04:34 PM EDT 05/21/2012
Marilyn Monroe
50 Years of Stars Copying Marilyn Monroe's Sultry Birthday Song
Originally posted 05/19/2012 10:10AM
It's been 50 years since Marilyn Monroe offered a sultry musical greeting to then President John F. Kennedy on his 45th birthday. The song, "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" has become iconic – parodied and celebrated in pop culture for the past five decades ever since it was performed on May 19, 1962.
PEOPLE.com is paying homage to the cultural moment with this roundup of equally star-studded renditions – from Mike Myers in character as Wayne Campbell to Madonna's 1993 version on SNL to the stars of Smash, vying for a role in a Marilyn-themed musical, this year.
And then there's Marilyn's version, sung at a celebration for Kennedy 10 days before his actual birthday: It was followed up with a snippet of the song "Thanks for the Memory," which she amended with lyrics written specifically for Kennedy.
Smash Sneak Peek: Katharine McPhee Channels Her Inner 'Redneck'
Originally posted 02/16/2012 08:00AM
Katharine McPhee's character might be up for the role of Marilyn Monroe on NBC's Smash, but on next week's episode (Monday, 10 p.m. ET), she proves she's still a "Redneck Woman" at heart.
In a sneak preview (see video above), McPhee's Karen Cartwright returns to Iowa for a baby shower, where she performs karaoke at a bar to Gretchen Wilson's country hit "Redneck Woman."
Meanwhile, back in New York, the writing-producing team played by Anjelica Huston and Debra Messing are working on getting investors for the show and looking to cast someone as Yankee hero – and Monroe husband – Joe DiMaggio.
(In 1983 there really was a Monroe musical, the short-lived Marilyn: An American Fable. It featured, in his Broadway debut, a pre-Quantum Leap Scott Bakula as DiMaggio. Alyson Reed played Monroe.)
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Smash Premieres: Is NBC's Musical Drama a Hit?
Originally posted 02/06/2012 11:00PM
Smash has finally arrived!
After months of heavy promotion (and access to the pilot on iTunes), NBC's buzzed-about musical drama that goes behind the scenes of a Broadway show premiered Monday night – but will it be a hit? Caution: Spoilers ahead.
In the first episode, we meet the players – struggling actors, conflicted writers, an egotistical director and an ambitious producer – involved in launching a musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe.
"Everyone's doing her now," says Debra Messing's character, writer Julia Houston. "There's a Marilyn movie, diaries. You know what there's an app for the iPad now? You blow on it and the skirt goes up."
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George Clooney, Michelle Williams Receive Oscar Nominations
Originally posted 01/24/2012 08:45AM
Comedy counts in Hollywood, for once, with two surprise nominations for Bridesmaids, for Supporting Actress Melissa McCarthy and Best Screenplay writer Kristen Wiig, according to this year's Oscar nominations, announced early Tuesday at the Beverly Hills headquarters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
As anticipated – given earlier honors from critics' group and the Golden Globes – nominations in the Best Picture category included those for director Alexander Payne's family drama set in Hawaii The Descendants (five nods) and the love letters to early movies, The Artist, with 10 nominations, and Martin Scorsese's Hugo, with 11. In all, nine films received Best Picture nominations.
Acting nods went to, among others, those friendly rivals George Clooney, for The Descendants, and Brad Pitt, for Moneyball.
For Best Actress, Michelle Williams was cited for her turn as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn, as was Meryl Streep, who plays former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in The Iron Lady.
Streep's nomination is her 17th – an all-time Academy record. (Both Jack Nicholson and Katharine Hepburn received 12 nominations; he won three times and she won four.) Streep has won twice, as Best Supporting Actress for 1979's Kramer vs. Kramer, and as Best Actress for 1982's Sophie's Choice.
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Michelle Williams Jiggles Just Like Marilyn Monroe
Originally posted 11/14/2011 02:20PM
She added a few pounds, had the blonde wig, and spent hours in makeup each day to play Marilyn Monroe in the upcoming film My Week with Marilyn. But Michelle Williams had to learn to move like the Hollywood legend, too.
"I wasn't watching what I ate, let's put it that way," Williams, 31, told PEOPLE Sunday, at the film's New York premiere, about her physical transformation, which also included some helpful wardrobe tricks that helped her jiggle a bit more.
"The costume designer and Michelle came up with some great stuff," said director Simon Curtis. "But an awful lot is Williams's understanding of the way Marilyn walked, and the way Williams herself took on the wiggle."
Michelle Williams Makes Marilyn Monroe's Getaway Car Sexy
Originally posted 11/04/2011 08:25AM
There's a lot of buzz surrounding Michelle Williams's sultry new role as Marilyn Monroe in the upcoming film My Week with Marilyn.
Even Queen Elizabeth is said to be screening the film, which includes their meeting in 1956.
But in this new clip, you see what the fuss is all about. Williams's giggling Marilyn hides in the backseat of her "getaway car" to steal a young Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) off the studio lot for an "adventure."
The Queen Will Screen My Week With Marilyn at the Palace
Originally posted 11/01/2011 06:00PM
What happened when Queen Elizabeth met Marilyn Monroe?
Even the Queen herself is interested in seeing that moment played out on the big screen: She plans to host a showing at the palace of the upcoming film My Week With Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams, a source tells PEOPLE.
In the film, Williams channels the sultry star, portraying Monroe as she was during a brief period in the summer of 1956, when the actress was in the U.K. filming The Prince and the Showgirl. It was during that time that Monroe met the Queen.
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Michelle Williams Is the New Marilyn Monroe
Originally posted 10/08/2010 02:30PM
Michelle Williams strikes a sultry pose as Marilyn Monroe in this sneak-peek picture for her upcoming film My Week with Marilyn.
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Who Will Make the Better Marilyn Monroe: Naomi Watts or Michelle Williams?
Originally posted 05/14/2010 11:05AM
There is only one Marilyn Monroe, but now two actresses are set to embody the bombshell on screen. It was announced this week at the Cannes Film Festival that Naomi Watts, 41, will play Monroe in a biopic based on author Joyce Carol Oates's controversial, fictionalized memoir, 2000's Blonde. The movie, also called Blonde, is reportedly slated to start filming in January.
Meanwhile, 29-year-old Michelle Williams is in active negotiations to play Monroe in a film directed by Simon Curtis, which focuses on the late screen legend's time spent in England while filming 1957's The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier.
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Never-Before-Seen Marilyn Monroe Photos
Originally posted 06/01/2009 10:25AM
She's still the iconic image of the Hollywood blonde, even 47 years after her death – at age 36 – in 1962. With Monday marking what would have been the 83rd birthday of Marilyn Monroe, LIFE.com has posted a gallery of never-before-seen images of the then-rising star, taken in 1950 by Life photographer Ed Clark in Los Angeles's Griffith Park.
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