Plot

This film follows Norma Jean from her simple, ambitious youth to her superstar pinnacle and back down. She moves from lover to lover in order to further her career. She finds fame but never happiness, only knowing seduction but not love.

In this film, Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino portray two sides of the woman America loved, but who struggled to love herself: Marilyn Monroe. To the world, Marilyn was a vivacious superstar, the epitome of sexuality, sensuality and frolicsome amusement. Every man wanted her - every woman wanted to be her. But behind the enticing smile, beneath the tight-fitting dresses, there was a dark secret - one Marilyn could not bury in the past... the child inside named Norma Jean. Everything Norma Jean dreams of, Marilyn achieves. Every man she struggles to resist, Marilyn succumbs to. And while Marilyn climbs the ladder to success, Norma Jean was beneath it, almost willing her to fall.—HBO Home Video

In this film, Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino portray two sides of a deeply troubled woman whom the world knew as Marilyn Monroe. Before Marilyn gained fame as a sex symbol, she was a dark-haired, ambitious ingénue named Norma Jean. While rising to superstar status, blonde bombshell Marilyn often struggled with her inner persona, Norma Jean, as she made decisions regarding her career and personal life. Monroe and her former self appear together in dream-like scenes, with Norma Jean sometimes mocking Marilyn when she does the wrong thing. Sensuous, shocking, sensational - this is the secret life of the girl named Norma Jean and the woman who became Marilyn Monroe.—John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net>