Marilyn Monroe: Born to be Misunderstood June 1, 1926

Heaven. A limitless library where books are never past due and there's always a soft, cozy spot to curl up with a good book.

Marilyn Monroe would have been 90 years old today. Can you imagine what the twitterverse and media would have done to Marilyn as time left its trace? There's only so much Botox and even the most extreme face lifts can do; the world would have eaten her alive. The world did eat her alive so instead we remember her frozen in time, forever 36. 

Was the bookish beauty just a notion she wanted to put out there to  compensate for her insecurity over being seen as a dumb blond? Did she buy all those books just for show? Or despite the fact that these are all posed photos, did she truly love to read? Did she find peace in a world seeking to label her as a sexpot, a blond bombshell, nothing more, by losing herself in a book? I was nine when Marilyn Monroe died. Everything I know about her, I know from the movies and the media. Like Elton John wrote in Candle in the Wind ... 

"I would have liked to know you, but I was just a kid. Your candle burned out long before your legend ever did." 

Happy Birthday Marilyn. 

May you always be in the middle of a good book.

“Miss Monroe, do you still want to do The Brothers Karamazov on Broadway?”

“I don’t want to play The Brothers,” she said.  “I want to play Grushenka from that book.  She’s a girl.”

The Brothers Karamazov starring Yul Brynner and Maria Shell has a whopping 22% on Rotten Tomatoes. Just imagine Marilyn doing the gypsy dance performed here by Maria Shell. She would have killed it. Then check out a scene from one of my favorite Marilyn movies, Some Like it Hot.