Laurence Olivier was an "arrogant snob" and a "little bit anti-semitic," JFK was the commander-in-chief, the "most powerful man in the world" who must always be obeyed. And as for Joan Crawford, she was "spiteful" and, in the throes of passion, a "shrieker."
Forty three years after her death, a transcript surfaced on Friday purporting to be Marilyn Monroe's words to her psychiatrist in the months before her death in August 1962.
The 36-year-old actress was found dead in her home in Los Angeles. Her death was ruled a suicide.
PHOTO: EPA
But John Miner, then a Los Angeles county prosecutor who attended Monroe's autopsy listened to recordings the actress made for her psychiatrist and made extensive notes.
He believes the contents, which he has only now made public, indicate she was far from suicidal.
In the transcript published in the Los Angeles Times -- the original tape recordings have not surfaced -- Monroe reveals herself as a flirt and a gossip, as well as being introspective, well-read and having considerable intellectual ambitions.
The recordings, she says, are her attempt to free-associate, inspired by reading James Joyce's Ulysses -- it takes her almost immediately to sex, as she thanks her psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson, for teaching her how to achieve orgasm.
"Speaking of Oscars," she says, "I would win overwhelmingly if the Academy gave an Oscar for faking orgasms. I have done some of my best acting convincing my partners I was in the throes of ecstasy."
On her own attractiveness, she says: "I stood naked in front of my full length mirrors for a long time yesterday," she says. "I was all made up with my hair done. What did I see. My breasts are beginning to sag a bit ... My waist isn't bad. My ass is what it should be, the best there is. Legs, knees and ankles still shapely. And my feet are not too big. OK, Marilyn, you have it all there."
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