His Week
With Marilyn?
What About
My 5 Minutes
With Jack?
“My Week With Marilyn” hits the cinema screens next week. Based on two books by Colin Clark, the film details the time (one week, apparently) he spent with Marilyn Monroe on the set of the film “The Prince and the Showgirl.” In terms of biographies, Marilyn Monroe occupies the rarified position of an icon whose life has been covered in a multitude of forms, from full-scale biographies including those by Barbara Leaming ("Marilyn Monroe") and Donald Spoto ("The Biography"), to micro-bios such as “My Two Weeks With Marilyn.” She has even been featured in eccentric fictionalized accounts such as “The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe.”
Marilyn’s life is clearly not just one story, as there are almost as many Marilyns as there are books: the ‘secret’ Marilyn, including “Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe” (a big book covering her whole life and based on over 600 interviews); the ‘legendary’ Marilyn, including the rather rational “Legend: The Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe”; the ‘conspiracy victim’ Marilyn of “The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe”; and a host of ‘unseen,’ ‘private,’ 'intimate,’and ‘confidential’ Marilyns.
Biographies are big business, and the more controversial the better. I mean, have you ever seen the cover of a celebrity biography that reads “a fair and respectful account of their happy life featuring details and anecdotes we are all familiar with?” Not so much.
Masters of the celebrity biography in the modern era include Kitty Kelley and the late Albert Goldman. Kitty Kelley runs the gamut from the unassumingly titled (but rather mean) “Oprah: A Biography,” to the flat out sensational “Jackie Oh!” – Jackie Kennedy roasted. “His Way” is her very ‘unauthorized’ version of Frank Sinatra’s life, and the full-on dynastic expose offered in “The Royals” bathes the British Royal Family in a very unflattering light.
Albert Goldman followed a similar vein with his two especially sensational books on Elvis Presley and John Lennon. Goldman, however, may have experienced “instant Karma” - when he was travelling to London to be interviewed by the BBC, he died on the plane going over, and when the BBC were unable to find anyone to claim his body they had him cremated and his ashes Fed-Exed to his literary agent.
Micro-biographies such as “My Week with Marilyn” seek to present the ‘real’ celebrity you never knew in a microcosm during a notable period of their lives. Marilyn, Princess Diana, Elvis Presley, John Lennon and all the usual suspects have had these interludes elucidated by those who were there. It is this phenomenon that has led me to my first literary foray, with an outline of an intimate memoir entitled “You Don't Know Jack: Five Minutes with Jack Nicholson out Front of a Diner in Marina Del Rey.”
Jack just let it all hang out in a conversation that could be best described as meteorological. And while I am not at liberty to share all the details here, if any publishers are interested in this never before told story of the ‘unknown’ Jack, I am open to offers.
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