The ‘Platinum Martyr’: Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday

The legendary actress’s story is a cautionary tale about the price of chasing fame

Marilyn Monroe, whose 100th birthday falls on June 1, remains the Dream Factory’s most exquisite casualty. Her death became a global obsession that endures today. Marilyn was a shimmering speed-freak of fame who hit the wall at 200 miles per hour because she was the only one in Hollywood who truly felt the wind.

Toasting a birthday for a woman who hasn’t drawn a breath since the Kennedy administration is a polite fiction. We aren’t celebrating a life; we’re examining a martyrdom.

Marilyn’s life was a slow-motion Technicolor execution, with the price of admission nothing less than Marilyn herself, a creature of pure surface who was swallowed whole by the very machinery that polished her.

Read the full story on Times2.

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