Were she alive today, she'd be approaching 70. But age, and indeed a complete absence of existence, isn't enough to stop the return of perhaps the western world's most recognisable star, Marilyn Monroe.
Having snapped up the rights to her image for somewhere in the region of C$50 million, Canadian businessman Jamie Salter has said he has big posthumous plans for the former blonde bombshell, which he claims will include a revival on the big screen.
"We're pretty comfortable that Marilyn Monroe, in the next couple of years, will be in a real feature film and playing a part," he said in an interview, adding that his company had been in talks with "some pretty big movie people" regarding her first comeback since 1961's The Misfits.
According to Salter, the technology is there to make this a possibility, which leads us to believe it could spell the end for actual, living Hollywood stars. After all, a digitised actor isn't going to start making obscene rider demands, run off to their trailer at every opportunity or get arrested and have to be packed off to rehab.
And if Monroe can make a return, just think who else could be lined up for a death-defying comeback. You can forget the overrated talents of Pitt, Kidman, Clooney and co when Brando, Hepburn and a sober Reed are all waiting on a harddisk.
And the next step is surely for the customers to choose their stars at the press of a button. In which case I'll have Leslie Nielson playing the lead role in Gladiator, please.
