Nicky Haslam, Memoirs Share | Options

[Alanma]

So who he?
Haslam is a social butterfly who knows, or knew, just everybody; oh, everybody.
He has just published his memoirs - 'Redeeming Features'.

Interviewed in the 'Mail' today and asked what he most remembers about Marilyn he says - 'the grey line around the neck of her tracksuit'.

The book is described as '300 pages of anecdotal magic', and features a photo of this little creep with one arm around Paris Hilton and the other around Fergie. They are both taller than he is, and look less than thrilled.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/artic...hips-stars.html

[Tara]

Marilyn in a tracksuit? I don't think so. (IMG:http://www.everlasting-star.net/boards/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes1.gif)

[MarilynLivesSoci...]

Marilyn in a tracksuit? I don't think so. (IMG:http://www.everlasting-star.net/boards/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes1.gif)

That's just what I was thinking Tara! LOL!

M
xxx

[Alanma]

There is a full review of this chip-shop wrapper of a book in the 'Daily Mail' today, but I can't find it on their website.
Maybe they are ashamed of it.
About Marilyn, he is quoted thus -

' ...a greasy face with smudgy lips framed by lank blonde-dish hair. She was wearing a shapeless grey track-suit with makeup stains around the collar. She looked half-awake, almost haunted"

I cannot for a moment imagine Marilyn wearing anything. track-suit or no, marked with make-up stains.

There's more.

Apparently Salvador Dali and his wife Gala tried to get Haslam and 'a friend' [Haslam is gay] into bed, but settled by inviting him to a seance to raise Marilyn's ghost.
The review does not mention what happened there.

Oh yes, and Jack Lemmon snogged him at a party......

The review praises Haslam for not saying anything indiscreet about anyone still living; he is, we are told, a decent man with an innocence to him;rich, well liked and apparently alone.

Of course he's well liked. Would you fall out with him, wondering what he might say when you were gone?

[Tara]

Nicky Haslam seems to be the original Mr 'Why Is He Famous', who gains attention by bitching about people more interesting than him.

[Tara]

OK, in the spirit of fairness I decided to find out more about this Mr Haslam and his MM story. According to Wikipedia, in 1961 he became assistant to the art director of American Vogue, based in New York. As we know, Marilyn had a home in New York - and she was photographed by Bert Stern for Vogue in 1962. So it is theoretically possible that Mr Haslam may have caught a glimpse of Marilyn at some point, maybe at a photo shoot or party.

While it's very unlikely that Marilyn was wearing a tracksuit in the early 1960s, friends have confirmed that she dressed quite casually when not in the public eye. So maybe Mr Haslam did encounter Marilyn at some point, and being rather bitchy, chose to be unkind about her appearance. But as we've seen in James Haspiel's photos, Marilyn also looked lovely without make-up.

So while this story may just possibly be true, it's only Mr Haslam's opinion that Marilyn looked bad that day. And even if she did, so what? She was beautiful, inside and out and if Mr Haslam couldn't see that, it's his loss IMO.

[lorileime]

Does anyone know who Nicolas Haslam is? He was a fashion director for Vogue, an interior designer later on, etc. In his memoir called Redeeming Features, here's what he says about MM: "While watching him [Arthur Miller], I remembered that Simon Fleet's great friends Lord and Lady Drogheda let their beautiful eighteenth-century house, Parkside, set in the woods above Runnymede, to Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe while she was filming The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier. Life at Parkside cannot have been very sunny. Monroe, already fighting with Miller, who would frequently walk out, was often hysterical and indulged in a bout of Freudian territory marking. When the Droghedas returned to their house after the Millers left, they found excrement in every drawer. " That's all he says. He doesn't elaborate or go into any other detail. Who in the world could possible believe that. Our Poor Girl!

[Tara]

Merged with previous Haslam thread.

[Alanma]

Well, we knew who Haslam is; now we know what he is.

[SugarKane78]

What a truly deplorable man. I can think of other words, but they are expletives. (IMG:http://www.everlasting-star.net/boards/style_emoticons/default/angry.gif)

[purple people-ea...]

So who he?
Haslam is a social butterfly who knows, or knew, just everybody; oh, everybody.
He has just published his memoirs - 'Redeeming Features'.

Interviewed in the 'Mail' today and asked what he most remembers about Marilyn he says - 'the grey line around the neck of her tracksuit'.

The book is described as '300 pages of anecdotal magic', and features a photo of this little creep with one arm around Paris Hilton and the other around Fergie. They are both taller than he is, and look less than thrilled.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/artic...hips-stars.html

Apologies, but am I the only one who can believe this? I think it's an interesting story: what's wrong with that. (IMG:http://www.everlasting-star.net/boards/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)
There's another tale told by a photographer from the late 40s that he remembers Norma Jeane wearing a grubby bra, and looked as if she hadn't washed around her neck. I think it's cute! Sometimes we all have to wallow in our own muck (IMG:http://www.everlasting-star.net/boards/style_emoticons/default/asgtg4katie.gif)

[Tara]

You make a good point Jackie, thanks. I don't mind at all hearing that on occasion, Marilyn might have been scruffy or dirty, whatever - that's just human. It's more the tone in which it was said. Though I didn't hear Haslam say it myself, from the various articles I've read it seems that he was being quite dismissive, as if all he found noteworthy about Marilyn was that she looked unkempt. Perhaps the quote has been taken out of context but that's how it seemed to me. And from what loreleime has quoted, Haslam's memoir is even less kind to Marilyn than his interviews.