Megan Fox removed her Marilyn Monroe tattoo three years ago, leading the casual observer to conclude that Monroe as a symbol of the perils of fame has played itself out and that the poor, troubled woman can finally rest in peace. The casual observer is underestimating Hollywood’s endless fascination with the dark side of itself, however. For as long as starlets are willing to pose flirtatiously in blonde wigs, Marilyn will endure—and not just as a hologram.
Zero Dark Thirty star Jessica Chastain is the newest actress to join this seductive danse macabre. Chastain confirmed this week that she will star in Blonde, the new project from Killing Them Softly and The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford director Andrew Dominik. The film is a passion project for Dominik and has been quietly percolating for several years; we first reported on it back in 2010, when Naomi Watts was considered the frontrunner for the role. Blonde is based on Joyce Carol Oates’ bestselling novel of the same name, and will reportedly deviate from those other Marilyn Monroe movies by portraying her as an intelligent yet fragile woman trapped inside a glamorous prison of her own making.