Meanwhile in California: Massive Marilyn Monroe Statue Returning to Palm Springs – With Her Butt Flashing Visitors

Even if you’ve never seen The Seven Year Itch, we’ve all seen the image of actress Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway grate, trying to keep her white dress from flying up and revealing everything unholy. It is perhaps the blonde bombshell’s most iconic scene.

Now, a statue of Monroe in the somewhat compromising position is returning to Palm Springs – with one slight tweak. The celebrity’s derrière will be aimed at visitors, rather than face-forward.

“Forever Marilyn,” as the piece is called, will be baring all in Coachella Valley this summer. And it’s proof that the celebrity born as Norma Jeane was as controversial in life as she is post-mortem.

“She makes [the] majority of the people very happy,” Aftab Dada, the head of PS Resorts, which paid $1 million to bring Monroe back to the desert, told NPR. “The photos taken, and being transmitted all over the world, will do nothing but benefit the city of Palm Springs.”

The 26-foot-tall structure made of stainless steel and aluminum was previously on display in the city from 2012 to 2014.

But not everyone is down with the placement of Monroe’s backside. Take Louis Grachos, the director of the Palm Springs Art Museum, for example. Because of the way “Forever Marilyn” is placed, Monroe will basically be mooning visitors as they exit his facility.

“The thought of those kids leaving our museum and having the first thing they see is the undergarments and underwear of this enormous Marilyn sculpture would be highly offensive,” Grachos told the city council in an attempt to relocate Monroe – or at least get her to turn around.

The city council apparently didn’t see the problem. So Elizabeth Armstrong, a former director of the Palm Springs Art Museum, started a Change.org petition objecting to the sculpture. 40,000 people agreed with her and signed it.

“It’s blatantly sexist,” Armstrong told NPR. “It forces people almost to upskirt.”

There’s even a Committee to Relocate Marilyn led by fashion designer Trina Turk, who objects not to Monroe’s suggestive pose but to the placement of the statue – in the middle of a roadway.

“Social media impressions don’t really pay the bills for someone who has a shop or a restaurant on Palm Canyon Drive,” she told NPR.

Whether or not PS Resorts will be able to make bank on bringing “Forever Marilyn” back to Palm Springs remains to be seen.

As for whether anyone will be scarred by seeing Monroe’s panties? Probably not. There are more scandalous sights on pretty much any site on the internet. A billowy white skirt revealing full-coverage panties on a statue is practically downright wholesome these days.

Cover Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN / Staff (Getty Images)

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