My Week With Marilyn

My Week With Marilyn

3.27 of 5 stars 3.27  ·  rating details  ·  756 ratings  ·  129 reviews
Imagine sneaking away to spend seven days with the most famous woman in the world…

In 1956, fresh from Oxford University, twenty-three-year-old Colin Clark began work as a lowly assistant on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl, the film that united Sir Laurence Olivier with Marilyn Monroe. The blonde bombshell and the legendary actor were ill suited from the start. Monr...more
Paperback, 159 pages
Published May 3rd 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers
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Community Reviews

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Petra X
This is a book by the third production assistant on the Prince and the Pauper film that Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier starred in. He became her confidant and correctly identified that the cause of most of her angst were the sycophants, her low self-esteem and the drugs she took in order to numb herself from this, and those who exploited her fame and beauty for their own ends. He had a nine-day affair with her and later, much later, joined the rank of exploiters and published this book.

Year...more
Piperitapitta
Dedicato a una stella.

Che l'abbia letto nel mese di agosto è solo una coincidenza.
O forse no.
Perché era la fine dell'estate del 1956 quando l'allora giovanissimo Colin Clark venne assunto sul set del film «Il principe e la ballerina» con Laurence Olivier e Marilyn Monroe, come terzo assistente alla regia ossia, per dirlo con parole sue, «l'ultima ruota del carro», e solo grazie all'amicizia che legava la sua famiglia a Laurence Olivier e alla moglie Vivien Leigh.
È il racconto di quelle settimane...more
Krista
I like a lightweight audio book when I'm walking, and I admit this fit the bill: no great lessons or revelations, just a self-aggrandizing story released 50 years after the events apparently took place, long after anyone else is still alive to dispute the facts.

So apparently, a 23 year old nobody, acting as the Third Assistant Director (a self-described gopher) on The Prince and the Showgirl, is the only one who can talk Marilyn Monroe into finally believing in herself. Not only that, but Colin...more
Matt
Much of the debate about Colin Clark's follow-up to his published diary, "The Prince, The Showgirl and Me" revolves around the nature of its timing. Clark turned out this memoir only a few years before his death after leaving this allegedly remarkable chunk - several days where he got up close and personal with Marilyn Monroe - out of the original work. Let's assume for a moment that his recollections are solid and factual and that he isn't clearly trying to whore out Monroe's legacy for his own...more
Scott
This is a very vivid and haunting account by Colin Clark about his nine-day period of closely being with Marilyn Monroe. Clark worked as a 3rd assistant director on "The Princess and the Showgirl" with Laurence Olivier and Monroe. Marilyn, though, was often not on the set and distant. Olivier sent Clark to talk to Marilyn to get her to come back to the set, which initiates their special relationship that lasts for little over a week. It starts out a little stodgy with much film set detail, but o...more
Joe Bartello
Hoping to find that Marilyn was really very deep and intellectual, I journeyed into this memoir based on the author's diary. Colin Clark' s first job was as a third assistant director on the production of The Prince and the Showgirl, a Pinewood Studio, coproduction of Sir Laurence Olivier and Marily Monroe.
Sadly, everyone had hooks into the emotionally challenged Marilyn and she was Illequipped for Sir Larry's disdain or the constant animosity of the film crew and cast.
Add in a deteriorating rel...more
Mackenzie
It all started with an assignment. Earlier this month I'd had to review a book for the magazine I'm working for and seeing as there was a strong buzz for Michelle Williams in the movie My Week With Marilyn, I picked this book - a 2-in-1 re-release of Colin Clark's memoirs of his experiences working on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl - for that purpose. I started reading with complete detachment and disinterest for the 'stars' of the book. Marilyn Monroe, though a legendary movie icon, and...more
Olivia
I am extremely fond of diaries, though I have never read a man's before (unless you count Adrian Mole, which I don't) and Colin Clark's writing is extremely gripping and funny. I particularly enjoyed reading about his sexual escapades and was quite surprised at what he got up to! Forget Eddie Redmayne's innocent portrayal - Colin Clark is undoubtedly one naughty boy, absolutely girl crazy.
Hearing about Golden Age Hollywood movie stars - besides the obvious Marilyn Monroe/Sir Laurence Olivier enc...more
Cheryl
I picked up this book at the library because I like biographies and I've always been kind of interested in Marilyn Monroe. The author of this book claims that his book is taken word-for-word from an actual diary he kept while working as 3rd assistant (a go-fer) on the set of a movie featuring MM and Laurence Olivier. I suppose it could be true, but the book does not really read like someone's diary or journal. It is very wordy and appears to be written after the fact (probably using his old diar...more
Lisa
Ok, I feel like something is fishy about this whole thing.
The original book was called The Prince, The Showgirl and Me, and was based on Colin Clark's journals that were written during the filming of The Prince and The Showgirl. Clark's parents were friends with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh and Olivier gave him a job as 3rd assistant director (gofer) on the set.
Clark claims that he kept a separate journal of one week during that time where he and Marilyn became quite close. They didn't have...more
Cynthia
This guy did not spend a week with Marilyn Monroe. One evening she had him over for some chicken salad and then they spent a Saturday together. Supposedly she had him over to her house when she suffered a miscarriage. He basically worked on "The Prince and the Showgirl" with her and then spent a few hours of additional time at her house and in her company, not a week. I don't put a lot of faith into his retelling of events. Yes, I am certain she was lonely while filming "The Prince and the Showg...more
Starlet Laura
I really enjoyed this book. This is what I love about reading – you find out, among other things, about other professions, what goes on behind the scenes, how others live – I never have had an idea how films are made and this book provided a real insight into that.. Especially, if it is an ill conceived script and actors, difficult personalities, and set in the mid fifties. I will watch the Prince, the Showgirl and Me now that I know what went on during the production of the film. The Diaries of...more
Son Casey
I enjoyed reading this book since it had two seperate sections of "books." The first is where they got the idea for the movie "My Week with Marilyn" and details the single week that Colin Clark spent with MM. The second half was much different and entitled "My Sleeping Prince", which is the first title for "The Prince and the Showgirl." It really details the daily account of how hard it was for Sir Laurence Olvier to get along with MM and how hard it was for MM to get her nerves in control enoug...more
Chasity
My Week with Marilyn
Colin Clark
Weinstein Books
De Capo Press
978-1-60286-149-7


When I first seen the preview for this movie, I was immediately hooked. Being that I am a huge Marilyn Monroe fan I knew that I just had to see it. However when I found out that it was taken from a book, as most amazing movies are. At least in my opinion they are. I then knew I had to read the book and the book became much more important to me than the movie did and to this day I am writing this having just finished the...more
Bunny
How do I put this delicately.

I think Colin Clark is a big fat liar.

I believe this about as much as I believe that there are sparkly vampires mentally abusing idiotic teenagers. I believe it as much as I believe that fairies come out at night to sprinkle magic dust on gardens to make flowers grow. I believe this as much as I believe that saying, "Happy Holidays" is a direct attack on Christmas.

Here's what I do believe. I believe Colin Clark worked on The Prince and the Showgirl. I believe he met...more
Kandes
This was an okay book I suppose. The 2nd part was really hard to get through. I felt like it dragged on and on and on... But I do suggest reading it if you're a Marilyn fan. I really love Marilyn Monroe and believe she was a very beautiful person, inside and out, so I was really drawn to this book, but it was just really boring and didn't keep my attention much. The first part was sort of interesting and did keep my attention for the most part, but once I started the second part, it was really h...more
Elaine
I have notice this book has mixed reviews. I did enjoy the movie but read the book first and therefore, like the book more. I think Clark was rather honest as an author since this book was based on his personal diary. Colin describes his personal experience working on the film the Prince and the Showgirl with Marilyn Monroe and Sir Laurence Olivier. Some people thought this book portrayed Marilyn in a poor light, however, I think Colin exposes the conflict Marilyn faced as the most famous woman...more
Brian Cole
Usually when I read a book that has been made into a film I feel like I don't have to see the film now. But in this case, I feel that I have to see the film to really understand the book. The author, at the age of 24, was very very understanding of the characters who were making the film that the book chronicles. The book is very into who said what when and in dropping names. Maybe it needed a longer publisher's note telling us who Colin Clark was (the son of Lord Kenneth Clark, the famous art h...more
Cassie Rahn
Jan 11, 2012 Cassie Rahn is currently reading it
1/4- Over break, i started reading My Week with Marilyn while finishing up the Hunger Games. My week with Marilyn is probably already one of the best books i've ever read! I have always loved Marilyn since i was younger so it makes it much easier to read. The narrator of the book is a guy named Colin Clark who has a very little part with helping make the movie The Prince and the Showgirl, who eventually starts to fall in love with Marilyn, although she is on her honeymoon with Arthur Miller. Thi...more
Eyehavenofilter
Oxford Student Colin Clark stumbles into the job of a lifetime, as an assistant to Miss Marilyn Monroe, while she is filming "The Prince and The Showgirl".it becomes a dream job, a sweet,innocent, and unforgettable week that Colin becomes her confidant, and co-conspirator, in her escapades. He is dazzled by both her beauty and her innocence.
He is also appalled at the control that people have over her through intimidation and prescriptions that are mind altering and dangerous.
He does his best to...more
Bettie
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Alice
Mlle Alice, pouvez-vous nous raconter votre rencontre avec Une Semaine avec Marilyn?

"Marilyn et moi, c'est une longue histoire d'amour. D'aussi loin que je me souvienne, elle m'a toujours fascinée mais jusqu'ici je n'avais jamais lu de livres sur elle parce que la plupart du temps, ce qu'en disent les gens m'énerve... Mais lorsque le film avec Michelle Williams est sorti, je n'ai pu m'empêcher d'aller le voir et j'ai adoré! Je me suis donc dit que je ne prenais pas de grands risques en lisant c...more
Laura Brouwer
I read both diaries that Colin Clark wrote. I enjoyed immensely the insight the first part gave in making a film in the 1950s. The second part that was focused on his week with Marilyn provided a side to her that may have explained the drug use. That said, it did seem as though he was painting himself the sole hero in her tragedy and being as she wasn't saved, this attitude does come across as slightly pompous on his part. His diaries describe his womanizing ways, yet during his week with Marily...more
Jacqui
The Prince, The Showgirl and Me is fascinating. An insight into upper class privilege and a portrait of a host of British actors. Written at the time, it is one of the few critical perspectives on Monroe and it is really interesting to watch The Prince and the Showgirl again, alongside Clark's commentary about how scenes were achieved.
However ... I do not believe a word of My Week with Marilyn. Anyone who has any knowledge of Monroe's life will spot all kinds of errors and it is just so much at...more
Kimberly
This book is made fascinating both by the subject matter and the care with which the author took to document his experience, but terribly sad at the same time. I don't assume to say anything about Marilyn Monroe that hasn't already been said better, but you see in this story how she was doomed from the start-- a fragile person with a shaky foundation, unsure of her own worth,given to dangerous means of relief, surrounded by hangers on who told her half truths to keep themselves relevant and woul...more
Joy H.
Apr 19, 2012 Joy H. marked it as watched-film-only
Shelves: adapted-to-film
Added 4/19/12.

I did not read the book. In March 2012, I saw the movie and enjoyed it.

"My Week With Marilyn" (2011)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1655420/
http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/My_We...

I gave the film 4 Netflix stars out of 5. I thought it presented a sympathetic point of view toward Marilyn and her problems.

Adapted from the book: My Week With Marilyn by Colin Clark. (Published 2001)
Stephen
An engaging memoir of the author's time as a production assistant on 'The Prince and the Showgirl' in 1956, famous for its disastrous pairing of Sir Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. I enjoyed the insights into filmmaking, as well as into the trappings of Hollywood stardom. The week with Marilyn, missing from the first diary and published a few years later, suffers from not being written with the same brevity and tone of the earlier diaries. But it's still an eye-opening peek into an extraord...more
Julie
I was glad that with this one that I had seen the movie first, which is often the wrong way round, but the story was much the same, except I think that the movie captured the youth of the author in a much fresher clearer way.



It is the true tale of Colin Clark, a young privledged young man who works for Sir Laurence Olivier on his production with Marilyn Monroe in the late 50s. As an assistant on the film, he finds himself becoming more involved with Ms Monroe, evetually spending a lost week with...more
jess
Jul 17, 2012 jess rated it 2 of 5 stars
Shelves: 2012
This book was broken into three parts - a 'remembered' version of Colin's seven days spent in Marilyn's company, a letter to a friend about the week (basically a shortened version of the preceding section), and the longer, less interesting actual journal of Colin's time working on the movie set of The Prince and the Showgirl, which includes a blatant omission of the seven days spent as Marilyn's companion and a lot of movie set shenanigans, like dating a young girl who works in Wardrobe and deal...more
Jenny
My Week with Marilyn did not paint a flattering picture of her, which is fine. I was hoping for something real and, if she wasn't Miss Congeniality, I don't want to be led to believe otherwise.

The reason I'm only giving this book one star is that the author, Colin Clark, was pompous. He led a charmed life, surrounded by people like Laurence Olivier and Vivienne Leigh throughout his childhood. He even had an uncle who was a librarian in Buckingham Palace, allowing him, essentially, to come and g...more
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Goodreads Librari...: Is combining this appropriate? 12 181 Aug 02, 2012 07:50pm  
My Week With Marilyn (Paperback)
My Week with Marilyn (Audiobook)
My Week with Marilyn (Kindle Edition)
My Week with Marilyn (ebook)
La mia settimana con Marilyn (ebook)

My Week with Marilyn & The Prince, the Showgirl and Me The Prince, the Showgirl, and Me: Six Months on the Set With Marilyn and Olivier The World-Wide Encyclopedia in Colour Younger Brother, Younger Son: A Memoir My First Picture Dictionary

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“My life and most people's lives are a series of little miracles -- strange coincidences which spring from uncontrollable impulses and give rise to incomprehensible dreams. We spend a lot of time pretending that we are normal, but underneath the surface each one of us knows that he or she is unique.” 14 people liked it
“You're not lost in the storm, Marilyn. You are the storm.” 7 people liked it
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