Marilyn VS. Snooki

I recently read an article on how Amazon is killing the publishing world. It began by saying: “When you see Snooki’s book on the New York Times Best Seller List, you know publishing is in trouble.” Publishers defended their case by saying that they’re only giving the public what they want. (Side note. I could live without knowing the sordid details of Snooki’s life.) In other words, publishers will pay an exuberant advance for a celebrity memoir that has a built-in audience instead of giving a new undiscovered author his or her shot. The article went on to say how this put the publishing industry behind the eight ball when Amazon stepped in and offered undiscovered authors the chance to publish their own books via ebooks or POD (Print on Demand), with higher percentages on sales compared to traditional publishing. What’s more, Amazon has offered favorably high advances to established authors to come aboard their new publishing arm.

As my new book “Marilyn Monroe: My Little Secret” nears publication, I’d like to share my own personal insight into what I’ve experienced in the publishing world. First off, publishers (like book agents) are the gatekeepers for an author. They play a key role in determining whose manuscript is worthy of being moved forward and, with any luck for the writer, actually gets printed. Now, I’ll be the to say that from a publishers standpoint, it would make sense to take on celebrities and fiction writers with a long history of best-selling books. What I don’t understand is how they’ve seemed to stop looking for the next Tom Clancy or Michael Creighton. (FYI: I’m not that egotistical that I’d compare myself to either.) I mean, even the best-selling authors and celebrities had to start somewhere. And this is where I applaud Amazon for allowing the undiscovered writer to share their talent with the world.

When I first completed my ‘Marilyn book’ a little over a year ago, I knew the subject matter would be a hot topic and spark attention, but first I had to write an alluring, eye-catching query letter. Once completed, I emailed my query letter to the top book agents and publishers in the business. Literally, within minutes I’d received responses from a majority of them who wanted to read the manuscript. Before I got too excited, I reminded myself that this was the initial stage of a very long reading process. I’d been there – and to date – am still going through the waiting game process with various screenplays of mine that have been optioned. Still, I had a gut feeling that this book was special… And my instincts were right. Instead of waiting the normal 6 months to a year, agents and publishers were contacting me within a month, and they liked what they read. Then came the million-dollar question about Jane (Marilyn’s once fan club manager), inquiring if she was alive. For those of you who don’t know the answer to that, I encourage you to read my earlier posts.

On the flipside, there were other agents who didn’t care about Jane’s mortality. Instead, they wanted to know more about my past writing endeavors. Again, as I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my biggest accomplishments was having a play produced off-Broadway— But to them, it was like Yeah, so? I’ve also self-published a series of children’s books, long before Amazon (or the internet for that matter) were conceived. One of them, “The Littlest Spruce,” won ‘Best New Children’s Book’ at the North American Book Exchange, was featured on Good Morning America, and later was picked up and distributed by Waldenbooks… Yeah, so?

In all fairness, these were the heavy-hitters in the literary world, and I am something of unknown. Still, there were some smaller publishing houses interested in taking the book on, along with a few managers who wanted to peddle the book for a year to see what they could do— But in the end? I made the decision to be an advocate for my own work. Thanks to a couple of investors who believed both in the book, and me, you will soon be able to buy “Marilyn Monroe: My Little Secret” on Amazon. My only hope is that it skyrockets in sales, making all those agents and publishers to think twice before giving the public another book written by – and I quote – “An over-tanned drunk who goes clubbing.”

My Years With Jane & Marilyn

As Hollywood gets ready for the 84^th Academy Awards, it appears that Oscar has taken a step back in time with the films and those nominated in their roles. The Artist salutes Hollywood’s silent era. Martin Scorsese’s Hugo pays tribute to turn-of-the century motion picture pioneer, George Melies, while The Help takes us back to Mississippi during the 1960’s, whereupon a southern society girl turns her friends’ lives upside down when she interviews the black maids who spent their lives taking care of their prominent families. (I predict that both Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis will walk home with gold statues.) Then, there’s My Week With Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh for their portrayals of Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier during the 1957 problem-plagued movie The Prince and the Showgirl.

My Week With Marilyn is an adaptation of late writer, Colin Clark’s books “My Week With Marilyn” and “The Prince, the Showgirl, and Me,” which chronicles Clarke’s supposed encounter with Marilyn during the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl. Michelle Williams has received favorable reviews as Marilyn, and is said to have captured her appearance, attitude and mannerisms. I’m not sure any actress can capture the essence of Marilyn – just saying – but that’s not what this post is about. I wanted to address the issue of Clark’s books being a ‘supposed encounter’ with the renowned sex symbol. Williams herself admitted to having hesitations that the movie was being advertised as being “based on a true story.” And she wasn’t alone.

Amy Greene, widow of Milton Greene, who was a photographer and vice president of Marilyn’s production company was quoted as saying, “I was there every day, and I knew what was happening. Clark was on the set, and he was a gopher. ‘Hey, I need a cup of coffee,’ or whatever. No one regarded him as anything but a gopher.” While Greene’s son, Joshua, was quoted as saying, “It’s a complete lie. It’s a fantasy. He was a fourth-rate waterboy.”

Lighten up, guys. Gophers and waterboys have feelings too, you know?

The fact is, people who knew Marilyn are doubtful that there was ever a hint of a romantic relationship between Marilyn and Clark, yet it’s been said that the filmmakers never verified the authenticity of Clark’s memoirs. Clark died in 2002 and isn’t here to defend himself. The same could be said for the woman (Jane), who is at the center of my upcoming book, “Marilyn Monroe: My Little Secret.” But the important thing I’d like to convey is that Jane was very much alive when I initially started the project and optioned her life rights to tell her story about Marilyn.

Without giving away too much about my book, Jane was in ill health when we met and always wanted to tell her story about Marilyn before she left this planet, only she wasn’t a writer. Sadly, Jane passed away in 2007, however, while she was alive I played the role of a journalist, recording her fondest memories of Marilyn. I also have photos of her and Marilyn together, along with other personal artifacts (i.e. Marilyn’s signature on pictures and notes to Jane) that Christie’s auction house authenticated. And I also contacted people in the industry who knew of Jane’s connection to Marilyn. As I mentioned in my previous blog, it took me years to verify Jane’s story, let alone wrap my mind around it. Once I had, a few top literary agents in the publishing world and industry professionals were eager to take the book on until they found out that Jane had passed away. Keep in mind, a couple of them met Jane when she was still alive and couldn’t wait until the book was completed.

With that said, it’s out of any of our control when any of us are to leave this crazy planet. And I pray… (pausing to make the sign-of-the-cross), that I’m still kicking when the book finally is released. True, I put a lot of time and energy into it, but beyond that, this story was important to Jane, and I’m her mouthpiece. Once I really got to know her I understood, unequivocally, that the possibility that she made things up or stretched the truth was zero. She had a solid grasp on what happened, even forty years later. How many of us can say the same? But to reiterate, should anyone question Jane's story with Marilyn, I can state that having gotten as close as I did to her, it was not within her make-up, at that point in her journey through life, to fabricate anything.

So, while many of you raise your glass this Oscar night to toast your favorite star, I’ll be raising mine to Jane and Marilyn for what one day could be a “true life” best picture nominee…

The 11 Year Itch

With my new book “Marilyn Monroe: My Little Secret” nearing publication, I had the itch to start blogging about the book’s status and my long journey of how it came to transpire. Some of you who are fans of my Facebook page, Marilyn Monroe: My Little Secret, are already privy to the information how, for a little over a decade now, I’ve been working on a true story about the woman who started Marilyn Monroe’s first fan club at 20^th Century Fox. For those of you just learning about the book, I invite you to become a fan on Facebook and follow my blog.

Now, there’s only so much an author can reveal about his/her book before it hits the shelf – or in many cases today, Kindle – but it’s the stories behind “the story” itself that can be just as intriguing. For instance, I never in my wildest dreams would’ve imagined that one day I would meet (let alone write about) a person who shared a direct correlation to unarguably one of the most famous movie stars of all time. Granted, as a kid growing up in Upstate New York, I was fascinated with all things Hollywood. Where or how the fascination came about is beyond me. All I knew was that one day I would be involved in the movie world, be it writing, directing, and for a fleeting moment, even starring in one. At the age of 17, I had accomplished all three… by filming my own home movies. On weekends, I would summon together my cousins and neighborhood friends and tell them we were going to shoot a movie. No script. No budget. Hell, we didn’t even have sound, being that I used my parent’s old 16mm movie camera. What we did have, however, was fun. Since it was the late ‘70’s, we didn’t have access to laptops, iPads, iPhones or a Wii-- We were our own entertainment. And I was the Cecil B. DeMille at the helm.

One of my epic productions was a recreation of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 classic, The Birds. My biggest dilemma was how to tackle the climatic final scene when Tippi Hedren’s character is attacked by an endless array of birds. Using my artistic genius – at least I thought it to be genius back then – I created an endless array of birds out of tube socks with cardboard beaks. I filled the beaks with ketchup so when my cousin (who portrayed Tippi) was repeatedly pecked, it would leave an illusion of blood streaked across her skin. Damn! If only youtube was around back then, I’m positive that movie would’ve gone viral!

Fast forward to the mid-eighties. After receiving a B.A. degree in English and Journalism at a SUNY college in Upstate New York, I moved to Manhattan. Hell’s Kitchen, to be exact, where high crime, crack heads, muggers and prostitutes were everywhere. And while it made for good writing material, I knew deep in my heart that Hollywood was calling me. I had hit the 11-year mark, which seems to be a running theme in my life, when I had the itch to leave the left coast for L.A. Ah yes, the bluffers paradise. Or as Woody Allen once said, “A place where they shoot too many movies and not enough actors who star in them.”

Speaking of actors, there’s an old expression in Hollywood how, ‘you’re only as good as your last picture,’ meaning that an actor’s popularity depends on how successful his or her last movie did at the box office. Well, the same holds true for a writer. You see, when I moved to L.A. the only movies I had under my belt were the ones I shot as a teenager. What I did have was what most people in New York would consider a solid writing resume, which consisted of several plays I had written that were actually produced, including my off-Broadway comedy, Tell Veronica! But this was L.A. The movie capitol of the world, and unless my last name was Neederlander, my plays and their favorable reviews meant basically squat to ‘the suits’ in the business. On the flipside, I did interview with a couple popular TV shows at the time who found my resume to be impressive, yet I was too over-qualified to be hired as a writer’s assistant on the shows.

But I never felt overwhelmed or defeated. Aside from the fact that this is where I wanted to be for as far back as I can remember, I was a firm believer that the universe hands you a gift when you are least likely to be looking for it. And that’s when I met the woman who started Marilyn Monroe’s fan club. Her name was Jane, who led me down what I refer to as ‘The Marilyn Rabbit Hole.’ At one time Jane had over 4,000 pictures of Marilyn; some candid, others publicity photos from back in the day when she was a 12-year-old girl running Marilyn’s fan club. Then, little by little, I began to unwrap the gift the universe gave me, and it finally dawned on me that this wasn’t the place I wanted to be, it was where I was destined to be in order to tell the story of “Marilyn Monroe: My Little Secret.”