Lots of pictures were taken of Marilyn Monroe -- it's one of the reasons she's still so well-known today. One of her foremost photographers was a man named Milton Greene, who took thousands of shots of Monroe, including the famous ballerina image. Now, years later, his son Josh is looking to sell his fathers images, and has run into a big, solid, Arnold Schwarzenegger wall. The Guardian reports that Greene is currently awaiting yet another ruling to see whether he'll be allowed to sell his dad's Monroe photos.See, Arnie passed a "dead celebrities bill" recently, which "decrees that famous people, even those who died years ago, are entitled to pass on image rights to whomever they choose." Oh, so they mean a famous person can come back as a ghost and tell us who gets the rights? Sure, that makes sense. Why this hurts Greene -- Monroe handed most of her estate to her late acting coach, Lee Strasberg.
In the realms of law, this all seems sort of fishy, and it certainly throws a wrench into celeb photography. On the other hand, The Guardian does mention what sort of things the images have been sold for in the past -- when federal judges had ruled that he could -- products including sex oil and underwear. In the realms of taste, it's a bit questionable. He's not selling the image as a poster, in a book collection, or something Monroe-themed. Instead, sex oil. But this is a good lesson: watch out who takes your picture. One day, after you're dead, your grandkids might find your face on sexual paraphernalia.
