The first book - FRAMED Greg Gorman.
This is a beautiful book containing remarkable photographs by Greg Gorman who has shot the
l.a. Eyeworks ad campaign for over 20 years. The shot of me as Marilyn Monroe was done in 1991. It ran only ONE time for the 20 year anniversary of INTERVIEW MAGAZINE with Ziggy Marley on the cover. After that publication the Marilyn Monroe estate lawyers (Roger Richmond) threatened l.a. Eyworks with a lawsuit and no ads were run of me after that. The lawyers owned the rights to her image and likeness. Roger Richmond got me on the phone somehow and I yelled at him for trying to extort money out of me by trying to procure a percentage of ALL of my earnings from ALL of my shows. He eventually relented but I was forever damaged after that. I realized doing the Marilyn thing was going to be very limited for me. Why should I kill myself working so hard to create something so beautiful if all I'm ever going to see are these shysters trying to take my money? They could put her name on all kinds of crap but me doing a beautiful tribute to her was not ok. I knew then I was going to do the MM thing for a few more years and let it go. Who needs the shitty aggravation - the homophobia (at that time), the greed, the closed mindedness, the pitfalls of not being yourself and making your own statement.
I knew I needed to make plans for MYSELF - MY OWN IMAGE, MY OWN NAME, MY OWN MUSIC - and I would need to OWN it. I retired from performing as Marilyn in 1997. No regrets. NONE. I was completely done. 17 years of doing MM was enough.
The Second book - dr.a.g - Christopher Logan.
Interesting the letters refer to the Elizabethan era in Shakespeare's time when men played the part of women or girls and the script's abbreviation means: "Dressed as girl" (dr.a.g.).
The book contains many many photos of drag performers. Some rare photos of me as Marilyn are in there as well... in fact it's really cool, I have a 4 page spread as well as a photo in the back cover.
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