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I think Michelle Williams is benefitting from two things during awards season:

1) Since, as several posters have noted, Williams does not immediately evoke Marilyn Monroe in terms of figure, looks or temperament, she may be getting a certain amount of admiration for attempting something that is not in her natural emploi, and

2) There may be a certain grading on a curve going on as a pat on the back for the way Williams has managed her career. She has consistently chosen intelligent, challenging scripts (certainly in comparison to her Dawson's Creek co-star Katie Holmes -- last seen in yet another ultra-lowbrow Adam Sandler comedy.)

I think Williams is a very fine actress, but I haven't seen this film yet. I would suspect that if there are other factors in the accolades she's received this year, though, it may also be due to a make-up factor for losing last year's Academy Award to Natalie Portman. Portman campaigned very hard for that statuette, but there may still be some sentiment left over from Blue Valentine. And the older Academy members may feel more comfortable voting for a film like My Week With Marilyn rather than something like Blue Valentine.

And as for interpretations of Marilyn Monroe, the strongest I've seen so far is Popppy Montgomery's portrayal in Blonde.

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Saw it and not impressed at all. (Williams has never done it for me anyhow...too much of a grey type of actress). Marilyn is FIRE when you see her on screen-(whatever her real persona might have been), and Williams does not have what it takes to project that. Plus, the physique was WRONG. When my mother saw her she turned to me and whispered..."She's toooo skiny...that's NOT Marilyn!" And she's right.

What about Charlize Theron...?

http://www.flickr.co...kups/222375626/

or Lindsay Lohan...?

http://nymag.com/ima..._lindsay_lg.jpg

I'm not sure if you're joking.

No...I was not. Lohan has gotten herself definitely into such tumultuous life that we might think there's no way she could make it all the way to make a movie, but hey...Hollywood has been in this position before many, many times, from Clift to Monroe herself to many other actors and actresses having been employed while battling all kinds of substances abuse and even while serving jail time. As per Theron, yes, I agree she is probably too tall and Amazonian but I don't know if this is worst than the underwhelming Williams, who looked to me as a young girl with a platinum wig trying to dress up as Marilyn for Halloween. Williams could be a fine actress, I don't know..(I haven't seen much of her...I think only Brokeback Mountain and something else I can't remember now), but she always look too distant and fragile to the point of uninteresting TO ME. Monroe needed someone else.

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And as for interpretations of Marilyn Monroe, the strongest I've seen so far is Popppy Montgomery's portrayal in Blonde.

Same here, and I have always been amazed at how seldom this performance is noted. Not only was Montgomery's portrayal precisely tuned and nuanced, she also looked the part - uncannily so.

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As per Theron, yes, I agree she is probably too tall and Amazonian but I don't know if this is worst than the underwhelming Williams, who looked to me as a young girl with a platinum wig trying to dress up as Marilyn for Halloween.

I'm inclined to agree. Williams looked better in the movie than she does in the publicity stills in Marilyn's costumes and poses, though. (If it's hard to match Monroe on film, it's even tougher in front of the still camera.) Theron is indeed too tall (I thought Williams looked a trifle short) but her height also makes her imposing. She's sexier than Williams and she's able to suggest voluptuousness without actually being so. In terms of acting ability it's probably a bit of a wash, at least in regard to the movie under discussion.

I'm not sure that an actor of Marilyn's physical proportions would even be desirable, since most such can't avoid vulgarity - witness the Monroe imitators- which Monroe was able to do even when she was bursting out of her dress fore and aft.

Hello, Bonnette and sidwich, it's good to hear from you. Haven't seen Blonde. The reviews of the Oates novel did not tempt me to read it, although they were mostly favorable. I did read somewhere that Naomi Watts might be up for the part in the feature film.

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Haven't seen Blonde. The reviews of the Oates novel did not tempt me to read it, although they were mostly favorable. I did read somewhere that Naomi Watts might be up for the part in the feature film.

Hi Dirac. I'd heard that about Watts, too. She's a fine actress, but at 44 she seems a bit old for the part (and she is perhaps too cerebral, as well). Actually, Montgomery was so good that I wish they'd slather the lens with Vaseline and gauze and cast her again!

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