Yeah, but so was she. Would you fuck that? I wouldn’t. Hey, tastes change over time.
The numbers were my own personal measurements of me back in the day (however the bra size is a typo, that should read 34D, not 37D, sorry), and I verified my memory that they were within Marilyn’s range at the Snopes page debunking the “Marilyn was a size 16!” myth: here
Granted, my waist was a teeny bit bigger than hers, but I also never wore a corset, much less did waist training to trim my waist via corset. Lots of her best dresses rely on formidable undergarments.
Um… Most of your cites include the very quote I’m bitching about. Do we have some logical disconnect here? Are you saying that the quote is apocrophal? And if so, how?
Zut is saying that all of those (with the quote) are citing the Hollywood Reporter as the source of the quote… but the Hollywood Reporter doesn’t have it. So where did that “quote from the Hollywood Reporter” come from?
Note: It is, however, possible that there is a longer version of the article in either the print version or the version for subscribers only that does have the quote.
Bet you would if you saw her like this, or like this. (Okay, maybe the second picture would be more attractive without the skeleton. The accompanying skeleton, I mean, not Theda’s own skeleton, which IMO is a pretty indispensable part of her physical appeal.)
Yes, the silly silent-movie “exotic” costume dramas and the raccoon eye makeup and smoldering-glare “sultry” expressions of the period didn’t do Theda Bara any favors, but she was actually quite a pretty woman. And she wasn’t fat either.
Like the one in Contrapuntal’s link.
Wait. You are of the opinion that your “15 years ago” pic was fat? You have severe body issues then.
I was of the opinion THEN that I was fat, because lots of people told me so and I jiggled. Now I think I had a damn fine body back then!
But that was my point - yes, I’m totally prepared to believe that Marilyn Monroe is described as fat 'cause I had her body and was likewise described as fat. Curves = fat in some people’s worldview, no matter how sexy others find it.
Noted. But again, my point still holds. We can’t track down the origin of the quote, (this type of thing isn’t going to show up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal) but the message keeps getting printed. I think it’s a pretty safe bet that some studio exec actually DID say it.
It’s in print, which means that the idea of Marilyn Monroe being fat is out there. Some of the articles that use the quote in question may be written by people who take it as ridiculous as I do, but people actually do think this way. You can see it in this very thread. I mean, really, come on. Is Marilyn not hot enough?
For Christsakes, I may have not stated it clearly enough in my OP, but I once argued that the our society doesn’t actually like stick figured women. I guess I was wrong.
I can just imagine what the studio executive asshole (and some of the assholes in this thread) would say upon meeting Aphrodite. “Good face, but she needs to lose a few pounds.”
To hell with Theda Bara, anyone around here want to have a go at the original sex symbol?
No, not really.
Press releases aren’t supposed to be altered, but sometimes hoaxes and deliberate corruptions make it through to even some of the major news outlets. There have been a few embarassing ones too, where people snagged storeis off the line and didn’t bother verifying the facts themselves. If I can remember any good example I’ll link to them.
Most of the version of that same article I’ve seen (and I was scouring the internet) are almost identical except that the “fat Marylin” quote is absent. There might be a studio exec out there who is stupid enough to risk his/her job that way, but it’s looks like there is an “altered” version of the press release floating around out there.
Contrapuntal, I broke your link. Please don’t take it as a chastisement, as you did clearly label it, but some posters asked that we maintain the two-click rule for optimum safety. I count the cut-and-paste step as one click. 
Hey! Here’s an example of a “quote” that no one can trace in a story by our beloved Chicago Reader. And here is another story about fabricated quotes that got pulled off of the newswire. And then there was that story a couple years ago that Will Ferrell was killed in a hang-gliding accident. That story got picke dup by all sorts of news outlets.
I think there are people who would think Marylin Monroe is “chubby” (I’m sure as hell not one of them), but I’m a bit skeptical that a Fox studio exec would make that statement in an official press release.
There is at least one person here saying just that.
And if Marylin is considered fat Og help us all… :eek:
I think it’s a terrible bet. As far as I can tell, the first place it shows up is the page that you linked to. That page contains three quotes, all sourced:
“The original Millionaire was about a girl who was, frankly, kind of fat,” intoned studio reps. “Nicole is thin and perfect.” [Hollywood Reporter]
McKellen offended: “I can play any age,” he declares. “Gandalf was four hundred and eleventy-seven.” [Variety]
“Were Diana alive today, she would not like my music at all,” West says. “Mine either,” adds Allen. [NYT]
None of these quotes actually appear in the linked articles. Why do you think that would be? I would hazard a guess that it’s because they’re all made up.
The message “keeps getting printed” in the few places it is printed because the people who print it don’t bother to fact-check.
Does it really fucking matter?
I think y’all are missing one of my key points. Whether or not somebody said the quote in question is almost irrelevant; it’s in the press. I said it was a safe bet that somebody did say it, but maybe I’m wrong. Although, that’s irrelevant too.
This isn’t about facts. This is about perception. We all wish that the people who write these things fact check, but sadly, most media is interested more in profit than fact checking. It’s sensational…
So it get’s printed
And printed again.
No 14 year old girl is going to look at these articles and think to fact check. She’s going to come home with the message that the Hollywood standard of beauty is that Marilyn is too fat.
I hope that these articles that use the quote from an unnamed studio exec are in actuality railing against the ultra thin standard… but I wonder.
Yeah, but you have to think of it as a troll who sneaked something into the press. You get one of these :rolleyes: and save the outrage for someone with more credibility.
Marylin Monroe was undeniably hot and most of the articles that reprinted the dubious “quote” were sure to point out that the “unnamed source” is clealry stupid.
That troll got some play though, didn’t he? I read the initial quote in my local newspaper.
The idea itself is already in the zeitgeist.
I dunno. Since you were the one who was specifically pitting the asshole producer who said that Marilyn was fat, and NOT the article, I figured the existance of the producer would be important. But it’s your pitting, steer it as you see fit.
All right then.
I checked, I could not find a good picture of her. She really was unattractive. However, Nicole Kidman really is not very good looking either. There are some beautiful thin woman, Nicole is not one. Audrey Hepburn was.
Now as far as Theda, I thought Clara Bow was the biggest sex symbol. She was the It girl. She was much more attractive.
Myrna Loy was another great beauty of the 1920’s. She was gorgeous by the standards of then and now. She was usually cast as an exotic however.
