Marilyn Monroe covers the June issue of Vanity Fair. According to VF, “just before Marilyn Monroe’s shocking death, in 1962, photographer Lawrence Schiller hit the jackpot, capturing the world’s most famous blonde at her most seductive.”

The never-before-seen pictures will appear in next month’s magazine. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

“Fox [Studios] should start paying as much attention to me as they are paying to Elizabeth Taylor,” Marilyn Monroe told Lawrence Schiller (then known as Larry Wolf), hatching the idea that would turn out to be the break of the young photographer’s life: for him to photograph her nude. In an adaptation of Schiller’s memoir Marilyn & Me, the June issue of Vanity Fair reveals never-before-published pictures from that shoot, as well as details of Schiller’s conversations with the star.

In 1960, as part of an ongoing battle to get Fox to take her more seriously, and out of jealousy over Taylor’s success, Marilyn came up with an attention-grabbing plan: a poolside shoot in which she’d jump in the water with a bathing suit on—and come out without it. “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.”

Just 23 years old at the time, Schiller, at the set on assignment for Look magazine, had no idea that he was getting to know the icon in some of her most vulnerable moments. In an adaptation of his memoir about their sessions together, Schiller recounts intimate and telling conversations that illuminate the private struggles that consumed the starlet in her final days.

“I could tell you all about rejection,” Marilyn said to Schiller. “Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.” “But look at you now,” he said. “Exactly,” she replied. “Look at me now.” Confused, Schiller protested, “You’re a star! Your face is on magazine covers all over the world! Everyone knows Marilyn Monroe!” “Let me ask you, Larry Wolf—how many Academy Award nominations do I have?” “I don’t know,” he said. “I do,” she said. “None.”

Marilyn even confided her deepest worry. “I’ve always wanted a baby,” she said. “Having a child, that’s always been my biggest fear. I want a child and I fear a child. Whenever it came close, my body said no and I lost the baby.” She talked to Schiller about being afraid that she’d wind up like her mother, who had been in and out of mental institutions her whole life.

She reflected often on her assumed identity, and where Norma Jeane fit in. “I never wanted to be Marilyn—it just happened. Marilyn’s like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane,” she admitted to Schiller. During a photography session, she told him, “I always have a full-length mirror next to the camera when I’m doing publicity stills. That way, I know how I look.” Schiller asked, “So, do you pose for the photographer or for the mirror?” “The mirror,” she replied without hesitating. “I can always find Marilyn in the mirror.”

However, Schiller reveals, Marilyn’s attitude about her sex-symbol status fluctuated wildly. While she was at times boastful of her looks and what they procured for her, she was also by turns insecure and angry. “It’s still about nudity. Is that all I’m good for?” she demanded of Schiller. “I’d like to show that I can get publicity without using my ass or getting fired from a picture,” she continued. “I haven’t made up my mind yet.”

It was to be their last conversation: the very next morning, Marilyn was reported dead at 36. One of her final acts had been to return the nude photo to Schiller, which he found waiting for him at his house. She had written, “Send this to Playboy, they might like it.”

VANITY FAIR

Nicole Richie opens up about her children (daughter Harlow, 4 and son Sparrow, 2) and her husband, Good Charlotte front man Joel Madden:

“Joel and I are complete polar opposites,” she says. “He’s from southern Maryland. He’s very family-oriented. He grew up with four brothers and sisters. When we met, I was definitely going through a difficult time with my family, and having him have such a strong foundation really opened the doors and brought both of our families together.”

Richie describes her children’s personalities: “My daughter looks exactly like me, and she has Joel’s personality. She’s very careful. She doesn’t make a move without fully thinking about what the consequences would be and what that means. Sparrow looks exactly like Joel and has my personality. He’s just wild. I’m in for the ride. He’s two, and we’ve had broken fingers, we’ve been to the hospital. You cannot take your eye off of him for a second. He is just a full, free spirit.”

Richie reflects on her roller coaster past and how she looks at it now:   “You have to remember that I was 20 years old,” she says of her earlier wilder days. “I don’t know anybody who can look back at who they were at 20 and say, ‘I’m the exact same person.’ It’s all about evolving and growing. Who we are in our 30s is obviously very different than who we are in our 20s…Also, keep in mind that my life didn’t start in shooting The Simple Life. For the public, obviously, that was the first time they saw me, but this,” she says, “has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl.” She goes on to say how she looks back on that particular time in her life: “I have fond memories of that time. I was 20, 21 years old and I was doing a show with my best friend and we didn’t really have to do much. We were just being ourselves—and playing it up for the cameras, obviously—but the show was very safe for me to do, in the sense that cameras were never in my home. They were never shooting my family. It was more about stepping into other people’s realities, as opposed to the cameras coming into our realities”.
Richie discusses how her fashion aspirations started long ago and what her collections mean:

“I’ve been getting ready for this since I was 16 years old,” Richie says. “When I actually met with partners, (clothing manufacturers) Rick and Brian Cytrynbaum, and they asked for ideas, I said, ‘I have plenty!’ I had two huge folders of inspirations tears to show where I saw the line going, what I wanted to start with first, and where I wanted to take it eventually. This has been in my head for a very long time.” Her fashion lines is aimed at multitasking women who aren’t afraid to take fashion risks, but she insists, it will grow only at the pace she sets. “With Winter Kate, we started out so small,” she says. “It’s taken me four seasons even to expand into doing leathers, laser cuts, furs. I have goals for House of Harlow and for Winter Kate: Ultimately, this will be a lifestyle brand. I’m going to do home furnishings and flatware, everything. (But) right now my focus is my family, and everything comes second to that.”

Julia Roberts graces the April cover of Vanity Fair, and it’s a beautiful cover in my opinion. I really love Julia, even if she’s been making nothing but horrible movies lately. Hated ‘Valentine’s Day’, thought she was the wrong pick for ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, ‘Larry Crowne’ will always be remembered by me as the worst movie I’ve ever been forced to watch (was on a plane) and from what I’ve seen, ‘Mirror, Mirror’ is going to be awful too. She needs to go back to making amazing movies. Be pickier Julia, you can afford it.

In Vanity Fair’s April 2012 cover story, Oscar winner and Mirror, Mirror actress Julia Roberts tells contributing editor Sam Kashner how Meryl Streep’s daughter gave her precious insight into raising kids as a famous mom. According to Roberts, her children have yet to understand what it means that their mother is a celebrity—but she talked to Grace Gummer about her own realization. “Grace comes up and goes, ‘Gosh, it’s so sweet seeing all your kids on the set. It reminds me of when I was little, and I would go see my mom at work.’ I asked, ‘Were you happy?’ Suddenly, I thought, here is a source of information,” Roberts says. “I said, ‘How old were you when you realized your mom was Meryl Streep?’ She said, ‘I think I was probably nine when I put that all together.’ I said, ‘Were you cool with it?’ She said, ‘Yeah, it was fine. There was no trauma.’ So that was hopeful.”

Roberts recalls a time “on a crowded street, and somebody noticed me, and then another person noticed. Somebody said as we were walking past, ‘Oh, that’s Julia Roberts.’ We all just kind of kept going, and then Finn said, ‘Yeah, my mom’s Julia Robinson.’ That’s what gives you perspective. It could be Robinson, it could be Johnson, because it has nothing to do with me as a person.”

Roberts tells Kashner that there had been “a time when I was encouraged—as all young actresses are—you know, ‘You’ve got to keep going; you’ve got to get out there.’” Unfortunately for them, Roberts says, young actors nowadays don’t have the benefit of the same kind of experience that she had when just starting out: “The business is so different; you can never be that new girl that has that moment of ‘Where’d she come from?’” she says. “There’s the express elevator and there’s rehab. It’s so awful; nobody gets a fair trial-and-error period that everybody deserves and everybody needs.”

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‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’ star Elizabeth Banks opens up in the March issue of Women’s Health about her decision to become a mom via surrogate after years of trying.

“It helps that other moms had said that once they had their babies, they forgot they were ever pregnant.  So once my focus became the baby and not the pregnancy, it was a very easy decision.”

On balance and teamwork with her husband (who she’s been with 19 years):

“Working together provides a lot of balance in our life and it’s a way for us to [see each other], because I travel so much for work. “

Could she run for office?

“I have an amazing marriage and it will be long-lasting. I think I’m a good mom.  I could run for office, no problem, because there are no skeletons in my closet. Not that I would run for office…”

 

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Singer and ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’ star Selena Gomez graces the March cover of Cosmopolitan Magazine.  A glimpse at her candid interview:

On her relationship with Justin Bieber: “I’m just like every 19-year-old girl. If you’re in love, you’re in love to the fullest, and you just want to go to the movies, hang out, and be as normal as possible. I’m fortunate that I’ve found someone who has that philosophy.”

From the first time I saw her on that show, she reminded me of Reese Witherspoon.  Something about her comedic timing and all that, I think.

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Star of the upcoming movie “Mirror Mirror“, Lily Collins chats with Seventeen Magazine about her eyebrows, her famous dad and more.

On her eyebrows: “It used to bother me – having bigger, fuller brows. I even plucked them once so I’d fit in, but I hated them and couldn’t wait for them to grow back. Now I embrace them. I’ve realized the quirky things that make you different are what make you beautiful.”

On her last name (she’s the daughter of music legend Phil Collins): “My last name may have opened doors, but I have to keep them open.”

On her celeb crush: “It’s weird to have celebrity crushes now because I could actually meet them or work with them! When I was younger, it was definitely Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. I had pictures of him and I had ‘NSYNC posted. I had the biggest crush on Justin Timberlake!”

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Blake Shelton, star of ‘The Voice’, says that marriage to Miranda Lambert has tamed him somewhat, but not changed him. He shares with Redbook’s February issue:

“I think she has probably tamed me a bit.  Or maybe it’s because I’m 35, and you star to calm down anyway. But I think a lot of it has to do with feeling settled and lucky to have ended up with the person I really wanted to be with. To me, that’s being tamed in the best possible way.”

“I’m sure [she] would agree — the idea of actually taming your partner is not our style. We accept and understand each other. Miranda would never want to tame me into being somebody I’m not, and I would never try to do that to her.”

His best advice on how to be a good husband:

“I think you’ve got to be confident and a little bit of a pushover.  Obviously, you’ve got to be a loyal person. I’m never going to listen to someone trash my wife. I think you have to be willing to take a bullet for somebody if you’re going to stand up there, take your vows, and be married to them for the rest of your life.”

Are you going to watch the new season of ‘The Voice’?

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