Is Anna Nicole Buried Next to Her, and Other Marilyn Monroe Trivia Questions

Answer a series of forehead-slapping anecdotal factoids. It's up to you to weigh each fact in each anecdotal factoid. They're tricky. One might seem like total B.S. until it's revealed to be strangely and disturbingly "True." Another anecdotal factoid might seem to contain all solid and verifiable facts until it's revealed to be yet one more big fat garden variety "Bald-Faced Lie." And here's the trickiest part: an anecdotal factoid might even be "Half-True"; in other words, a mishmosh of truths and bald-faced lies, where you don't know where one ends and the other begins, much like the usual slop served by Madison Avenue, Washington D.C., and the Internet in its entirety.

Category: The Some Like it Marilyn Quiz

Decide for yourself, and mark "T" for "Truth", "F" for "Bald-Faced Lie" or "TF" for "Half-Truth" in the blank slot next to each factoid.

The answers will be revealed on the next page.

1) __ Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson. She started using the name "Marilyn Monroe" in 1946. She didn't officially change her name until 1956.

2) __ Elton John wrote the song "Candle in the Wind" as a tribute to Lady Diana Spencer. In 2007, he wrote new lyrics for the song and dedicated it to Marilyn to commemorate the 40th anniversary of her death.

3) __ "Something's Got to Give" is one of Hollywood's most famous unfinished films. The movie includes Marilyn's one and only nude scene. She died before it was completed.

4) __ When Marilyn sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" for JFK's 45th birthday, she was wearing a flesh-colored dress with 2500 rhinestones on it. The dress was so tight-fitting that she had to be sewn into it. In 1999, the dress fetched over $1.26 million at auction.

5) __ The first issue of "Playboy Magazine" had Marilyn on the cover. There was no date on the cover because publisher Hugh Hefner didn't have enough money at the time for a second issue.

6) __ Anna Nicole Smith is buried next to Marilyn Monroe.

Years earlier, Hugh Hefner had bought the crypt next to Marilyn's crypt so he could be interred beside her. Anna Nicole's family members played on Hef's sympathy and bought the crypt from him.

7) __ Marilyn Monroe was born with six toes on one foot. As an adult, she had this toe surgically removed.

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Here are the answers for the Some Like it Marilyn Quiz.

Answers:

A reminder: "T" is for "Truth", "F" is for "Bald-Faced Lie" or "TF" is for "Half-Truth".

1) T: It's true that Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson, but didn't officially change her name until 1956.

2) F: It's false that Elton John originally wrote the song "Candle in the Wind" as a tribute to Lady Diana Spencer. It was written in 1973 as a tribute to Marilyn. In 1997, he wrote new lyrics for the song to commemorate Lady Diana Spencer. He sang these lyrics only one time - at her funeral. After that, he has refused to perform the Lady Di version of the song and will only perform the 1973 Marilyn version.

3) T: It's true that Marilyn's unfinished film, "Something's Got to Give", included her one and only nude scene.

4) T: It's true that Marilyn wore a skin-tight flesh-colored dress when she sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" for JFK's 45th birthday. It's also true that the dress fetched over $1.26 million at auction.

5) T: It's true that the first issue of "Playboy Magazine" had Marilyn on the cover. It's also true that there was no date on the cover.

6) TF: This anecdote is both true and false. It's false that Anna Nicole Smith is buried next to Marilyn Monroe. It's true that Hugh Hefner had bought the crypt next to Marilyn's crypt so he could be interred beside her.

7) F: It's false that Marilyn Monroe was born with six toes on one foot, and had this toe surgically removed as an adult. This was an urban legend that began with a 1946 photograph taken by Joseph Jasgur. When this photo surfaced in a collection of Marilyn pictures, the legend began. In truth, it was a trick of shadow and light. The other photos in Jasgur's session showed a left foot with five toes.

SOURCES:

http://www.marilynmonroe.com/about/facts.html

http://www.marilynmonroe.com/about/timeline/timeline.html

http://www.marilynmonroe.com/about/bio3.html

http://faculty.uml.edu/sgallagher/happybday.htm

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000054/bio

http://www.marilynmonroe.com/about/movies/gottogive.html

http://www.pbs.org/previews/americanmasters_monroe/

http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/486:380/1/Hugh_Hefner.htm

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=7&entry_id=8113

http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/mmtoes.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candle_in_the_Wind#1990_resurfacing

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,253662,00.html