Marilyn Monroe was jealous of Elizabeth Taylor

Screen siren Marilyn Monroe was so jealous of rival Elizabeth Taylor she ordered naked pool photoshoot to try to eclipse her fame
publié le 1er mai 2012
en ligne sur dailymail.co.uk

She was a star in her own right and one of the most famous women in the world.
But in 1960 Marilyn Monroe was deeply jealous of Elizabeth Taylor and posed nude in a bid to become more popular than her.
The actress hoped to generate as much publicity as her rival’s public relationship with Richard Burton by baring all.

   
 Rivals:
Marilyn Monroe was desperate to eclipse the popularity of Elizabeth Taylor so decided to commission a nude photo shoot

But in a newly released interview she also realised how futile it was and told a photographer: ‘It’s still about nudity. Is that all I’m good for?’
The startling disclosures add yet another layer to one of the most enduring legends Hollywood has ever seen - and a fresh insight into the woman she really was.
They come from her conversations with photographer Larry Schiller between 1960 until her death in 1962 at the age of just 36. In his memoir Marilyn And Me, he says the two met when Monroe hatched a plan to force Hollywood giants Fox Studios to take her more seriously so they would ‘start paying me as much attention as they are paying to Elizabeth Taylor’.

    
 Deeply jealous:
Marilyn Monroe wanted to generate more publicity than her screen rival Elizabeth Taylor

 
 Ladies in red:
While Marilyn did eventually strip off, Elizabeth kept her clothes on

At the time Taylor was earning $1million a film for epics like Cleopatra. Monroe was getting paid a mere $100,000 for Something’s Got To Give, from which she was sacked.
Monroe posed for a set of photographs in which she entered a swimming pool with a bathing suit - and came out naked.
Monroe told Schiller: ‘Larry, 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.’
When Hugh Hefner agreed to pay $25,000 for one nude picture Monroe told Schiller that it was worth every penny.
She said with a laugh: ‘There isn’t anybody that looks like me without clothes on.’

 Desperate:
While Marilyn earnt less than £61,000 for a film, Elizabeth Taylor commanded fees of up six times that for Cleopatra

The conversations between the two, which appear in this month’s issue of Vanity Fair, also give an insight into how insecure Monroe was.
She told Schiller that she wore her public persona as a ‘veil’ over her real identity.
She once told him: ‘It’s still about nudity. Is that all I’m good for?
‘I’d like to show that I can get publicity without using my ass or getting fired from a picture. I haven’t made up my mind yet.’

Over the previous two years the pair had spoken at length and in 1960 she admitted was wracked by insecurity.
'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.'

      
 Popular:
Elizabeth Taylor had just married Richard Burton in 1960 and was more loved by the public than ever before

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... how many Academy Award nominations do I have?'
'I don’t know,' he said.
'I do,' she said. 'None.'

Marilyn even confided her deepest fears, that she would end up like her mother who had been a mental patient for much of her life.
She also told him that she ‘always wanted a baby’ but ‘having a child, that’s my biggest fear’.
She said: ‘I want a child and I fear a child. Whenever it came close, my body said no and I lost the baby.’

Since her death Monroe’s life has been the subject of endless speculation, not least her rumoured affair with former U.S. President John F Kennedy.
Her former stylist George Masters recently claimed that she spent her last night alive in Frank Sinatra’s lodge in Nevada with the head of the American Mafia.

Although she never won an Oscar, Monroe did win a Golden Globe for her performance in the 1959 comedy Some Like It Hot, another Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA nomination.
She was married and divorced three times and died childless.