Marilyn to JFK: 'Love or Let Me Die'
Seems that Marilyn Monroe 's famously seductive "Happy Birthday " at a Madison Square Garden gala wasn't her only gift to former President John F. Kennedy. Soon at auction: a gold Rolex watch inscribed with "Jack, With love as always from Marilyn May 29th, 1962." Tucked inside the $5,000 gold watch box is a poem to her alleged lover that ends, "And let me love / or let me die!" Auctioneer Bill Panagopulos , president of Alexander Autographs, calls it "undoubtedly the most controversial presidential relic ever offered." To call the watch a scandal is an understatement. Panagopulos says that after first confirming the history of the watch, family members of the JFK aide who kept relics like the outfit Jackie wore the day Kennedy was murdered have clammed up. One family member said his dad was very hush-hush about JFK. Everything about the watch seems to fit: the age as well as the style of the inscription. What will it bring? Panagopulos compares it to the skin-tight dress Monroe wore the night she serenaded the prez, which sold for over $1.25 million.
The live and online auction slated for October 15-16 at alexautographs.com looks to be a mother lode of JFK dirty laundry. Also on the block: letters from Kennedy filled with sexual innuendo and competitive talk about dating, catty remarks about unattractive women, and an uncharacteristic four-letter word.
The Mormon Thing: The Sniping Begins
A nasty little whispering campaign is targeting likely 2008 presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, the Republican Massachusetts governor. Those who've heard it won't identify the source, other than to quote "Christian leaders," but say it focuses on Romney's Mormonism and whether evangelicals will vote for a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "The thrust is that he's not a real Christian. He's a Mormon," says our tipster. Mormons have heard it all before and say again: They're Christian.
A Rock Legend's Own USO Tour
The troops went gaga recently when Fleetwood Mac hottie Stevie Nicks showed up for a little morale boosting at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Insiders tell us that she showed up July 8 without notice, lugging dozens of T-shirts and Apple iPods to hand out to those she visited. "She even programmed them herself," says a USO official. Nicks is just one of the dozens of stars--most notably Cher --who have visited injured troops from Iraq and Afghanistan unannounced and sans paparazzi. Many are planning a return trip this week as part of the USO's huge fundraising gala to herald the work of "service heroes" and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers.
Homeland Security Starts at Home
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff likes to lead his department by example, and it's no different when it comes to family. The chief reveals that he has his own emergency stash of stuff and a personal evacuation plan. Like any workaholic husband, he credits his wife and says the family first set aside emergency supplies in the days leading up to Y2K. After 9/11, everything was freshened. "Anybody who lived through the experiences we've had in the last five years," he says, "can't have any doubt about the virtue of being prepared."
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