Marilyn Monroe and the dead-celebrity business
玛丽莲·梦露与过世名人的生意经
There were many Marilyn Monroes. In the 1940s a young actress named Norma Jeane swapped her normal-sounding name for this more glamorous one; Marilyn, she felt, was “a veil” she could wear. Then came Hollywood Marilyn and, soon enough, sex-symbol Marilyn. Others emerged in gossip: there was girlish Marilyn who called her husband “Daddy”; political Marilyn who sang to (and probably slept with) the president; and even literary Marilyn, who read Dostoevsky and married Arthur Miller, a playwright. Later Marilyn became a tragic figure, dying from an overdose in 1962, aged 36.
玛丽莲·梦露有着许多不同的面貌。20世纪40年代，一位名叫诺玛·简的年轻女演员将自己那个普通的名字换成了这个更具魅力的名字——“玛丽莲”；她觉得，“玛丽莲”是一层她可以披上的“面纱”。之后，好莱坞的玛丽莲应运而生，很快又出现了性感符号的玛丽莲。其他面貌则在人们的八卦中浮现：有称自己丈夫为“爸爸”的稚气玛丽莲；有给总统唱歌（并很可能与之有染）的政治玛丽莲；甚至还有阅读陀思妥耶夫斯基的作品、嫁给了剧作家阿瑟·米勒的文艺玛丽莲。后来，玛丽莲成为了一个悲剧人物，于1962年因服药过量去世，享年36岁。
This year there are almost as many celebrations as there are versions of Marilyn: June 1st marks the centenary of her birth. There are exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, as well as new books and film screenings. At commemorative auctions fans can bid on everything from Marilyn’s used lipstick to a tile from her bathroom.
今年，玛丽莲诞辰一百周年（6月1日）的庆祝活动几乎和她本人的不同面貌一样多。伦敦国家肖像画廊和洛杉矶电影学院博物馆都举办了展览，此外还有新书出版和电影展映。在纪念拍卖会上，粉丝们可以竞拍从玛丽莲用过的口红到她浴室地砖在内的各种物品。
New products are also being released: you can sip Marilyn champagne, hold Marilyn china or wear jewel-encrusted Marilyn high heels. And if that’s not too many Marilyns, 500 or so will gather in Palm Springs on May 30th to try to break the world record for the largest gathering of Marilyn lookalikes.
新产品也在不断推出：你可以品一口玛丽莲香槟，捧一套玛丽莲瓷器，或者穿上镶嵌珠宝的玛丽莲高跟鞋。如果这些还不够过瘾，那么大约500名“玛丽莲”将在5月30日齐聚棕榈泉，试图打破“最多玛丽莲模仿者聚集”的世界纪录。
