Marilyn Monroe Worked with the Press to Out Her Own Nude Photo Scandal as Executives Feared It Would End Her Career (Exclusive)

Angela AndaloroMon, June 1, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC

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Marilyn Monroe on the beach in her early career
Credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty -

Marilyn Monroe became a darling of the media for her way of charming reporters and developing relationships with photographers

Different photographers' work with Monroe tells some of her life's story, as seen in Marilyn Monroe 100: The Official Centenary Publication from ACC Art Books

PEOPLE spoke with contributors to the book, as well as the estates of some photographers included, about Marilyn's ability to charm the media

Marilyn Monroe had immense media savvy.

Speaking with PEOPLE for Marilyn Monroe 100: The Official Centenary Publication from ACC Art Books, photography historian David Willis opened up about how the actress worked the media to her advantage.

"In her 'starlet' days, she achieved most of her publicity herself—casually courting reporters and press photographers, becoming friendly with them over time," Willis explained.

One example he offered was the 1952 scandal that threatened to derail her career, when rumors of nude photos of the actress existing began to make their way into the mainstream.

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Marilyn Monroe in her final photoshoot, photographed by Allan Grant
Credit: © 1962 MM LLC (Photos by Allan Grant)

"During 1952’s 'Nude Calendar Scandal'—which sent Twentieth Century-Fox executives into a panic and threatened to end her career just as it was about to skyrocket—Marilyn used strategic honesty and light manipulation to defuse the situation," Willis noted.

"Instead of hiding or denying it, as studio bosses insisted she do, Marilyn collaborated with journalist Aline Mosby and essentially broke the story herself."

Monroe and Mosby discussed the situation in an article titled, "Marilyn Monroe Admits She Is Girl on Calendar." The photos were taken years prior, when Monroe was a struggling actress.

"She explained that she was broke and hungry when she posed for the calendar photo in 1949 and declared, 'I’m not ashamed of it. I’ve done nothing wrong.' This masterful move allowed Marilyn to control the narrative, and she won the PR battle before it had a chance to take hold," Willis explained.

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Marilyn Monroe, photographed by Elliott Erwitt
Credit: © Elliott Erwitt LLC

"Her bold honesty humanized her, won public sympathy, and therefore only enhanced her popularity. Most importantly, Marilyn used her relationship with the press to benefit others."

Photographer Sam Shaw also bore witness to how Monroe was able to work with the media, something discussed by granddaughter Melissa Shaw in her conversation with PEOPLE, as the photographer's shots of the actress are included in the Centenary celebration.

"The press answers a bad question and she flips it on them and gives an answer that just kind of shuts it down, but is funny, right? And that's kind of her range in that field. She had a mastery, I would argue, of how to deal with the press."

Noting that Monroe wouldn't have had "the machine" that celebrities have today, Melissa continued, "She was doing that on her own and my grandfather credited her with that."

"He said she kept her name in the press by giving these wonderful interviews, giving these one-liners. She did that. She did that really on her own. It was not manufactured by the Hollywood studio. You see her acumen with maneuvering through very challenging situations, again with having had this very difficult origin childhood story. She kind of overcomes that."

Marilyn Monroe, photographed by Sam Shaw
Credit: © Shaw Family Archives Ltd

Journalist Rachel Smye, who wrote the introduction to the book, noted, "What made her different than the other women was that she had this ability to transmit something more through the frame, like really take advantage of the fact that she was being photographed and use it as a medium through which to express herself."

She continued, "There's all kinds of different ways that she wanted to be, whether it was as a kind of ingenue, whether as it was a bombshell, whether it was as a reader or an intellectual or a real artist or a real actress that with a lot of gravitas to her work, she had these different personae that she was trying out and she was able to really get them across in photographs and she was a collaborator with her photographers."

"She had control over which negatives got destroyed and which got printed. She had a lot of input into the creative direction of the photography, and she would often work with the same photographers whom she trusted over and over. My interest, for this, was really to capture Marilyn as a photographic subject and think about how she wasn't just passive in that effort."

Marilyn Monroe 100: The Official Centenary Publication from ACC Art Books is now available, wherever books are sold.

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