So this is fun, and also juicy. Marilyn was in London (and brought Arthur Miller, her then-husband, along) to star in The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier, and the studio — as you might imagine — DID IT UP. The film was based on a play that Olivier had done with Vivien Leigh, but Marilyn bought the rights to the property for film and Olivier acted as director. (Vivien Leigh was, I believe, not in good health while they were filming, anyway.) Apparently shooting was A DISASTER, and everyone involved hated each other — the Wiki about the shoot is very mean to Marilyn and I suspect she’d tell a widely different story but obviously she cannot. (Laurence Olivier’s marriage was breaking up, for example, so he was maybe not in a great headspace for unbiased observation of the actress playing the role he originally played opposite said wife, for one thing.) But my god if the studio wasn’t going to cash in on Marilyn being in the UK for a year!

There’s even press footage of this photocall, which basically was merely marking the arrival of her in the country to start filming:

Listen, the shoot might have been a mess, but she looks FANTASTIC.

[Photo: Getty Images]