Vast Trove Yields Marilyn Secrets

FBI once thought it tied to JFK

(NEWSER) - A copy of an FBI-classified Marilyn Monroe sex tape quietly surfaced last month and sold for $1.5 million, reports the New York Post. The 15 minutes of silent footage, which the anonymous New York buyer plans to keep private so as not to make a “Paris Hilton out of her,” features Monroe performing oral sex on a mystery man in the 1950s. More»

Monroe was jealous of Elizabeth Taylor: memoir

(NEWSER) - A new memoir reveals that it was simple jealousy of Elizabeth Taylor that spurred Marilyn Monroe to pose nude. Monroe agreed to be naked while exiting a swimming pool during a photo shoot, as long as Taylor did not appear in any magazines running the images, reports Vanity Fair, which is publishing the images in this month's edition. (While Monroe made just $100,000 for her final film role in Something's Gotta Give, Taylor pulled down $1 million in Cleopatra.) But the nude pictures weren't the only place Monroe bared all. A smattering of her conversations with photographer Lawrence Schiller, as per his memoir Marilyn & Me:

• On posing naked: "Larry, if I do come out of the pool with nothing on, I want your guarantee that when your pictures appear on the covers of magazines Elizabeth Taylor is not anywhere in the same issue."

Michael Jackson tops the list again

(NEWSER) - When you’re a celebrity, dying doesn’t have to mean you stop making money. Forbes offers up its annual list of the top-earning celebs of the past year:

1. Michael Jackson: The King of Pop is in the top spot for the second year in a row, earning $170 million thanks to music sales, his stake in the Sony/ATV catalog, and a new Cirque du Soleil tour.
2. Elvis Presley: The King of Pop is followed by the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, who earned $55 million, much of which came from Graceland admissions. A Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas didn’t hurt, either.
3. Marilyn Monroe: A resurgence in popularity is partly to thank for her $27 million in earnings; for example, she was featured in an ad for J’Adore fragrance, and soon she’ll be getting her own line of cafes.
4. Charles Schulz: The Peanuts creator earned $25 million as his creations found themselves coming into the digital age via a video game, e-books, and a Facebook app, among other things.
5. John Lennon: The Beatles sold 1.6 million albums last year after finally arriving in the iTunes Store, which may have something to do with Lennon’s $12 million in earnings. Also helping? Yet another Cirque show.

And she looks great, declares the 'Daily Mail'

(NEWSER) - Gwyneth Paltrow wears little more than Louis Vuitton jewelry in the latest issue of Vanity Fair, out tomorrow. Paltrow, 38, who also donned fishnets, modeled a necklace, earrings, and rings for the magazine's jewelry calendar, OK! reports. The mother of two has "no trace of any stretch marks," the Daily Mail amusingly notes, so maybe you want to follow the advice she doles out on Goop after all. More»

From socialites to princesses, they're all here

(NEWSER) - Vanity Fair ’s 2010 International Best Dressed List is out, and it really is international: The top 10 includes three first ladies and a crown princess. Click through it in the gallery, or to see the complete list, which includes Alec Baldwin and Lady Gaga, click here . Or, if you'd rather see some worst-dressed celebs... click here . More»