Lohan's Marilyn impersonation dismays critics

Bloggers and Hollywood gossip gabbers have been spewing their collective two cents across the web about a nude photo shoot featuring Lindsay Lohan as a modern Marilyn Monroe.

The photo spread appears in the 2008 Spring Fashion issue of New York Magazine.

 

The magazine cover and pictorial spread recreates the famous Marilyn Monroe "Last Sitting" shoot by famed photographer Bert Stern in 1962.

Stern also shot the Lohan pictorial, in which the actress appears topless in a blonde wig, naked except for a bit of sheer fabric.

 

A slew of celebrity gossip blogs and Hollywood commentators are skewering both the actress and the photographer for participating in the controversial shoot.

Some say Lohan posing as Marilyn is a degradation of the memory of the legendary film icon.

 

In her blog on the Los Angeles Times web site, Monica Corcoran says "Stern should be ashamed of himself for aping such a memorable photo shoot for a 21-year-old actress whose most notable credit is Herbie Fully Loaded."

 

EGossip.com called the photos nothing more than "a desperate plea for publicity" and eFluxMedia.com's Jane Ivory said:

"Sorry Lindsay but you don't even come close" to the "beautiful memory of a true Hollywood icon, Marilyn Monroe."

GlossLip.com posted that "these photos made me feel kind of nauseous. I can't believe Bert would agree to such a thing... Marilyn

"Monroe deserves to never have the dishonour of being mimicked, and certainly not by the likes of someone as young and immature as Lindsay Lohan."

 

In the New York Magazine shoot, Lohan strips down to recreate the famous photographs of Marilyn Monroe taken forty-six years ago.

Monroe died of an apparent drug overdose six weeks after the original photographs were taken. Echoing Monroe's photos, Lohan poses nude, wrapped in only a sheer scarf that at points leaves virtually nothing to the imagination.

The photo shoot took place at the Hotel Bel-Air in Hollywood on February 5th—the same location the original Monroe photographs were taken.

Lohan was excited about doing the shoot, telling New York Magazine: "I didn't have to put much thought into it. I mean, Bert Stern? Doing a Marilyn shoot? When is that ever going to come up? It's really an honour."

Stern said he wanted to do Lohan for the shoot because he believed "she had a lot more depth to her" than it appears in "those teenage movies."

He told New York Magazine the idea for the project grew out of his interest in "controversial women… like Britney, Paris and Lindsay."
Lohan has long been a fan of Marilyn Monroe, even purchasing an apartment where the infamous Hollywood star once lived.

"If you saw my house," Lohan said, "I have a lot of Marilyn stuff."

In the New York Magazine interview accompanying the pictorial spread, Lohan compared Monroe's death to the recent tragic loss of Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger.

 

"They are both prime examples of what this industry can do to someone,” she said. "I sure as hell wouldn't let it happen to me."

 

For more on this story and to view a selection of photographs from the shoot, click here.

by Ann Turner
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