Marilyn Monroe at 80 [audio 10min]

If she were still alive, today would have been Marilyn Monroe's 80th birthday. Since her death some academics and writers have tried to rehabilitate her reputation as something of an intellectual, building her up as something other than a beautiful blonde? But in trying to balance the dizzy blonde image has too much been made of her political and social conscience? The Many Lives of Marilyn by Sarah Churchwell, published by Granta, June 2004.