Helpful Score: 2
Ok, I feel like something is fishy about this whole thing.
The original book was called The Prince, The Showgirl and Me, and was based on Colin Clark's journals that were written during the filming of The Prince and The Showgirl. Clark's parents were friends with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh and Olivier gave him a job as 3rd assistant director (gofer) on the set.
Clark claims that he kept a separate journal of one week during that time where he and Marilyn became quite close. They didn't have an affair, or even run off somewhere together. Her new husband, Arthur Miller was off in Paris and then New Your City and Marilyn being the attention-needy person she was kept Clark as a confidant of sorts.
Apparently, Clark sent a letter to a friend along with those omitted journal entries to be republished along with the original manuscript. He claimed he didn't want that part made public while Marilyn was still alive, but she was long gone from this world before the book was even published. To me it seems made up long after the whole experience to gain more attention. The original book on it's own is quiet boring, in my opinion.
The version of the book I read had the journals of the "week" first, then the letter, and then the original The Prince, The Showgirl and Me, which itself barely shows any interaction between Clark and Monroe.
There was nothing scandalous or unusual about that particular week. It was business as usual on the film set. There was no "Imagine sneaking away to spend seven days with the most famous woman in the world...". Clark had been asked by Olivier to speak to Marilyn about coming to the set the next day and from there she started calling him to confide in. I am not saying he is a liar, I just am not really sure what he felt was so special about that week. Maybe because he was a star-struck 23 year old getting attention from a woman whom at the time was the biggest actress in the world? Maybe because he felt special that with the absence of Miller, Monroe leaned on him for attention, although she certainly had enough people around her for that already. Maybe he needed the money? Maybe he wanted attention, himself?Whatever the reason, before reading, I was under the assumption that this was a week the 2 spent off alone together and not just extra information the author decided to add to an already published memoir of work on a movie set. It certainly does not present any new or earthshattering information about the actress herself and I have read many other books on her life that were much better.
The original book was called The Prince, The Showgirl and Me, and was based on Colin Clark's journals that were written during the filming of The Prince and The Showgirl. Clark's parents were friends with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh and Olivier gave him a job as 3rd assistant director (gofer) on the set.
Clark claims that he kept a separate journal of one week during that time where he and Marilyn became quite close. They didn't have an affair, or even run off somewhere together. Her new husband, Arthur Miller was off in Paris and then New Your City and Marilyn being the attention-needy person she was kept Clark as a confidant of sorts.
Apparently, Clark sent a letter to a friend along with those omitted journal entries to be republished along with the original manuscript. He claimed he didn't want that part made public while Marilyn was still alive, but she was long gone from this world before the book was even published. To me it seems made up long after the whole experience to gain more attention. The original book on it's own is quiet boring, in my opinion.
The version of the book I read had the journals of the "week" first, then the letter, and then the original The Prince, The Showgirl and Me, which itself barely shows any interaction between Clark and Monroe.
There was nothing scandalous or unusual about that particular week. It was business as usual on the film set. There was no "Imagine sneaking away to spend seven days with the most famous woman in the world...". Clark had been asked by Olivier to speak to Marilyn about coming to the set the next day and from there she started calling him to confide in. I am not saying he is a liar, I just am not really sure what he felt was so special about that week. Maybe because he was a star-struck 23 year old getting attention from a woman whom at the time was the biggest actress in the world? Maybe because he felt special that with the absence of Miller, Monroe leaned on him for attention, although she certainly had enough people around her for that already. Maybe he needed the money? Maybe he wanted attention, himself?Whatever the reason, before reading, I was under the assumption that this was a week the 2 spent off alone together and not just extra information the author decided to add to an already published memoir of work on a movie set. It certainly does not present any new or earthshattering information about the actress herself and I have read many other books on her life that were much better.
