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The Latest News....

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The New York Times

(AP) -- Published: May 5, 2007

The heirs of a photographer who took famous pictures of Marilyn Monroe did nothing wrong by selling pictures without the consent of Monroeís heirs, a federal judge has ruled.
Judge Colleen McMahon of United States District Court in Manhattan said in a decision made public yesterday that a company headed by three children of the photographer, Sam Shaw, did not violate the rights of Monroeís estate by using pictures of her on T-shirts marketed and sold in Indiana. Millions of dollars were believed to be at stake in the litigation. read more...

The Wall Street Journal

Posted by Nathan Koppel, May 3, 2007

Sheís long gone, but Marilyn Monroe still lives on in court, like a candle in the wind. Yesterday, New York federal judge Colleen McMahon ruled that Monroeís right of publicity ñ which authorizes her beneficiaries to license her name, image or likeness for t-shirts, key chains and the like ó did not survive the actressís death in 1962. The ruling, if upheld, could have a big impact, given the still robust market for Monroe-tchotchkes, as discussed in this page-one WSJ article from last year. read more...

Reuters

By Leslie Simmons (Hollywood Reporter, ESQ.), Fri May 4, 2007

A New York federal judge has ruled that Marilyn Monroe's right of publicity died when she did in 1962, paving the way for family members of the late photographer Sam Shaw to continue selling and licensing images of the icon, including the photo of her standing above a subway gate. read more...

Photo District News (pdnonline)

Court Rejects Right of Publicity Claim of Marilyn Monroe Heirs

By David Walker, May 09, 2007

A federal court in New York has rejected the claim of Marilyn Monroeís estate that it owns rights of publicity in the actressís likenesses, including photographs. In addition to undercutting a lawsuit against a photo archive for unauthorized commercial use of a Monroe photograph, the decision opens the door for anyone to use Monroe images commercially without permission from the estate. read more...

digital journal

Posted by patxxoo, May 6, 2007

A t-shirt from Target and a website maintained by the Shaw family "The Shaw Family Archives Ltd." Has caused the Marolyn Monroe Estate to scramble for a piece of the pie. The legendary image of Marilyn with her skirt blowing up was one of many taken by the late Sam Shaw famous photographer. read more...

AOL Entertainment News

Reuters, May 5, 2007

Marilyn Monroe 's right to a cut of the profits from those who photographed her died with the actress in 1962, a federal judge ruled Friday. The legal dispute centered on the iconic images of the blond actress standing over a subway grate with her skirt billowing up that were captured by the photographer Sam Shaw during the filming of "The Seven Year Itch" in 1954. read more...

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The Story Begins or The Back Story....

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It was Milton Greene's unique personal friendship and business relationship with Marilyn Monroe that allowed for the extraordinary photographs in The Archive's Marilyn collection; recording her moods, beauty, talent and spirit, for which he is most widely remembered. The Marilyn collection contains more than 5,000 images, many never before seen photographs of the screen legend. These images were created between the years of 1953 and 1957. During that period of time, Milton and Marilyn created a partnership, “Marilyn Monroe Productions”, which produced the films, “Bus Stop”, & “Prince and the Showgirl”.

In 1953 Milton and Marilyn first met on a shoot for a feature in Look magazine entitled "Hollywood Stars". Milton's reputation preceded him as a premiere and world-renowned fashion photographer from New York with a keen artistic eye. The young starlet, with her dazzling seductive style and photographic charm, was enamored with the idea of the famous fashion photographer coming to take pictures of her. When the sight of Milton revealed 'Color Photography's Wonder Boy', Marilyn hastily commented "Why you're just a boy?" to which Milton replied with a smile "And you're just a girl." An endearing and lasting friendship was born.

It was a match made to please all seeing eyes, an accomplished artist and an alluring muse. Milton and Marilyn went on to create over 5,000 images in over 50 sessions over the next 5 years.

Milton strongly believed in Marilyn's acting talent and encouraged her in her pursuit to become a more serious actress. In 1954, they explored deeper characters in the 'Peasant', 'Gypsy', and 'Hooker' series on the back lot of 20th Century-Fox. They followed up that Fall with the 'Wicker' and 'Ballerina' sittings. A more refined Marilyn Monroe was revealing herself and with Milton's validation, she began to experience a sense of intrinsic value not found elsewhere.

In 1955 with the trust and chemistry they garnered from one another, they formed Marilyn Monroe Productions. After a quiet year in hiding with the Greene family, more refined training at "The Actors Studio", and a battle by Milton and others to release Marilyn from her slave contract at 20th Century Fox. Marilyn Monroe Productions went forward with their first film in 1956. It was a joint venture with 20th Century Fox entitled "Bus Stop". A critically acclaimed theatrical run prompted the fledgling company to venture out on it's own with "Prince and The Showgirl" in 1957.

In 1957, Marilyn’s marriage to playwright Arthur Miller brought about many changes in her relationship with Milton. Arthur prompted for controlling interest in Marilyn's affairs. Milton, sensing the tension, bowed out of the partnership gracefully and faded away. He asked only for the amount he had invested in Marilyn Monroe Productions and the rights to his stills. By 1958, Marilyn was the new married couple's main breadwinner as she even graciously paid the alimony payments owed to Arthur's first wife. They divorced January 24, 1961.

After many years, Marilyn broke the silence with a phone call to Milton. In June of 1962 after speaking for hours, they agreed to meet upon his return from a 2-month assignment throughout Europe. Then on the 5th day of August in 1962, to the shock of the world, Marilyn Monroe was found dead.

Milton's Marilyn celebrates those flourishing five years of an exquisite collaboration that created enduring expressions of an accomplished artist and a legendary muse.

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The Story continued....

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From Independent News and Media in the U.K.....

Marilyn at 80: The curse of Monroe lives on
Men are still fighting over the screen star's most lucrative asset - her visual image.

By Jonathan Thompson
Published: 30 April 2006

Marilyn Monroe lived in controversy, died in controversy, and now, more than 40 years after her death, the curse lingers on. This weekend, her most profitable legacy isthe subject of no fewer than eight multimillion-dollar lawsuits. Their outcome will decide nothing less than who owns the image of the most potent sex symbol on the planet. Had she lived, Monroe would have been 80 in June, but her early death at 36, preserving her beauty forever on celluloid, has helped make her's the world's most valuable posthumous celebrity image - worth at least $8m a
year. This pot of gold has now provoked a clash between the descendants of four photographers who took her picture, and the ultimate inheritor of Monroe's estate, Anna Strasberg, widow of the star's acting coach and friend, Lee Strasberg.

And, this being a Monroe affair, the image dispute is but part of the constant circus of exploitation that has followed this most vulnerable of screen stars far beyond her Los Angeles grave. Another lawsuit is now under
way, launched by those associated with a film about her first husband, Jim Dougherty; the authenticity of many of the 800 items in a Marilyn Monroe exhibition is being contested; newly opened FBI files are stoking the never-resolved rumours of the Kennedys' involvement in her death; and the woman who has already inspired more than 300 books will soon become the subject of a contentious new biopic by Tom Hanks.

But the image rights lawsuits - which centre on publicity rights for the pictures, as well as alleged restraint of trade over their reproduction - are the most valuable of these Monroe properties. Among the photographs are Sam Shaw's picture of Ms Monroe's skirt billowing over a grate, and Tom Kelley's famous "red velvet" shoot, later to become Playboy's first ever centrefold. The pictures' copyright has always remained with the photographers and then with their offspring, but commercial use of Monroe's image was bequeathed to Strasberg. His third wife, Anna, 36 years his junior, whom he married at 67, six years after the actress's death, inherited them upon Strasberg's death in 1982. She employs US-based image specialists CMG Worldwide to manage the pictures' publicity
rights.

It was all so much simpler on the day the legendary Kelley image was originally captured, at the photographer's Los Angeles studio - 27 May 1949. The unknown Monroe was paid only $50 for the shoot, telling the photographer and his wife that she needed the money to pay for the recovery of her car from a nearby pound.

After the shoot, the three went together for a bowl of chilli at a restaurant, while Kelley's brother Bill went to the local Kodak shop, complete with a bottle of Scotch as a bribe to make sure that the risqué portraits were developed. Now this classic picture is one of those at the heart of the legal tug of war taking place in three separate states. It is a struggle that Kelley's son, also called Tom, remains confident of winning.

A photographer himself, Mr Kelley Jnr said he and the other descendants had finally lost their patience with the "bullying" and "greed" of CMG, which had been demanding up to 90 per cent of profits from sales of the images. "I said, you want a showdown? OK, we're going to have it here and now," said Mr Kelley. "We have tried to work with them, but now it's up to the courts to decide. What they stand to lose is all the rights, all the publicity for Marilyn, which is huge. We're talking about tens of millions of dollars here."

His sentiments are echoed by Sam Shaw's daughter, Edie, who was herself very close to Monroe. "Protecting Marilyn and protecting my father's name is always on my mind," she said. "There were only a handful of photographers Marilyn ever worked with and she got very attached to them. She would think it terrible that they're being told they can't use their pictures of her."

The case centres on whether Ms Monroe should be considered a resident of New York or California at the time of her death. If she is judged to have been a New Yorker, any publicity rights died with her on that fateful evening in 1962. If she was a Californian - where she was born and ultimately died - they will remain under the control of her estate for 70 years.

The lawyer representing the Kelleys and the family of one of the other photographers, Milton Greene, is sure the courts will rule Ms Monroe is a New Yorker - potentially demolishing the Marilyn interests of both CMG and Ms Strasberg.

"The factual nub we're going to dance around is Marilyn's domicile at the time of her death," said Surj Soni, speaking from his office in California. "She died in Los Angeles, but at the time of her death, she lived in New York, she owned an apartment in New York and she was a registered voter in New York.

"After her death, the estate of Marilyn Monroe filed probate and declared she was a domicile of New York City."

But the owner of CMG, Mark Roesler, accused the photographers' families of "trying to hide under a technicality". He said: "The big picture is that Marilyn Monroe left a body of intellectual property rights after she died. My client has the only trademarked rights to the name of Marilyn Monroe." He added: "Marilyn Monroe knew better than anyone how valuable and marketable her image was. She'd be very supportive of her agents, and
appalled that different photographers were trying to rip her off."

The other descendants of the four photographers see things differently. Mr Greene's son Joshua - whose father was perhaps the closest of them all to Monroe, having invited her to live with his family for two years - was particularly outspoken when contacted by the IoS.

"The fact of the matter is that they [CMG] are being greedy and unreasonable. They are like a schoolyard bully, beating his chest," he said.

"We've taken enough crap from these people. It's a game of intimidation and there are laws that protect us against restraint of trade. The fact is that Marilyn hated people like this - it's so ironic.

"Marilyn would take sides with us," continued Mr Greene. "But she would never have let things get to this point in the first place. Obviously it is in everybody's interests to keep her likeness seen.

"We're just trying to turn this curse around."


© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited.

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The new battle continued ....

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From The Wall Street Journal in the U.S.A......

Blonde Ambitions: A Battle Erupts Over the Right To Market Marilyn
Ms. Strasberg Seeks to Keep Control Over Licensing; Photographers Have a Beef Star's Residency Plays a Role

By NATHAN KOPPEL
April 10, 2006; Page A1


More than 40 years after her death, Marilyn Monroe's photos are used to hawk everything from T-shirts and posters to coffee mugs and key chains. Now, the late actress is at the center of a bitter legal dispute over who controls the rights to her profitable image.


Licensing her famous poses and pout have made more than $30 million in fees for two of the litigants. They are Anna Strasberg, the wife of Ms. Monroe's former acting coach, and her Indiana-based business partner, a professional peddler of dead peoples' images. Seeking to share in the Monroe spoils are the families of four photographers who snapped famous Monroe pictures, but who have earned far less in licensing fees.


The central issue in four Monroe-related lawsuits, now pending in Indiana, New York and California is seemingly simple: At the time of her death, was the actress a Californian, or a New Yorker? The answer is worth millions.


As the majority owner of Ms. Monroe's rights of publicity -- which permit the licensing of celebrity images for commercial purposes -- Ms. Strasberg insists the star was a Californian. The photographers, who own copyrighted images of Ms. Monroe, have asked the courts to declare that she was a New Yorker. If the photographers prevail, they could potentially wipe out much of Ms. Strasberg's Monroe business.


The reason: unlike copyrights, which are protected by federal law, publicity rights are a creature of state laws, resulting in a legal patchwork. Some states, including New York, refuse to acknowledge or protect the publicity rights of dead celebrities, so they cannot be bequeathed in a will. California does grant postmortem publicity rights, making it possible for heirs to pursue profits for decades.


Ms. Monroe was born and raised in California, and moved to New York to study acting in 1955, seven years before her death of a drug overdose. In New York, she met Lee Strasberg, director of The Actors Studio, a school attended by many famous actors and actresses. Ms. Monroe came to depend on Mr. Strasberg until her death.


In her will, the actress, who died with no spouse or children, left much of her $800,000 estate to Mr. Strasberg. She left a smaller portion to her psychiatrist, Marianne Kris.


In 1967, a young Venezuelan-born actress named Anna Mizrahi auditioned for admission to Mr. Strasberg's acting studio. She was wearing only a black bra and panties, according to the actress Lee Grant, who says she was present for the tryout. The ingenue didn't get in -- she lost out to Jack Nicholson -- but she did get Mr. Strasberg, who was nearly 40 years her senior. The two married in 1967, when Ms. Strasberg was in her late 20s. Ms. Strasberg declined to be interviewed for this article.


Mr. Strasberg went on to create the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, which operates in New York and Los Angeles. A shrewd businesswoman, according to those who know her, Ms. Strasberg ran the institute while her husband focused on his teaching. She also had a passion for luxury. "She taught us it was very important to nurture yourself with sensual baths, bubbles, nice smells and good food," says former student Mary Anne Dorward. At her memorabilia-filled apartment on Manhattan's Central Park West, Ms. Strasberg hosted such celebrities as Al Pacino, Ellen Burstyn and Mick Jagger.


Ms. Strasberg, who is 66, also owns a sprawling home in Los Angeles's ritzy Brentwood section. She regularly attends Hollywood galas, where she is frequently photographed.


When Lee Strasberg died in 1982, the Monroe inheritance passed to his wife. In 2000, she created Marilyn Monroe LLC, which now owns the Monroe publicity rights. She has a controlling interest in that entity; the Anna Freud Centre, a London psychiatric institute that inherited Dr. Kris's stake, owns the rest.


Ms. Strasberg launched her Monroe licensing business in 1982, months after her husband died, hiring Los Angeles lawyer Roger Richman to harness publicity rights. Between 1983 and 1995, Mr. Richman says he struck many lucrative licensing deals. Among them was a Marilyn Monroe boutique at Bloomingdale's New York department store, print and TV ads for Absolut vodka and cosmetics company Revlon Inc., plus an assortment of dolls, T-shirts and coffee mugs.


Ms. Strasberg's business philosophy, according to Mr. Richman: "Keep making money." Court records show Mr. Richman helped Ms. Strasberg to net about $7.5 million over 13 years, a figure he says seems low, though he won't provide actual numbers.


"Anna thinks about and handles" Ms. Monroe's image "from the moment she wakes up," says William Wegner, her attorney.


Ms. Monroe joined a parade of dead celebrities being marketed aggressively. In 2004, Robert F.X. Sillerman paid Lisa Marie Presley $100 million for an 85% stake in Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc., which licenses Mr. Presley's image and music. Jeffrey Lotman, chief executive of the Los Angeles licensing firm Global Icons, says that after Mr. Presley, Ms. Monroe and James Dean are the most valuable dead-celebrity brands.


The business has caused tension in the Strasberg family. John Strasberg, her estranged 64-year-old stepson who teaches acting in New York, says that he and his late sister Susan were close to Ms. Monroe, but they were disinherited by their father and never received any of the Monroe earnings. "I'm not sure I would want any of it," he says. "I find it fundamentally sad that people who never knew Marilyn continue to want to profit from her, and in the lowest form possible." In a New York surrogate-court filing, Ms. Strasberg said she had been "acquainted" with Ms. Monroe prior to her marriage to the acting coach.


The selling of Marilyn took off in 1996, after Ms. Strasberg dismissed Mr. Richman and hired Mark Roesler, the owner of Indianapolis-based CMG Worldwide, to manage the Monroe publicity rights. Described by others in his niche as the king of the dead-celebrity business, the 50-year-old Mr. Roesler began in the early 1980s by hiring private detectives to track down families of deceased stars. These relatives often didn't realize there was money to be made, he says. Among the long-gone celebrities Mr. Roesler currently represents are James Dean and Bette Davis.


To snare Marilyn Monroe, Mr. Roesler guaranteed Ms. Strasberg that he would pay the estate at least $1.1 million in annual licensing fees, according to a former CMG employee. Mr. Roesler wouldn't confirm this number, except to say he has met his guarantees. Court records indicate that from 1996 to 2000, Ms. Strasberg received more than $7.5 million in licensing revenue as a result of her deal with Mr. Roesler.


CMG and Mr. Roesler doubled Ms. Strasberg's previous earnings by offering a blitz of products, including refillable lighters and Monroe-themed casino slot machines. A line of pet clothing, which debuted in February, includes a hot pink dog dress marketed under the slogan "Diamonds are a Dog's Best Friend."


"There are a hundred times more Monroe novelty items than there are [John] Wayne items," says Christine Sovich, a former CMG lawyer who now manages Mr. Wayne's publicity rights.


In 1999, Ms. Strasberg commissioned auction house Christie's to sell many famous items Ms. Monroe left behind, including the sequined gown she wore when she sang "Happy Birthday" to President John Kennedy in 1962. The auction raised $13.4 million, but the sale irked many of Ms. Monroe's fans and friends. Her will had directed Mr. Strasberg to distribute the actress's personal effects to "friends, colleagues and those to whom I'm devoted." Instead, the possessions went to "anyone with the right money," says James Haspiel, who identifies himself as a friend of Ms. Monroe's.


A derailed licensing deal for Marilyn Monroe collectible stamps was to have included this image, shot by Milton Greene in 1954.

Mr. Wegner says Ms. Strasberg has given part of her Monroe earnings to charity and that some of the profits have been used to fund Monroe-related litigation costs. "For Anna, it's not about the money, it's about preserving Marilyn's image," he says.


The lawyer says that Ms. Strasberg has been selective: One novelty phone featured a likeness of the famous photo of a skirted Ms. Monroe standing on a subway grate. When it rang, a fan blew Ms. Monroe's skirt. Ms. Strasberg called Mr. Wegner in a panic, insisting he stop production on a tasteless product. Mr. Wegner says he reassured Ms. Strasberg that the phone "was not racy and didn't expose" Ms. Monroe's panties. Ms. Strasberg relented.


Now, the greatest threat to Ms. Strasberg's control over Ms. Monroe's image comes from the children of four deceased photographers. Though the lensmen owned copyrighted images of the starlet, they themselves barely profited. But their family members have licensed the Monroe photos to makers of calendars, handbags and even a high-end vintner. Last year, Ms. Strasberg and CMG sued the families in Indianapolis federal court, alleging that some such deals violated Ms. Monroe's publicity rights by excluding Marilyn Monroe LLC from licensing revenue.


The photographers countersued in New York and California, claiming that Ms. Strasberg and CMG have no right to licensing revenue, because Ms. Monroe was a New Yorker, and therefore her publicity rights expired at death.


Joshua Greene, whose father, Milton Greene, shot thousands of photos of Ms. Monroe, worries that the star's image is fading and manufacturers won't enter into licensing deals if they have to pay fees to two sets of rights holders. As evidence, Mr. Greene points to a Japanese collector stamp deal from which he says he stood to earn $70,000. The deal, he says, fell apart when CMG and Ms. Strasberg demanded a piece of the action in the form of high licensing fees. "They are killing the goose that lays the golden egg," he says of his legal opponents.


Mr. Roesler says the stamp deal died because Mr. Greene wanted to accept all the licensing fees himself and then parcel them out.


Three of the four families have a member who gave up a photography career to capitalize instead on his father's Monroe shots. Mr. Greene says he burned out as a magazine photographer and backpacked around the world before restoring and licensing his father's photos, from which he says he has earned more than $1 million over the past decade.


Larry Shaw says he began selling his father Sam Shaw's Monroe photos -- including the one of the starlet atop the subway grate -- after his own photography career faltered in 1987. He says he was making more than $100,000 annually in licensing fees. In 1994, his father and sisters sued him, claiming he stole the photos and wasn't sharing the profits. Mr. Shaw denies the claims. The suit was settled in 2002.


Another litigant, Tom Kelley Jr., gave up his celebrity photography business to take over his late father's studio in 1984. He says he has earned about $300,000 from his father's Monroe photos, getting the most money from a deal struck with the makers of the Marilyn Merlot wine label.


Lawyers for the photographers' families say they will prove that Ms. Monroe's domicile was New York. After all, they say, at the time of her death, she owned an apartment on Manhattan's East Side, where she lived with playwright Arthur Miller until their 1961 divorce. Her will was also probated in New York. Mr. Wegner, for his part, offers as proof of Ms. Monroe's domicile a stone on the porch of the late actress's California home. "Here my journey ends," reads its inscription.


Write to Nathan Koppel at nathan.koppel@wsj.com

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