Marilyn Wines have just released the ‘2012 Norma Jeane‘, priced at $13, inspired by Bruno Bernard’s pin-up photo of the young starlet: ’100% Merlot from the Lodi AVA of California…rich in color with dark berry flavors end ready to enjoy.’

Three Olives are launching a new strawberry vodka this month, in conjunction with Marilyn’s estate (ABG), according to The Spirits Business.

 US department store Macy’s has launched a teen range inspired by Marilyn, reports the New York Times.

“Macy’s plans to carry Marilyn Monroe designs in 150 stores, targeting younger shoppers with updated styles for modern blond bombshells. Not to sound prudish, but this means shorter, racier, Kardashian-er.

Take a very little red dress for $59.50, a preview of what is to come, sold at Macy’s this month to benefit the American Heart Association. It evokes several famous Monroe looks, only she typically wore her dresses below the knee, as opposed to below the nothing. Denim shorts, $39.50, are cut short enough to see pockets.”

The range – which was designed in conjunction with ABG, the licensing arm of MM’s estate – seems very loosely connected to Marilyn’s own style. While I appreciate that their aim was to modernise, you could construct this ‘look’ in any chain store, and for far less money.

While I’m glad that ABG are keeping Marilyn’s profile high, I had hoped for a better quality product than this seems to be.

Stella McCartney has designed this T Shirt, available for £14.99 at TK Maxx, using Sam Shaw‘s 1954 shot of Marilyn at a party held in her honour at Romanoff’s restaurant in Hollywood, after filming The Seven Year Itch. For each T Shirt sold, £8 will be donated to Comic Relief, in aid of poor and disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa.

This Marilyn-themed T shirt is now available for £8.00 at UK supermarket Asda. (£1 from the sale of this product will be donated to Breast Cancer Campaign and Breast Cancer Care.)

Over at The MMM Blog, Melinda Mason has details of the new MAC Cosmetics collection, which is Marilyn-inspired and due out in October.

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at Marilyn’s enduring appeal.

“Hippie chicks and their flower power came and went, and the sunken cheeks of heroin chic had their moment, but a half-century later it’s Monroe’s recipe for reinvention — since followed by the likes of Madonna, Anna Nicole Smith, Christina Aguilera, Lindsay Lohan, Lady Gaga and others — that perseveres.

That resonance is one reason why the stiletto-clad footfalls of Marilyn Monroe seem to be growing ever louder. One can hardly swing a white mink wrap without hitting a Marilyn-branded product or project, such as a CGI appearance in a Dior fragrance ad with Charlize Theron or her estate’s @MarilynMonroe Twitter feed, which has more than 52,000 followers.

And there’s more: If all goes according to plan, Marilyn fans will be able to end 2012 being able to wrap their bodies in Marilyn Monroe bathing suits, accessorize with Marilyn Monroe jewelry, paint their faces with Marilyn Monroe makeup, get their nails done at a Marilyn Monroe salon, slip into a pair of Marilyn Monroe stilettos and sip skinny lattes at a Marilyn Monroe Café.

There are other factors feeding the current Marilyn frenzy, of course, including the 50th anniversary of her death, by barbiturate overdose, on Aug. 5, 1962, and the current trend toward anything that smacks of retro-nostalgia (i.e. the Mad Men effect). But the fascination has been on the upswing longer than that, says Lois Banner, an author and USC history professor whose second book about the late actress, Marilyn Monroe: The Passion and the Paradox, was published earlier this month.

‘There started to be articles about the ongoing fascination with Marilyn Monroe as far back as the mid-’70s,’ says Banner, ‘after Norman Mailer published his biography. But … it’s really increased in the last 12 years.’”

AVELA, a company specialising in nostalgia merchandise, has filed a lawsuit in New York, alleging that the Marilyn Monroe estate is interfering with its licensing activity, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

“Despite judgments that ruled that Monroe couldn’t devise by will a property right she did not own at the time of her death in 1962, the estate has continued to send out cease-and-desist letters…

…AVELA says that it has also received a cease-and-desist and is now suing to punish the estate for its legal aggressiveness.”

Akvinta Vodka – sponsors of ‘Marilyn: The Exhibit’ at the Hollywood Museum – have created new cocktail recipes in her honour, reports the Examiner.

Following the controversial recent ‘hologram’ Tupac Shakur show, Digicon Media are planning a similar event featuring Marilyn – but her estate have not yet granted permission, according to the Hollywood Reporter. (Personally, I hope it doesn’t happen – I’m far more interested in the true MM than any cyber approximation.)

“The Hollywood Reporter has learned that a ‘live’ Marilyn Monroe concert is being planned to take place before year’s end with the working title Virtual Marilyn Live — A Musical Celebration of the Birth of the Pop Icon. The concert, which has yet to secure a venue (organizers also plan to stream it on the web), will feature the projected blond bombshell singing and interacting alongside live music stars. Becky Altringer, managing director and co-founder of Digicon Media, the company doing the planning, says the event will employ the technology used at Coachella to launch virtual Marilyn’s new career as ‘a performer, spokesperson, cultural pundit and computer avatar.’

The potential new revenue stream from live holograms could boost an already lucrative business for the estates of some of the most iconic dead celebrities. Jackson raked in $170 million in 2011, according to Forbes. Presley took home $55 million. Monroe, despite having died of an apparent drug overdose nearly 50 years ago, didn’t do badly at all with $27 million. ‘I would say there could be an uptick [in revenue],’ says Mark Roesler, head of CMG Worldwide, an Indiana-based agency representing the estates of stars including Andy Kaufman and Natalie Wood. ‘Whether that is 10 or 30 or 40 percent is hard to tell, but it will be an uptick.’

Despite the enthusiasm, however, it’s far from settled what rights are needed to pull off hologram spectacles.

To adapt a performance from an existing video work, all that is typically required is a copyright on the video. But, potentially, more rights are needed for hologram performances: In many states, including California, celebrities also hold valuable ‘rights of publicity,’ which allow them to protect their images, voices and likenesses from exploitation without consent.

Has a movie star who signed a broad contract given up rights to stop a hologram? Actors and musicians usually allow studios and record labels to use their images to promote a film or album forever. Reality TV stars hand over to producers pretty much all of their rights for a chance to become famous. Some lawyers therefore believe that most existing contracts give studios the rights to create holograms if the technology merely modifies a work covered by a contract. And there are exceptions to publicity rights. They often don’t cover celebrities (like Monroe) who didn’t live in a state with such protections at the time of their death. The law also allows ‘fair use’ for new works that are ‘transformative,’ meaning they use a small amount of a celebrity’s image as part of a larger spectacle.

The coming Monroe concert could signal the type of legal fights to come.

Digicon, which says it has been developing avatars and ‘synthespians’ since 1995, is not working with the Monroe estate, as Coachella producers did with Shakur’s family. The company owns certain copyrights pertaining to Monroe, including a recent grant on her computer-generated persona, and Altringer says that might be enough. ‘We will probably end up cooperating with them, but only when they come to us,’ she explains. ‘We aren’t in a rush to deal with them because they [own] only marketing rights to old photos for merchandise. We will have our own rights for the living virtual Marilyn, who is the pop icon today.’

A rep for Monroe’s estate couldn’t be reached for comment, but it has brought several lawsuits against those who have used her image without permission. Jonathan Faber, chief executive of Luminary Group, has managed deceased celebrity estates including those of Ella Fitzgerald, Ruth and, formerly, Monroe. He says he’s unsure how courts would interpret the issue but adds he wouldn’t ‘hesitate to bring a case’ against someone who used one of his client’s images to create a touring hologram.”

Saturday, May 19, marks the 50th anniversary of Marilyn’s sultry performance of ‘Happy Birthday’ to President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden. And what better way to celebrate than by tasting the new ‘Presidential Bombshell’ ice cream from L.A. Creamery, reports the Contra Costa Times.

‘”We all know and love Marilyn Monroe,’ explained Stephen Bikoff, L.A. Creamery’s co-founder and chief creative officer. ’We thought, this was one of her last public appearances, and it was an interesting thing; Hollywood and politics converges into this night. We just picked a fun flavor for it, vanilla ice cream, which was Marilyn’s favorite, mixed with a truffle fudgecake because it was JFK’s birthday.’”

P.S. The Biography Channel website has also paid tribute to that historic evening…

Marilyn and Queen Elizabeth II – who were both born in 1926, and met in 1956 – will appear on this limited edition, 2012 Marilyn Monroe™ 1 oz Silver Proof Coin, soon to be released by The Perth Mint of Australia, reports Coin Update.

2012 marks 60 years since the Queen’s coronation, and 50 years since Marilyn died.

This Marilyn Merlot, which originally launched in late 2011, now features on its label Milton Greene’s classic ballerina pose – chosen by Time-Life as one of the three most popular images of the 20th century.

According to Harper’s Bazaar, MAC cosmetics have teamed up with ABG to create a ‘nostalgic collection, which will be showcased in custom-designed display units…It’s early days for the collection, which won’t launch in stores until October, but you can expect the most opulent red lipsticks, vintage nail lacquers, inky eyeliners and gorgeous pressed powders.’

 EA Games’ Sims 3 features a Marilyn skin. More pics here