Marilyn Monroe

A triplex in West Hollywood that has counted both singer Frank Sinatra and film star Marilyn Monroe among its former tenants has come on the market at $4.75 million. Sinatra's and Monroe's rentals overlapped in 1961. He used his apartment as a getaway and she lived in hers, according to "Mr. S: My Life With Frank Sinatra," written by George Jacobs, his valet at the time. The owner is Beverly Coburn, actor James Coburn's first wife. She bought the building in 1989 for $1.643 million from interior designer Kalef Alaton, who had remodeled it. The three units in the gated compound share a courtyard and patio space.

Kenneth Battelle, an influential hairstylist who created Jacqueline Kennedy's tousled bouffant and counted Marilyn Monroe and Lucille Ball among his many famous clients, died Sunday at his home in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. He was 86. His death was confirmed by the Kenneth salon he established in New York City in 1963. Known professionally simply as Kenneth, he started out as a New York stylist in 1950 at Helena Rubinstein's famous New York salon. After Kennedy became a client in 1954, she stayed with him throughout her White House years.

HER name is Sherrie Lea Laird. She is the lead singer of a Canadian rock band called Pandamonia and the divorced mother of a 21-year-old daughter. But throughout her life, the 43-year-old Laird contends, she has also been someone else: Marilyn Monroe. Laird's assertion that she is the reincarnation of the late Hollywood icon is sure to be dismissed by skeptics.

" Forever Marilyn " fans, it's time to say goodbye. The giant Marilyn Monroe sculpture with the forever billowing skirt has stood at Palm Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way in Palm Springs for a year, but it will be moving on in June. Before then, there's a film series and farewell party planned. So go, snap some pictures and see the movies that made her a film icon. The deal: The Forever Marilyn Outdoor Movie Series on May 3 will screen  the comedy "Monkey Business" (1952)

Since my article about the enduring appeal of Marilyn Monroe appeared in Sunday's Image section, I've received several emails about upcoming events scheduled on or around Aug. 5, which marks the 50 th anniversary of her passing. Meet and greet The Hollywood Museum , which already has an extensive Marilyn Monroe memorabilia collection on exhibit through Sept. 2, (one of our compatriots shares the details here ), is hosting a meet and greet with two men whose collections are on exhibit: Greg Schreiner (president of the Marilyn Remembered fan club)

Since her death on Aug. 5, 1962, hundreds of books about Marilyn Monroe have been published by various writers, ranging from famous names such as Norman Mailer, Gloria Steinem and Joyce Carol Oates, to people who worked with her on movie sets. With so many choices, its hard to navigate through the Monroe oeuvre, but here are 10 volumes that should nourish the soul of her most ardent fans. "Marilyn: A Biography" (1973). Norman Mailer's controversial, lavish, coffee-table exploration of Monroe includes stunning images by several noted photographers as well as the author's rather grandiose prose.

Marilyn Monroe certainly achieved fame in the course of her 36-year lifetime, but in the five decades since her death, she's become such a celebrity-branding superstar, it often feels as if America's proto-platinum pinup never really left the building at all. She is routinely referenced in store windows and on runways; her image graces such products as glossy magazine covers and wine bottles; and her persona regularly flickers to new life on TV and...

The first man to impersonate Marilyn Monroe may well have been her dance coach, Jack Cole. Anticipating the iconic Marilyn, he brought out her exceptional femininity through dance. Monroe copied him in return. A star was born. Monroe's six-movie collaboration with Cole began with 1953's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," the breakthrough film that made her a superstar. Yet the man behind the icon has been forgotten -- an odd missing puzzle piece in view of Monroe's staying power.

Once upon a time, before she was the ultimate screen sex symbol, before she became an icon and source material for generations of writers and artists, Marilyn Monroe was a working actress. She died 50 years ago this Sunday at the age of 36 from an overdose and in the intervening years the actual person has disappeared behind the myth of "Marilyn Monroe. " A visit to her place of rest at the Westwood Village Memorial Park offers testimony to the power of her memory. The wall of her crypt had to be replaced multiple times because of fans who made a pilgrimage there to caress, embrace and kiss it. But she was real, and to those who knew her Monroe was a devoted, if troubled, actress who took her craft seriously.

'The Prince and the Showgirl' (1957) "My Week With Marilyn" depicts the making of "Showgirl," which costarred Monroe with Laurence Olivier, who famously told her: "All you have to do is be sexy, dear Marilyn. " 'The Misfits' (1961) The last feature completed by Monroe and costar Clark Gable was a box-office flop but was critically acclaimed. 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' (1953) One of Monroe's best-remembered films featured Monroe's performance of the song often associated with the blond bombshell, "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend.

This post has been corrected. See note below for details. Renée Taylor is a very funny lady known for such comedic roles as Eva Braun in Mel Brooks' 1968 classic "The Producers," Fran Drescher's ultimate Jewish mother on "The Nanny" and Brian Benben's ultimate Jewish mother on HBO's "Dream On. " But her career didn't start out that way. FOR THE RECORD: Renee Taylor: A profile of actress Renee Taylor in the March 27...

Marilyn Monroe, one of America's most beloved pop cultural icons, and New Coke, one of its most despised, commanded the biggest bids in the first in a series of online Christie's auctions of Andy Warhol artworks that ended Tuesday. The winning bids totaled $1.84 million for 124 auction lots. It was the second round of all-Warhol sales in a multi-year effort by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts to liquidate its holdings to boost its grantmaking endowment. Winning bidders also must pay a 25% buyer's premium.

"The Real Reason for Marilyn Monroe's Divorce from Joe DiMaggio" read the headline on a 1955 Confidential magazine article that exposed a bumbling ambush involving the famous ballplayer and Frank Sinatra. The unlikely duo allegedly had tried to catch the actress with "another man" at an apartment in West Hollywood. Except the headline wasn't exactly true. The sex symbol and DiMaggio had been divorced for more than a week when - acting on a tip from a private investigator - a group of men broke down the door of an apartment on Nov. 5, 1954, only to be greeted by a middle-aged woman screaming in her bed. DiMaggio and Sinatra were reportedly spotted scurrying away from the scene.

A triplex in West Hollywood that has counted both singer Frank Sinatra and film star Marilyn Monroe among its former tenants has come on the market at $4.75 million. Sinatra's and Monroe's rentals overlapped in 1961. He used his apartment as a getaway and she lived in hers, according to "Mr. S: My Life With Frank Sinatra," written by George Jacobs, his valet at the time. The owner is Beverly Coburn, actor James Coburn's first wife. She bought the building in 1989 for $1.643 million from interior designer Kalef Alaton, who had remodeled it. The three units in the gated compound share a courtyard and patio space.

Elvis Presley 's death 35 years ago today jolted the nation. The singer was just 42 when he was found by his manager in the bathroom of his already iconic mansion Graceland. He had been scheduled to start a nationwide tour. Join Times rock critic Randall Roberts and music writer Randy Lewis at 4 p.m. as they talk about why Elvis' persona continues to loom so large in pop culture. Like Marilyn Monroe , who died 50 years ago this month, Presley remains relevant. FRONT PAGE: L.A. Times coverage of Presley's death Why the fascination with a man The Times described the day after his death as "the one-time truck driver whose swivel-hipped singing style made him an entertainment legend"?

NEW YORK - A tiny apartment in a run-down industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn is not where you'd expect to be looking at original color negatives of Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood, Audrey Hepburn, Catherine Deneuve, Julie Newmar and Sophia Loren - especially using a bare light bulb and sheet of typing paper as a light box. But that is what happened on a recent night, when the iconic commercial and celebrity photographer Bert Stern - perhaps known...

Sunday is the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe's death.  One of the many disappointments to befall the actress'  tragic life was her struggle to have a child, having suffered multiple miscarriages. Very few images of a pregnant Monroe exist but famed celebrity photograper Phil Stern found himself at the right place at the right time during her last pregnancy with third husband, playwright Arthur Miller. In 1958, Look magazine assigned Stern to capture what studio mogul Sam Goldwyn saw through his office window.

In working on a  story  for Sunday's Image section about how Marilyn Monroe's brand continues to march on a half-century after her untimely death I ran across all kinds of  licensed products and properties  bearing her name and likeness, many of which appear in a companion piece running in the same issue. Photo Gallery: Marilyn Monroe Merchandise But two of the more ambitious are the separate projects underway to open both a chain of Marilyn Monroe cafes and Marilyn Monroe nail salon-day spas -- both of which are being done in cooperation with (and licensed through)

Why is Marilyn Monroe still an American icon 50 years after her death? She is endlessly analyzed in films and biographies; her image appears on T-shirts and posters; her popularity is reflected in the 52,000 Marilyn-related items for sale on EBay. My USC students, fixated on contemporary pop culture, know little about 1950s Hollywood stars, except for Monroe. Like everyone else, they puzzle over her death, respond to her beauty, recognize her paradoxes: the ur-blond child-woman, the virgin-whore of the Western imagination.

Once upon a time, before she was the ultimate screen sex symbol, before she became an icon and source material for generations of writers and artists, Marilyn Monroe was a working actress. She died 50 years ago this Sunday at the age of 36 from an overdose and in the intervening years the actual person has disappeared behind the myth of "Marilyn Monroe. " A visit to her place of rest at the Westwood Village Memorial Park offers testimony to the power of her memory. The wall of her crypt had to be replaced multiple times because of fans who made a pilgrimage there to caress, embrace and kiss it. But she was real, and to those who knew her Monroe was a devoted, if troubled, actress who took her craft seriously.