фитнес-марафоны на паузе: суд продлил домашний арест блогеру Лерчек

Ефимов: за лето к переселению по реновации приступили 10 тыс. москвичей

В РПЦ назвали татуировки опознавательным знаком для дьявола

Суд над московской ячейкой «Фалуньгун»*: как опасная китайская секта попала в РФ


Республика Алтай вошла в десятку регионов России по развитию ипотеки

В Нарьян-Маре из-за холодов возобновили подачу отопления в дома

Путин дал указание рассмотреть проблемы онкологии в Архангельской области.

Настольный термотрансферный принтер штрих-кодов iDPRT iE4P


Поезда "Таврия" по-прежнему задерживаются из-за ЧП в Ростовской области

Лавандовое поле горит в Симферопольском районе Крыма

Актуальная информация о задержке поездов в Крым и обратно

"Россия дала мне возможность быть счастливым": Джефф Монсон в Крыму


Путин обсудил технологию, способную изменить будущее военно-морского флота.

Суд завершил разбирательство по делу бывшего заместителя губернатора Челябинской области.

Суд запретил выезд экс-владельцу "Домодедово" Каменщику по иску на $57,8 млн

Писарев: «Руденко – лучший игрок первого тура РПЛ»














СМИ24.net — правдивые новости, непрерывно 24/7 на русском языке с ежеминутным обновлением *