Monday 18 October 1999
By eBroadcast Staff and agencies.

America's Favorite Dead, Drug-Addicted Actress

CBS America has committed to a four-hour miniseries based on the Marilyn Monroe novel Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates. CBS was high on the project-- it reportedly beat many film studios to the punch, and secured the rights to novel in a deal paying what could be called feature prices. The Eye shelled out mid-six figures for the rights, as well as handsome back-end compensation.

The novel, a combination of fact and fiction, takes the reader through young Norma Jean Mortensen's life from early childhood, through stardom, to the failed marriages and trysts, and ultimately her death. Oates describes her literary approach as "radically distilled 'life' in the form of fiction," and that it "is not intended as a historical document."

Blonde is projected to hit the bookshelves in April 2000 in America. CBS hasn’t indicated when the miniseries, which will be produced by Robert Greenwalt, will hit the airwaves. No Australian network has committed.