Since the only time your hair is naturally that extremely light is as a child Marilyn
Since the only time your hair is naturally that extremely light is as a child, Marilyn and Anna Nicole are essentially infantile sex symbols. By their own hand, or that of their hairdresser, they have condemned themselves to being perceived as perpetual infants. As Monroe descended into mental illness, Jayne Mansfield, the starlet created in her image, sank into depression following a lack of recognition of her genius IQ. It’s a join-the-dots journey from Monroe to Anna Nicole Smith, the poor white trash Playboy centrefold who considers herself to be the reincarnation of her heroine, and is currently enjoying a lengthy stint in a detox centre.
And though both women have the ultimate womanly physique, there is something about the male reaction to their white-blond hair that has unpleasant undercurrents of paedophilia. Indeed, she struggled all her life to be seen as a serious actress. When she married Arthur Miller the joke was, he was the beauty and she was the brains. Mock-Fifties diners around the world proudly display framed Marilyn posters inscribed with the words boulevard of broken dreams, as if she were a new brand of soda.
Apparently, her untimely demise was caused by peroxide poisoning, due to years of dyeing her pubic hair blond. Harlow was only the first in a long and distinguished line of tragic blondes. Every man, woman and child is aware of the legend of Marilyn Monroe. Next week brings Ben Craft (Tue) and Russell Maliphant (Wed). The Place, London WC1
Sylvie Guillem is in London this week for two Royal Ballet performances of Giselle (above) Royal Opera House, London WC2, Tue & ThurLouise Levene. Despite reams of garish gossip about the great Hollywood idols – from Fatty Arbuckle and the Coke bottle, to Carmen Miranda and the coke she stored in a compartment of her platform shoe – there can be no more humiliating rumour than the one surrounding the death of Jean Harlow.
Theatre Royal, Plymouth, tonight; Sunderland Empire 12-16 Mar
The Spring Loaded season of new modern work continues. Birmingham Royal Ballet are on tour with Bintley’s Far From the Madding Crowd and a more ambitious programme of Fifties compositions: Balanchine’s Agon, Ashton’s Birthday Offering and Robbins’s The Cage. Birmingham Symphony Hall, tonight
SoundArt 96 Nancy Ruffer, John Butcher and friends mixing composed and improvised music Conway Hall, London W1, tonightRobert Maycock. Barbican Hall, London EC2, Sun
Bernstein in the Fifties “Towards the Millennium” lures Birmingham Contemporary Music Group away from the modernists with some of the biggest show scores, including West Side Story and Wonderful Town Simon Rattle conducts. Midori Welcome visit from one of the day’s supreme violinists, in an unhackneyed programme of Mozart, Schubert, Prokofiev and Saint-Saens with pianist Robert McDonald (above, with Midori).
