106 – Marilyn Monroe: The Iconic Star's Influence in Drew Barrymore's Life
About this episode
In honor of what would be Marilyn Monroe’s 99th birthday this week, we are discussing the interesting ways her life has intersected with Drew Barrymore’s. Once hailed by Drew as her idol, the two women share a surprising amount of similarities—both in their personal journeys and Hollywood careers. Over the years, Drew has also paid tribute to “the world’s greatest icon” on several memorable occasions and we are going over them all. Happy birthday, Ms. Monroe!
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Yes, it is. Yeah, so halfway through the freaking year, almost. Hello 2025, where are you going? Oh my God. All right. OK. So let we have some stuff at the top. I know for sure one of them is kind of a deja. Drew Yeah, some follow-ups for sure. OK, so the first one is this is so funny because I think we've talked about this like 3 times recently. This Dateline interview that Drew did in 2005 with Stone Phillips, who went down to Mexico when she was doing MTV Spring Break promoting Fever Pitch, is a really awesome interview and I found out I have it on DVD.
I forgot. So anyway, in that is this quote that I absolutely love about Drew being a dumpling rolling out of control when she was running around on the Fenway Park field for Fever Pitch. So we can finally share the real audio and not just my rendition of it. So. You get a little druism at the top of the show, so let's look into this. I I'm like a corgi dog. I was like, oh God, oh God, this is so. Do I look like a pot sticker running across this field? I feel like 1. I feel like a dumpling who's rolling out of control.
Oh I love it so much. Like a dumpling rolling out of control. One of my favorite trisms of all time. There it is. All right, you have a follow up about the Breakthrough Prize. OK, so remember how Giroux dressed up all beautifully gorgeous and went to this weird science event that apparently all these celebrities go to? Still don't understand why that is. Yeah, but anyway, I found out she presented an award there with Kihu Kwan. I hope I said that right, her Steven Spielberg buddy. So that's really cool and the video is on YouTube, so we will link to that.
So kind of at least we have like a reason she was there. Why these actors are all like, yes, we'll come to this, I don't know. And then also figured out she was also there in 2019. Whoops, totally forgot about that. So this isn't even new for her. So I feel really like I dropped the ball when I reported about this originally, but there we go. But you like had tried to figure out like what the heck is this event and just assumed like why would she go before I? Still don't know why all these people go like they showed, like the audience while she's presenting in this video.
And there's like so many celebrities there, but it's just for science awards, which is great. It's cool, but why? But why? What is behind this? Yeah. There's more to it I'm not getting. Yes, and I barely remember this look from 2019. Like I remember it, but I'm like I it's not super like present in my mind. Well, and this was like during my dark age of like not staying up on Drew stuff because I was too busy falling in love with my now husband. So it you know it all, it all comes together, it makes sense.
Don't give yourself a a hard time. You never knew. Yeah, right. All right. So a last little follow up that has to do with something we reported on before about Saturday Night Live. Scarlett Johansson just surpassed Drew and Tina Fey's record for the most time a woman has hosted SNL. I don't like we were, I think it was the season finale and we always watch the clips on YouTube like the next day or the same night. And I saw she was hosting and I was like. No. She just passed Drew's record. So Scarlet's now at 7, while Drew, who was the first one to hit 6, and then Tina Fey is also still at six.
So guys, like, what are we doing? She's in New York. Let's make this happen. Yeah, she's got to go back on. I mean, I'm sure it's really hard to fit in like because it's like a full week, right, that you're committed with her show, but like can they take a break from the show and do it? I it seems possible that. 'D be fun. I'd love to see her on it again. OK. Anyway, yeah, Drew, you're going to have to like get one of your SNL records back. Yes please. You can't get the youngest one anymore. Exactly.
OK, so all right, let's go on over to the kind comments corner. So. Sweet. OK this is a cute one. This comes from at under score Nagezi on Instagram. Just a little tiny one, but I liked it. All right, so they said. Your story is one of my faves, Drew. The things you were exposed to, the way you overcame. Salute to you. I like you. Her story is one of our favorites too. That's why we're constantly here telling it. OK. Now let's go back in time a little bit. It looks like we're going to a couple different years, so we're going to be time travelling a little bit within this segment.
All right, let's go back in time.
All right, what do you got for this week into your history? OK, so first I was just going to do 1 and then I was like, wait a second. If we're talking about the week and she's done the same thing the same week many years in a row, let's just talk about them all. So we're talking about the week of basically June 4th through June 8th. But over the years of 9596979899, what did she do all of those years? She went to the A Time for Heroes charity event that benefited the Elizabeth Laser PDF Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
So this was such a cool thing that for that five years in a row we could count on her showing up to this fun like carnival style event. Totally. And so many cute pictures from like every year. Yeah, every year. Totally. OK, you made a note that the first one was in 1990. I was trying to find out like did she go to the first one and then she was attached or no? So some time had gone by and I found an article in 1993. It said that People magazine underwrote the event and I was like, ah, puzzle pieces coming together because People in In Style are the same publishers and In Style would do a spread on this event every year, so it all makes sense.
It does make sense and another reason why we have such cute pictures like all of those clippings. Well, first of all, In Style had great quality paper, yes. I love paper. Yeah, yes. All right, high quality clippings. Let's move on. I never knew where it was held. So it was held in the Robert Taylor Ranch in Brentwood. I guess every time they held the event, it was held at the same place. That's cool. Yeah, it was very satisfying to look up pictures of this place and like be able to see the things in the background and be like, I recognize that fence or whatever.
That's very cool. All right. So do we want to talk about the looks at all or how do we even like encompass this event? The cool thing is that she was always like posing with other fun people. So like the first year she went with Eric Erlinson. But there's also pictures of her throughout the years, like with Adam Sandler and Courtney Cox and Lily Sobieski. There's of course the 99 one where she sees Jamie Walters, which is the best picture ever because she's shocked. So always fun photos of her with other people.
It was definitely a very A list kind of event it felt like. That's cool. I of course am obsessed with the 96 ones and I was. Just going to say, do you have a favorite? It's got, I mean, between 95 and 96. I think she looks really cute, especially at the first three in the 9899. She's a little bit more in her like planer era. Yeah, 98 is is quite a frumpy look, but. That's 98 is definitely like never been kissed filming time. Yeah, totally. But if you all haven't seen these pictures, they're adorable.
Every single one. So we'll make sure we put some on the episode page for you to enjoy. And if you see that black hair, just know that like I think we both drool over her with the. Black hair, but yeah, but it especially speaks to your soul. Right and she just looked so cute. Took the the with the blue glasses and the like vintage top. Oh so. Cute. All right. Beautiful. All right, great choice for for this week. All right, so let's talk about what's new with Drew, Do you? Want to hit the headline?
There's not much because guess what, it's summer and that means Drew goes into hibernation. We just don't hear much more in the summer, but I thought it was notable that Beautiful her line, her only line at this point, this is her one and only brand anymore. How weird is that? So weird Beautiful has some really cute new pet items and dining room sets, so we'll try to link to them. It's really hard on Walmart's website. If you guys know, you know, we've talked about this before, but the pet stuff is so cute.
I was definitely tempted. I was very tempted too. Like the bed especially. Yes, yes. If they had a little pink one, I'd be all over it. I'm kind of surprised that it's. I know like. Only like white and green right now or something. And I think a black maybe? OK, OK. And that dining room set? That's adorable. Yeah, I really like that. I mean, I know I have the Drew chair and like one other thing, but there's so much other like of the wood furniture that I really want. Yeah, there's some really good stuff, like it's kind of wild that we've barely gotten our hands on that much of it, but I know she was too free.
Beautiful. Well, yeah. Hello. We are giving you free advertising right now. We. Love Beautiful by Drew Walmart. We're kind of in.
Sorry, Walmart. Truth.
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Happy birthday to you. All right, so we have something a little different for a weekly topic this week. You want to introduce us? Sure. So this was just like a random bolt of inspiration I had. This week would have been Marilyn Monroe's 99th birthday. Incredible. And I've been listening to some other podcasts about Marilyn. She's, of course, like Drew kind of deeply, eternally fascinating with her life. And I just started getting a little inspired. I was hearing some other people like how they were describing Marilyn, and I was like, God, that could be Drew.
Wow, that's just like Drew. And we know that Drew has like a real admiration for her. So all these pieces kind of came together. I tried to see if we could get like an actual Marilyn expert on the pod. Didn't get any answers in time and didn't want to put this off because doing it around her birthday is just too perfect. So cool and one of again, one of those like falling into place. By the way, I just realized I am a nerd for numbers. This is episode 106 and Marilyn's birthday you said would have been 6/1.
Yes, Oh my God, look, see, meant to be. That's so cool. That's so cool. So I just want to put the disclaimer. I wanted to get an actual expert on here, but I think you and I are fans of her enough. Like I've definitely went through a phase where I was like finding out everything I could about her life. Funnily enough, literally right here next to me. I did not place this. Here is the book you gave me, George Ferris one. You want to hear something so funny? It was at a bookstore like 2 days ago and I saw that book and I was like, I was.
But I was like, I love this book so much and I feel like I gave somebody a copy. It was me. That's so cool. That is one of the coolest. Coolest. Books, yeah, 'cause it's from the last like real photo shoot from her life. But anyway, so there's a lot of misinformation about Marilyn out there. Obviously we are drew historians and I'm trying going to try really hard not to make any mistakes. If we do report something incorrectly about Marilyn, please let us know because we are suckers for accuracy as we always say, and we try not to spread misinformation.
Absolutely. Well, I was going to say that what I've been very interested about Marilyn is Marilyn as a person like her and how that persona was such a different thing than her public persona. I mean, that's true for kind of anyone, but when I learned about her, it's like she was kind of a quiet, you know, and I, I guess this has been portrayed in a couple films like biopics at this point, but I've definitely always been fascinated by that person by like Norma Jean, I guess, you know, but let's get into this.
Cause of course we're, we're ours. We're coming from Drew's, you know, Drew's like the comparison of their lives, which I love. All the things that are in these notes is so fascinating. And then we get to kind of talk about like Drew's specific throughout her life, like the evidence of her love and admiration of this person. So. Yeah. All right, so let's get. Into it. OK, So they have a lot of things in common and I think it's fun to see the parallels. You know, obviously there's a lot of differences too, but it just, it's striking to me the similarities.
So of course, they're both born and raised in Los Angeles, like, which is really cool. They're both LA girls. And I did the math and now I can't remember. Are they 49 years apart? Yes, right. That almost 50. That seems that looks about right. Well, actually we can do this easily. Drew just turned 50. Right, yes. So 49 years, yes, got it. Look at US math in a way. We like numbers, but not quick math. It's different totally.
So, so cool that they're both like kind of grew up in the shadow of Hollywood, right? Like it was almost meant to be. They both had these unstable childhoods, so really had a lack of a father. You know, Marilyn didn't even know who her father was for most of her life. I think it's been pretty much conclusively decided, I think even through DNA, that it was this gentleman that her mom worked for at a movie studio or a film reel cutting place. I think his last name is Gifford. I should have written this down.
But, you know, she never knew him, never knew anything, you know, never even knew for sure who her dad was. And then Drew's dad, I mean, definitely wasn't around in her childhood and wasn't a stable person and talked to the flickering Buddha in the corner as we reported on last. Was not present. Even if he was in her life, a little bit was not present, right? And their absences, like, definitely caused these huge shadows in their life. Like, I think it really strongly affected both of them. And then their moms were complicated women who they were in sort of around, not around, you know, again, just really unstable.
They had half siblings who they didn't grow up with. So they were both sort of on their own, like their whole childhood. I bet Marilyn would kind of say the same thing as Drew, that she sort of had to raise herself. Like it wouldn't even surprise me. Totally, absolutely. It's it is sad. So one thing that we've talked about a lot about Drew is that despite this kind of lack of a traditional family, she built families through work and friendships. And this was also true of Marilyn. So that's, that's kind of a neat, I mean, it is, that's what made it like so hard.
Like Drew would build these families and then be torn away from them if it was work or, you know, they're also both great lovers of animals and children. And there is another kind of almost similarity. Marilyn had apparently lost 2 pregnancies and Drew has two daughters. And we of course don't know like if there could have been more with. Marilyn but it's and I'd always like and you just think that Marilyn never got to experience that, which I think was devastating to her. But also like that there's no one to carry on her legacy bloodline wise.
Like it made me really go like, I'm so glad that Drew has two daughters who were like continuing on the Barrymore line. That's, you know, thank God, some. Way yeah, I'm curious to see but yeah, it is it is fascinating for it to just like literally die with marriage. But we'll talk about like how this legacy continues. I mean it. That's. True. I mean, she lives on. Like, we're doing an episode about her right now. It's crazy. But yeah, I would. Just how cool would that be if she had, like, ancestors?
Yeah. Yeah. So both ladies got married three times, which is kind of fun. Marilyn's first one was also as a teenager. She was a teenager and it was to James Doherty, so they have that in common. Her second marriage was to Joe DiMaggio and Drews was to Tom Green. Probably not a lot in common between those two guys. But both in like both like famous. That's true. You know. Yeah, it's very. And then finally, Marilyn's final marriage was to Arthur Miller, who was a Jewish New Yorker, just like Drew's third marriage, Will Kopelman.
Yeah, kind of funny. And I think, like, you know, obviously they're both LA girls, but Marilyn spent plenty of time in New York too, and I think it was because of Arthur Miller. Could be wrong about that. So that's sort of like. What Drew had to do kind of move over to New York for her children's father's life and family. Yeah, I'm vaguely remembering that. Didn't Joe DiMaggio send flowers to Marilyn's grave like every year until he died or something? I. Think it might have even been like something extraordinary, like every week, something crazy like that.
Yeah, yeah, I've definitely heard that. And I'm pretty sure that's true. Again, with almost anything about her life. You got to go Asterisk. Could be, could be Legend, yeah. Could be because she's such a, like, icon that people like to, like, fantasize. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So I didn't, I guess I didn't really realize that Marilyn had this issue, but they both had substance abuse issues and depression. I was familiar a bit with the depression, but I guess I hadn't really realized or maybe hadn't thought about Maryland's own substance abuse issues.
Yeah, I don't know that much about it and I don't think it's something that we, like, want to dwell on, but I do think it's interesting to just note they both like struggled and I'm sure fame plays a part into that for both of them. And like also family history I think is definitely significant for both of them as far as like mental health issues. So, yeah, fascinating. Again, they both had a lack of education and I think have a little bit of shame or embarrassment about that, like a chip. On their shoulder.
About it, Yeah, just like. And of course we mean like traditional education. So yeah. So let's kind of like, should we dive a little bit into like how they did this for themselves 'cause I like. It's just wild how they have this in common. Like they both really tried to educate themselves through books. Like both of them were so drawn to like, you know, I'm going to learn through reading. And funnily enough, like I found this quote from Harper's Bazaar 1996, one of our favorite articles where Drew speaks about that and it really overlaps in a fun way because she said this is what I'm reading.
Music for Chameleons by Truman Capote. I'm really excited because the story is in here that I've always wanted to to read A Beautiful child. It's about Marilyn Monroe. She opens to a page she has marked and reads. And the chameleons scattered like sparks from an exploding star. Isn't that a great line? I'm a big underliner of all my books. And I had just heard somebody who owns some of her books talking about, no, she really did read these books like people. It wasn't a prop. Like she would annotate an underline in her all of her books.
And Drew definitely does that. So I was like, that is so neat. I love that. I love these just like little things like I am not a book annotator 'cause I neither like because I feel like I don't wanna write or like fold or do that. To the on the paper. But the paper. But there's also like, part of me when I find an annotated book, I'm like, I'm interested in it, like fascinated by it, even if it's a total stranger. I mean, it made me go like, how much would we love to have a book that Drew had annotated like obsessed?
Love. I would love that. I would love that. Yeah. They also both struggled to be taken seriously. I mean, this is a huge thing in Drew's life, especially, like, pre her renaissances. She was always fighting to be like, I, you know, I've been in this business. What the fuck? Yeah. And they were both seen as sex symbols and kind of dumb blondes, like kind of put into this category. Yeah, I don't know if, like, people who are more recent fans of Drew really realized that there was, like, definitely an era where she was like #1A sex symbol.
Like even my husband was like, oh, I didn't really know that. I'm like, dude, she was like the girl for a while. But yeah, it's like. Certain people who like maybe he's just slightly too young to like have seen her that way, right? Yeah, could because. It was like the 90s. So it's like, I don't know. But that's that's weird because for us it's so like one of our favorite eras. Is that like exhibitionist? Totally, yeah. But I think both women were, are and were so much smarter than people ever want to #1 even believe or like accept, like if people are more comfortable and you know, for maybe it's also part of to do with their voices, Like people think, oh, she's so like airheaded or whatever, you know, and they're both, they're both so much smarter than people would give them credit for.
And I love the, like, self educated part of it. Yeah, me too. OK. So this is so cool. I didn't, I didn't know this about Marilyn. So I guess I didn't really know that much. They both formed production companies, both kind of in a way to take power of their own careers. Like hell yeah. What a bunch of dummies come. On Yeah, So dumb. So in 1954, Marilyn formed Marilyn Monroe Production because she was tired of being offered literally the same type of roles. Sound familiar? I know. So forming her company was considered instrumental in the collapse of the studio system.
What was? That, I mean, I think it was very unusual for, oh, an actress to do something like this back then and like, yeah, it's the 50s, right, where they're like sort of starting to get away from the studio system. But she was very much like stuck in that for a long time, but just like. Just barely getting. Out. Yeah. Like, what a pioneer. So cool. And then, of course, 40 years later, Drew formed Flower Films in order to create her own opportunities and have more control over her career. So that's so neat.
And then I saw something where she said that when she was starting flower films and sort of thinking about how to get women on screen, she watched How to Marry a Millionaire, which stars Marilyn and Drew said how she loves a trio of women. Of course, Charlie's Angels. So just a fun like full circle thing. Yeah, that she like literally was looking at that as a model she wanted to try to replicate in some way. Really cool. They also in their lifetimes weren't well, Drew's still alive but not recognized for their acting in a very like big, big way.
Neither of them have or had Oscar nominations, but both have Golden Globe Awards, so that's pretty cool. Marilyn has had four nominations and three wins and Drew 3 nominations and one win. And I love your comparison picks here of them holding the Golden Globe me. Too. Aren't those cute? So I was like, those go together so nicely. Yeah, it's so sweet. That's cool. Another thing they have in common, and this one's a little more complicated, but they've both been on the cover of Playboy. So Marilyn is on the very first cover of Playboy magazine, not by her choice, not with her consent.
Hugh Hefner purchased the pictures and used them. But I do recall, and I can't source it, but I do recall Drew saying one of the things that drew her to doing Playboy was like, I can be on the same magazine that Marilyn Monroe was on the first cover of. So again, I don't agree with how it was done and that it's neat that they share that in common. Yeah, that is neat. This is also something where you looks like you did kind of a dive. This is so they both had a relationship with the Strasbourgs, which, if you're not familiar, they're sort of like a very famous acting coach family.
And they did classes in New York forever. And so Lee Strasberg was Maryland's acting coach and mentor. And Anna Strasberg or Anna Strasberg, who was Lee's Lee Strasberg's third wife, was one of Drew's honorary godmothers. We kind of talked about this, like, yeah, people who, like, made an impact on her life and then kind of after the fact, got called godmother, right? So Anna, though, she didn't know Marilyn. She was in charge of Maryland's estate after Lee's passing. Yeah, so she's like the one who like.
So Lee inherited a lot of Maryland's estate. I just, there's a whole complicated thing where they didn't get it until like the 80s or something like that, even though they were supposed to get it right after she died. But then when Lee passed away, Anna inherited it. So she was like the one behind that really big 1999 Christie's auction. I don't know if you remember that, but like that's where a lot of the Maryland personal items like originated from. Very fascinating. It sounds like she's kind of polarizing in the Maryland fan base because she didn't have like a personal connection.
But other people say like, she really tried to like have the best interest for Maryland and had a respect for her and knew how her and Lee were so close. So. But as far as Drew's part in it, I think my assumption is that Jade was maybe taking acting lessons from the Strasbourgs. I don't know for sure, but like somewhere along the line, that was sort of always my impression of how Jade knew them. I mean, it would make sense, right? It would make sense, yeah, because otherwise where the connection come from.
But but it's neat. I mean, it was something that I think Drew loved that she had this connection to these like, you know, these people who had made such an impact on the acting business for so much time, right? Yeah, Drew, Little Drew even took part in a 1983 event that was called An Evening in the Life of Lee Strasberg a year after he passed away. And the pictures of Anna with her there are always misattributed to being Jade. Have you noticed that? I know I haven't noticed that, but my surprise no, not at all.
No. So the only Barrymore related film crossover is a movie from the 1950s called Right Cross and Lionel was in the film. And there's a very short scene with Marilyn, one of her earliest film appearances. So they don't appear in the film together, but that's the only kind of like Barrymore Monroe. Yeah. Almost like in direct but direct connection. I know it was even like John Barrymore died before she was really even in movies. So it's kind of wild to think that like, that's how long ago Drew's family was.
Like that's how. Famous, yeah. Yeah, and then another little fun thing is that both Drew and Marilyn had posed as Jean Harlow, another famous blonde who I love. Marilyn had photos taken by Richard Avedon, and Drew had one taken by Ellen von Unworth. Actually, there's probably more than one, but we've only seen one. It was for Talk magazine in 1999. I want to see more of those. Talk I would die too, because I actually don't really like this picture of Drew. I think it's a very awkward face and pose, but I love what her styling looks like.
So God to see more. Come on, Ellen. But this is so neat to see them both like, honoring, like you said, another Yeah, you know, blonde from the line of blondes. Blonde bombshells. Blonde bombshells. Wow, I love this fact. So photographers that they both posed for you. 2 listed here. George Hurl Harrell or Hurl did Drew's Vanity Fair from 1984 so really early on. Those are some really cool pictures. Yeah, those are very like old Hollywood looking. Yeah, and then the famous Bert Stern did the photos of Drew for Mirabella in 1995.
Also really beautiful and classic. Yeah, you're right. And it's, it's, I mean, there could be others, but probably not because like the likelihood of someone overlapping their careers with both of them is just, you know, there's a big gap there. So I just think that's really fun that they both got to be photographed by the same people. Yeah, it's really neat. That's really neat. I'm. Sure. When Drew did Mirabella that that was like on her mind. Like there's no way it wasn't. Well, Bert Stern, I feel like, yeah, I don't know this other name immediately, but Bert Stern I. Know, George Harrell is more like, I think he photographed Jean Harlow.
Like he's way old school. Yeah, like very black and white, intense glamour Hollywood. Well I'm also just curious to see when he passed. Like how long after? I don't think long after. 1992 OK yeah, but he was born in 19 O 4 so he's already 8. He was 80 years old when he photographed Drew. Whoa. OK, that's cool. That's wild. I'll do a deeper dive later to see like who else he photographed and stuff, but that's really neat. I love it. I love to think of like, like, you know, if Drew was aware in either or both instances, if she was like, oh, neat.
Like their lenses? Like pointed? At I'm certain. Yeah, I'm sure she was. That's so cool. Just a quick editor's note, George Harrell also photographed a couple other Barrymores, including John and Lionel for Grand Hotel. I'm sure that there are others, but it was really neat to find that out. Back to the show.
All right, so now we're kind of jumping to a different portion of this episode, which is fun. And I love this, like, sort of way to trace some of the clear, like whether they're visual or auditory, you know, evidence of Drew, like speaking or loving Marilyn. Yeah, little tributes and yeah, just little pieces of admiration. And we're doing this chronologically, which I think is really fun too. Would we do in any other way?
OK, so the first like real clear, obvious, this girl likes Marilyn Monroe like most young girls do, is Drew's teenage bedroom. So in 1989, Mark Senate for People magazine photographed Drew in a very 90s, absolutely awesome way. She's on a cordless phone wearing a tie dye shirt in her bedroom, and there are three photos of Marilyn on the wall behind her. So just so cool that that was like how she decorated her room at age 14. And so, like, you know, like, and through today, people are still putting like, posters of Maryland on their walls.
I mean, your dad has a painting of Maryland on his wall, does he not? Yeah, he does. I actually have one too that he gave me, but it's red and I like really don't like red decor at my house. No, it's like a constantly a joke between me and Jason where he's like, you should hang up the Maryland painting. And I'm like, I know, but I don't want to. That's really. Funny. All right, so now let's jump to 1994. We've definitely talked about this before because there's a specific thing that we say about this.
We're going to talk about it more next episode. Yes, we are. Oh my gosh, how cool. So Batman Forever, the character Sugar that Drew plays is a very clear, clear tribute to Marilyn. So here's a couple quotes. Joel Schumacher knows how much I love Marilyn Monroe, and I said let's do a tribute to her. Sugar's like this glitter dipped Marilyn. And it is a tribute. You can only do things like that with an icon like Marilyn. You should never try to copy her because she can't be copied. And then she said this in interview 1995.
Yeah, and then that same year, kind of very similarly to Movie Line, she said Marilyn is an icon, so it's crazy to think you can copy her, let alone be her. You can never touch that. But my character Sugar, is like a tribute to her. So like, I just really appreciate that she wasn't like, oh, I'm doing a Marilyn Monroe. She's like, no, that's impossible. But I love her, and I would love to, like, do this nice thing to honor her. And I definitely think that her outfit in the party scene of Batman Forever, where she's there with Jim Carrey's character, was modeled after a very specific dress that Marilyn wore in these famous photos that were taken for Life magazine by Philip for Philippe Hausmann in 1952.
So Drew's is more of a like lingerie. It doesn't really turn into a dress, but the tops of these are so similar. It's got to be intentional, right it? Has to be. How did you come across this even? I just. Did you just remember? These I think I just remembered, like I think it was just in my head somehow. I I don't even know what I would have searched for to find the Maryland ones. It is absolutely because there are a couple elements here. The sleeves have the same ruching, yeah, along them. And then there's like a a brooch situation in both of them that's like shiny silver.
So you're absolutely right. And that is so cool. I know. Yeah, she's so beautiful in that movie. And yeah, the glitter dip part, like she's literally covered in glitter, as she often was in the 90s. But love that. Yeah, stay tuned for our next episode to hear a step a little bit more about Drew and Batman Forever. Yeah, if you're listening to this little spoiler alert for what comes next. All right, so now let's get into George Magazine from 1996. This is probably the most like blatant, right? The most like she is literally dressing up as Marilyn for a purpose because this magazine, so it was JFK Junior's magazine.
And so his former executive editor, Elizabeth Mitchell, she has a quote where she said, I said to John, this might be a little touchy, but here's an idea. It's Clinton's 50th birthday. We could do something playing off happy birthday, Mr. President, which, of course, was famously sung to Kennedy's father by Marilyn Monroe. He had this look of amused incredulity. And then he said, it's great, let's do it. He chose Drew Barrymore to be the one to pose as Marilyn on the cover. And what a choice. What a choice.
These are so cool. She was photographed by Mario Sorenti for these images in George Magazine, and I think we've only seen the. 2 So we've only seen the two. I think it was the stylist on the shoot had posted. I went like deep diving on their Instagram and I think it's like a test Polaroid of drew on the shoe and that's it. So like as far as like the true photos for the shoe, it's like the cover and then a tiny little one on the content stage. What a waste. But it's a gorgeous cover and I I think the outfit the dress is supposed to have like a it's an homage to of course, the whole look of Marilyn for that birthday for FK, it's.
Gorgeous. It's kind of funny. It doesn't even say her name on the cover. It just says happy birthday, Mr. President. Like you maybe wouldn't even know it was her. That's that's such a good point. It's not like she's interviewed. No. So there's no feature on her. It's so gorgeous. So gorgeous. I also I feel like I've said this before, but the wig has always reminded me of the wig she wears in the Ellen Von Unworth. The German Vogue. Yeah, it's always. Kind of a blonde bouffant. Yeah. You know, there's a couple photo shoots Drew did in the 90s that probably have a little bit of Marilyn inspo.
Also the 17 magazine from 1993. I feel like that one often got compared to Marilyn. We'll put some pictures from that one up in the gallery as well. I could. I could totally see that, but the hair is like vaguely, yeah, kind. Of that way, I mean maybe even guess like has a bit of that inspo in there. Could be, I mean Marilyn's inspiration. Yeah, so. Broad. Yeah, yeah. I did find one cute little quote from 1997 to Juice magazine about sexiness. And I just thought this was cute because the interviewer said, how did you manage your metamorphosis from the little girl in ET, the sex symbol?
And she laughs, and she says, I don't know, I just dealt with my own organic evolution. I don't think I've tried to be a sex symbol. I think sexy is not trying to be sexy. You know, I don't think sexy is somebody pushing the limits. The sexiest woman in the world was Marilyn Monroe because, you know, I think she had a confidence in herself that we all admire. So it's just cute that like, you can really see how much she looked up to her and admired her in so many different ways. Totally. OK, so now let's jump to 2003.
A fountain was dedicated the Chinese Theatre to the Holly Grove Foundation. Marilyn spent some time at the Holly Grove Orphanage during her childhood and money from this fountain is donated to Holly Grove. That's really neat. It's you made a note here. It sounds like it closed in late 2005, but they still run some therapeutic programs for children, so it's. Still, yeah, I was like, I hope the coins are still going, going. Somewhere. That's so interesting that Drew was chosen to be the one on hand to do this dedication.
You know, she was like right in the middle of full throttle promos at this time. But I, I would love to know why she was chosen. There's really no like news articles about it, but it's really special. And she had like a very classic silhouette that day, you know, like a button up white shirt and a pencil black pencil skirt and some heels. And yeah, I, I, we set this off mic, but we, we weren't able to attend this that we must have known about it in advance, but we couldn't go because she also did The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that day and we opted to go to that instead.
We couldn't be at both, even though she was able to. I feel like we knew about it. Maybe, yeah. I really think we did. Yeah, yeah. The look that she has is so classy. Like it's, it's such a great look and we definitely have. Pictures of us with Brian in front of us, right? Is that probably? Probably. Have to dig those up. I, I don't remember, but I can't imagine we wouldn't have like gone and been like, hey, Drew. I tried like really hard to like make sure the fountain was still there through like Google images.
It looks like it is, but I like the Street View. There was like a premiere going on, so everything's blocked. That's funny. That's Hollywood Blvd. baby. It's always bopping over there. All right, so let's just jump to the next year. Speaking of premieres. Speaking of premieres, so this is something we did attend and I think we just talked about. This it. Didn't really start in 2004. Drew wore a dress to the premiere of 51st States that is inspired by Marilyn's dress in the movie Niagara, though her dress in Niagara is red.
Did you read about this or did you just like, figure it out? No, Drew actually spoke about this to People magazine. Remember when that couple years ago they did this like 20 years, 20 looks or 20, something like that. So they had her look back on literally 20 years of fashion and it started like in 2002. So it was more recent looks. So we like to say this is recent, even though it's not 20 years ago. 21 years ago. But anyway, she said she was very inspired by that dress and she somehow found this black sort of very close copy version of it, and she was really excited.
So they have that same little like peekaboo cut out and a little bow in the front. They're about the same length. That's really cute. It's a very flattering dress on both of them and. Yes, absolutely. I want that dress, actually. I mean, I would like to wear that too. We. Should find a knockoff. Maybe you can. The next year, in 2005, Drew was working on the movie Lucky You. And she plays a singer in that movie, which is, you know, different for Drew. And she had told another magazine that when she was training for it.
I think actually, the prompt for this question was like, oh, did you listen to The Strokes because she was dating for Ratio? She's like, no, I actually listened to a lot of Marilyn Monroe. I love her singing voice. It's so beautiful, so charismatic and sensual. So we'll have to throw in a Marilyn singing to close up this episode 'cause she did have such a great voice. But that's really neat that that was sort of like the vibe that you was trying to pull. That is cool. And this, this is neat. I you paid way more attention to this than I did at the time, and I'm so glad you did.
So The Essentials, which was a series where Drew was like presenting films with Robert Osborne. On TCM. Yeah. So in 2012 and 2014 there were a few Maryland films included. I know I like went back to 2013. I read the list amazingly, I like save the list from the websites every every year too. So we have the whole but I didn't I like kept reading 2013 like are we sure there's no Maryland ones? I didn't see any. But the very first movie that they did on the very first episode of the very first season with Drew was for some like it hot, which is so cool.
That one is not available on YouTube but I was able to find it on DVD which is how I found that I have the freaking Dateline 2005 on DVD and didn't know that's. So funny. But I just pulled one quote where Drew said it was the quintessential way that I saw Marilyn Monroe as this icon. In this part, she comes alive in the most extraordinary way. So cute. It is such a good movie, I want to watch something like it hot again. Yeah, I haven't seen a long time. I've never seen these other two there at all.
So in the third season. So in 2014 they did How to Marry a Millionaire and Bus stop SO22 films. Were featured. In the third. Season. And I think it's worth noting that Drew definitely played a role in choosing the films. Like it's not like she just showed up and talked about them. I think it was a very much of A collaboration with her and Robert Osborne. I mean, some of the ones during her seasons are like show her choices. These ones, like you can feel that she, she's very, very knowledgeable about movies in general, film history, but you know, she knows her stuff.
So the intros and the outros for both of those movies are on YouTube. So we'll be sure to link to them because they're fun to watch. That's really cool. And Speaking of those, there was a really lovely quote in one of them that we're going to play here to kind of wrap up this episode that sort of just encapsulates Drew's appreciation of Marilyn a little bit. Right? Yeah. She is just an, you know, the world's greatest icon, and I think her status and star only grows and rises with time. Too bad she wasn't around since that was important to her to know what an icon she is, because she wasn't held in that high regard when she died.
That's one of the pities. But how great We still have it on film. That's the other great thing about film, yes. Yes, indeed, there's no lack of love for Marilyn Monroe. Or us for you though. Thank you, Robert. Good. To have you here. Oh Robert, good to be with you best. Love you Robert so much.
I also love that, but like, he's basically making just a little comparison. It's really sweet. Yeah. So I this was a fun departure for us and a cool way for us to kind of look at like something that Drew not just relates to, but appreciates and models part of her career after like. Yeah. What a cool like I don't know. I know I was really inspired with this one. Like, as soon as the seeds started planting in my mind, I was literally like, waking up thinking about it, like, oh, what about this? Or like, yeah, I really enjoyed this one.
And it definitely gave me a little like, oh, I want to get a little back into Marilyn again. Like, I went through a phase of really being into her and really seeking out her movies and stuff and reading a lot of biographies. And I'm like, oh, I think it's time to do that again. Also, cuz we're always, I feel like every time we talk about the Jerusalem, or at least this is like a sentiment that has come out multiple times that I feel like what we try to do is, is while Drew's alive, like create this timeline in history that someone might do for someone who's gone, like Marilyn, Like we can see Drew's legend, legendary status in her life.
And maybe it is partially because she's been able to like live long enough to reflect on it. You know, I mean, there's part of that, but. That was actually my really a huge hope I had when I wanted to get like an expert or historian or collector of Marilyn on for this episode. I wanted to talk about like the difference of, you know, having a living legend that we collect on and try to preserve the legacy on versus, you know, someone who is in the past and like some ways probably that way's easier and some ways that's harder.
And just kind of the the way that that plays out for each of us. And I, I like thinking, you know, just like you said, I like thinking that we're sort of like preemptively doing that for Drew, which is like sort of weird, but right. Like it's also neat. It makes me just wonder, like, were there people who started to collect when she was alive? I'm sure made scrapbooks you. I mean, yes, people had to have made. Oh. Absolutely, Absolutely. I love imagining that. And I just had one more thought about collecting on someone who's gone.
Like anything new that comes out is all posthumous, right? So it's like, but you might still get outtakes from a really old photo shoot like. My God, Can you imagine? Except it would be.
Somebody like, finds the negatives in some vault somewhere. Yeah, there's there's a website called the Marilyn Monroe Collection. And it's really all just items, very personal items from her life. And man, I see some of those. And I'm just like goals, like, you know, just the things that Drew probably just tosses aside were like, oh, we would love to preserve that in the Jerusalem for you. I mean, we're working on it being like known that we're doing this, you know, but while being like respectful and realizing that doing it for someone who's alive is.
Odd, yeah, you know, but it's good. That's that's the deep note. I want to end this episode. It's it's good. Speaking of us collecting on Drew, stay tuned, guys. There is something coming out in a few months on TV that we can't wait to share with you. Yeah, that, that is all on that for now. OK. Thank you for putting this together, Ashley. This. Was really. Fun thanks. For being open to it, I'm like, this is what we're doing. I like it. All right, you guys. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for being here and happy 99th birthday to Marilyn Monroe.
Thank you for your legacy that you have done and the way that it's influenced True's life and that we get to be here talking about our girl. How cool that's. Cool. And thanks to you guys for listening. Be sure to give us some feedback, positive feedback on whatever platform you're listening to us on. We would appreciate it. And go find us on Instagram at hadiyujirupod and we also have at Truezium. And you know you're on the Internet all the time anyway, so make sure you visit our episode page on How do you drew.com hosted on our OG the jerusalem.com.
Make sure you sign up for our Patreon. Patreon.com slash. We're getting close to finished with little girl lost over there we keep. Saying that. But we really are. Really are. You know, time is relative. Time is a melting cloth. What was that thing? Yeah, time is melting like a Dolly painting. Yes. All right, everyone. And finally, don't forget to send listener mail to [email protected] or on any of those other platforms. Yeah, or how? About your PO Box where you just got some mail for the Drew Barrymore Show.
Apparently you you never sent me a picture. Yeah, I got to. We just got some like menopause guide book that someone sent that they really wanted Drew to see in my PO Box. So. Weird and kind of sad. It's kind of sad, but if you want to send a sale mail, send it to us at PO Box 416, Phillips, ME 04966 or you can see that address on our website. Someone sent me a letter. Let us crinkle your paper into our microphones. All right, everyone, I guess we'll see you all next Drew's day. That sounds great for Batman.
Batman. No, you did it right, Batman, although that's like the 60s. Yeah, totally different, but I love it. Thanks. Guys, bye, bye.
The kiss of the hand may be quite continental, but diamonds are a girl's best friend. A kiss may be grand, but it won't pay the rental on your humble flat or help you at the Ottoman. This episode of the How Do You Drew podcast was researched and produced by Ashley and Anne from thedrazium.com with help from our sponsor, Positive Medium. Special thanks to Matt Costa for our lovely theme song, Roxy Prima for our adorable logo, and last but not least, Drew Barrymore and all the Drewbies who love her.
We do this for you. Thank you.
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