Bert Stern: 1929-2013
Celebrity and fashion photographer, Bert Stern, best known for being the last photographer to shoot actress Marilyn Monroe in 1962, died at home in New York City on June 25. He was 83.
Stern began his career in 1946 at Look magazine as an assistant to art director Hershel Bramson, where he worked with Stanley Kubrick, who was then a Look photographer. From 1949 to 1951, Stern served as...
Bankruptcy Brings Accord to Monroe Estate
In order to pull itself out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Shaw Family Archives (SFA) has agreed to a 5-year, $3 million licensing deal estate of Marilyn Monroe. Under the agreement, the Monroe estate would be able to commercially license hundreds of Monroe images shot by the late photographer Sam Shaw, as well as other photos from Shaw's collection including John Wayne, Sophia Loren, Marlon Brando and Audrey Hepburn. The Shaw estate, however, would retain the right to...
Seven Monroe Images Returned to Photographer
A settlement has been reached in the lawsuit brought by photographer Bert Stern against two men he accused of stealing images from his 1962 photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe.
The men, Donald Penny and Michael Weiss, who are also photographers, said they found images in the trash in the 1970s. Stern sued the men last September for $1 million and damages and demanded the return of the seven transparencies...
Monroe Rights Given to Photographers' Estates
The estates of two photographers closely associated with Marilyn Monroe have won the rights to freely license their images of the actress. In March, a federal court judge in California clarified the Right of Publicity for the Milton H. Greene Archives and Tom Kelley Studios.
Previously, rights had been claimed by Marilyn Monroe LLC (MMLLC) and CMG Worldwide, making it difficult for the Greene Archives and Kelley Studios to license many images. A May 2007 court decision ruled that Monroe had no publicity rights to her image...
Marilyn Monroe Dispute Addressed in California Assembly
The California Assembly recently passed a bill reversing the decision made by two federal courts regarding the denial of payment to Marilyn Monroe's estate when using commercial images of the deceased actress. In both court cases, the issue surrounded Monroe's post-mortem rights to images as claimed by her estate, MM LLC.
The bill would allow for Monroe's estate to benefit from licensed images being used for commercial use. Originally, the courts had ruled that, because the statutory post-mortem publicity rights were nonexistent in...