The marilyn scandal

Sandra Shevey Books www.createworldwide.co.uk/sandrashevey sandra_shevey@yahoo.com'The book which her friends asked me to write'About the Author: Sandra Shevey is a megastar interviewer whose celebrity interviews have appeared internationally as from 1968 when she did her `first` megastar interview with Liza Minnelli. She is undoubtedly one of the Seventies most idiosyncratic and quirky interviewers whose interviews seem to move on a kind of sonic intelligence. Most interviews run about 6 or 7 hours and many were with stars on `closed sets`. Whilst having interviewed many interview-shy celebrities such as Alfred Hitchcock, Sandra also succeeded in giving a new slant to the often-interviewed such as Shirley MacLaine, Dustin Hoffman, John Lennon, Jon Voight, Peter Falk, Stockard Channing,Lauren Hutton, Barbara Hershey, Peter Fonda, and others. She is also a very fine feminist film writer and penned the seminal women in film article,`Down With Myth America`,which appeared in the New York Times in May 1970. Sandra`s pioneer film courses on women and minorities at the University of Southern California in 1970 assisted in bringing the issues to the fore. Sandra`s move to Great Britain in the eighties led to the publication of biographies about Marilyn Monroe (whom she never interviewed) and John Lennon (whom she did and for 12 hours). Sandra currently runs walks around London`s ancient markets (and has just done a film about`London`s Ancient Markets: their Fight for Survival`) and Alfred Hitchcock`s London film locations. She spends her free time writing and publishing her own books and (when she gets a breath) lecturing at London`s many venues including the Barbican, the St. Martin`s reference library, the Chelsea Festival, the National Portrait Gallery and others. Her passions include: London, walking and films(old films, mainly British) Her fondest memories are of having been able to meet (whilst they were still alive)many of the great British filmmakers of the golden age. `It was like going into a candy shop as a kid and stuffing yourself on all your favourites.`About the book: Sandra Shevey`s revised account of the life of perhaps the most enigmatic and magnificent star of the twentieth century is being reissued by Sandra Shevey Books. When first published in 1987, its revisionism led to a stream of copycat revisions of Marilyn Monroe`s life. None, however, we believe, equals and/or exceeds the original.If Marilyn Monroe was, as Sandra contends, the personification of Hollywood itself, then the tragedy and travesty of her short life reflect in a kind of ritual way the life and death of Hollywood itself. She is an iconic tragedy. She is a tragedy of all the starlets and wannabees and stars-for-fifteen minutes who have ever appeared on a soundstage or before a motion picture camera. Since writing the book in 1987 a lot has happened which gives opportunity for revision. For starters, both Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller have passed away. Thus Sandra is able to talk freely about the Miller marriage and his philandering which led to Marilyn`s nervous breakdown in London where they were on honeymoon. The years have also turned up more queries about Marilyn`s relationship with the Kennedys. There is rumour of the existence of the `love child` which Marilyn had with John Kennedy. More questions arise about Marilyn`s own paternity as well as about her`crazy`mother; the committal to Payne-Whitney psychiatric hospital; etc. Whilst the 1987 edition broke ground with its foray into Marilyn`s previously undisclosed relationship with President John Kennedy,not to mention Kennedy involvement in her morbidly protracted death, the new edition explores the above in a revised introduction but is basically the 1987 hardback without photos.Jacket design: Martin Lye (www.martinlye.com) ISBN: 978-0-9557-000-0-2 £35.00+P+P