Giant Marilyn Monroe statue coming to L.A. area

By Tim Kenneally | Reuters3 hrs ago

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Forget the Tupac hologram - there's a new deceased celebrity coming to the Palm Desert area in spectacular fashion.

"Forever Marilyn," a 26-foot statue of actress Marilyn Monroe, is coming to Palm Springs at the end of May, NBC Chicago reports. The statue, which has been installed at Pioneer Court in Chicago since last year, is expected to stay at the corner of Tahquitz Canyon and Palm Canyon drives until next June.

The statue, created by J. Seward Johnson, depicts Monroe in an iconic scene from the 1955 Billy Wilder film "The Seven Year Itch," when Monroe's dress is blown up by air from a subway grate. The work was the source of some controversy, with some detractors calling the statue sexist and others deriding it as just plain ugly. Nonetheless, it became a popular landmark for photo opportunities - a fact in itself that drew jeers from film critic Richard Roeper.

"Even worse than the sculpture itself is the photo-op behavior it's inspiring," Roeper wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times. "Men (and women) licking Marilyn's leg, gawking up her skirt, pointing at her giant panties as they leer and laugh. It's not that the sculpture is shocking or sexist or obscene - but it's definitely bringing out the juvenile goofball in many of us."

The work also became the target of vandals.

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