2008-02-20 15:19:32 - By Ernest W. Cunningham
Just two weeks ago we saw Nicole Kidman, 40, trying to recreate the glamor of Marilyn Monroe, then this week we see actress / singer Lindsay Lohan, 21, revealing almost everything in a recreation of famed photographer Bert Stern's famous 'The Last Sitting' photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe, for which Ms Lohan was showered with mostly negative comments in the press. Yet the press made a big booboo, when it bought the claims that an unpublished and very racy nude Marilyn Monroe photograph was about to be revealed.

Could it be? Here is how the press was duped (again):

Las Vegas Man to Unveil Monroe Photo
LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Las Vegas man plans to unveil what he says is a rare photo of Marilyn Monroe posing as a nude hitchhiker.
A news conference is scheduled Wednesday.
Lawrence Nicastro says he found the photo last year while going through storage

items at his Las Vegas home.
Nicastro was running a service station in New York's borough of the Bronx when a man dropped off a Ford Sunliner convertible for repairs on New Year's Eve 1962.
When the man didn't return to pick up his car, Nicastro opened the trunk and placed the contents in storage.
Nicastro's publicist believes the photo was taken near Pyramid Lake, near Reno, in 1960. Monroe filmed "The Misfits" with Clark Gable in 1960 in Nevada.
The actress died in 1962.'
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j0PCN8hFNuMrVCUQsAK1p-p31lggD8UTFF6G ..

We followed these breaking (Google) news with great interest, and it was clear that the press was pranked once again. This time by Lawrence Nicastro, 73, a resident from Las Vegas, and his publicist who already contacted Mark Bellinghaus, the leading expert and expert witness in the Queen Mary Marilyn Monroe fraud class action lawsuit a few months ago and asked Mr. Bellinghaus what he knew about this 'explosive find,' yet the expert & collector started laughing on the phone and revealed the real person behind the myth: Madonna.
Mark Bellinghaus, 44, the CEO, and Jennifer J. Dickinson, 36, the VP of MARILYN MONROE PRODUCTION, LLC, in Los Angeles, CA, are receiving emails and phone calls like the strange one from the Nicastro team on a daily basis. Mr. Bellinghaus brushed off this claim of another nude Marilyn Monroe photograph as a joke, since he already recognized Madonna, holding a hand bag and smoking a cigarette, while hitchhiking.
The superstar posed in 1992 for her book 'Sex' -- provocative, shocking, and yes, naked!
www.madonna-online.ch/m-online/galleries/1992/92-10-21_sex/92-10 ..
16 years before Ms Lindsay Lohan was attacked for showing what nature gave her without any surgical help. Bravo, Ms Lohan!
One wonders how this man, who knew already that the naked beauty wasn't Marilyn Monroe could stir up the attention of the entire press.
But it happened, especially in terms of Marilyn Monroe, many times before and it will happen again. Unfortunately.


Watch the video below which displays a very uninhibited and free Madonna.

'Don't worry Lindsay--if people are trying to beat you up for showing what you got, look what Madonna did--and where she is now. On top of the biz!'
Here is a link to the photograph which was claimed to be Marilyn Monroe--viewer discretion is advised:
www.espacioblog.com/myfiles/ciberescrituras/sb_116.jpg

Ernest W. Cunningham, 69, is the author of the bestselling Marilyn Monroe biography 'The Ultimate Marilyn,' and Mr. Cunningham was the plaintiff of the Queen Mary Marilyn Monroe fraud class action lawsuit.