I’m proud to have a letter published in the British newspaper, The Morning Star, today. I have written to newspapers three times in my life, and all were about Marilyn Monroe (she is, perhaps, the subject about whom I feel most qualified to share my views in public.) The first was in response to esteemed film critic David Thomson’s rather churlish profile for The Independent back in 2005. It was printed in condensed form, though I didn’t find out until later. My second, more recent effort was a correction to a photo caption in the New York Times.

This letter was regarding a recent article, ‘Hell’s Blue Sky: The Story of Drone Warfare‘, which featured David Conover’s famous photo of Norma Jeane as a young factory worker in World War II, holding up the latest model drone. Conover encouraged her to try modelling herself, and the rest is history.

The other photo, accompanying my letter, shows Marilyn arriving at Croydon Airport in 1956 with husband Arthur Miller, amid his own battle with the House Committee on Un-American Activities. She would later say he “taught me the importance of political freedom in our society,” and remained proudly working class: “I want to say to the people, if I am a star, the people made me a star. No studio, no person, but the people did.”