MICHAEL MUSTO as LINDSAY LOHAN as MARILYN MONROE in 'The ultimate re-vamping'

Heath Ledger died in the nude, but most of today's young female stars live in the nude, albeit while teetering on the precipice of oblivion and trying to join him there. Whereas yesterday's sexpot Jane Fonda had to apologize just for saying the word cunt, most of these refreshingly shameless bimbettes are only sorry when you can't see theirs, even if the exposed pubes give the lie to their natural blondeness. Making the world their gynecologist in the tradition of sex bombs from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna, the Britneys and Parises have never been able to resist the chance to do intimate sex tapes that accidentally leak out to the entire populace or to create panty-less car-exiting shots that paparazzi just happen to catch from smack up-close between the kneecaps. Flaunting what they've got and pretending it's an accident, the tartlets have long turned spreading their legs into career moves, using their fertile crescents as cash registers, even while making us believe they're really just "singing," "acting," or "promoting my perfume." They're wily about their guilelessness and clever about their clotheslessness. Beating Paris at her own game, Britney even had a completely naked head for a while!

Of course it all started with Marilyn, and Lindsay Lohan—or at least her publicist—seems to have gotten that memo. In lieu of community service, Lindsay recently paid some boobalicious homage to Marilyn's famous Bert Stern spread, titting it up in New York magazine with a string of pearls, swatches of chiffon, and some colorful fake flowers, all helping to shine spotlights on her very real dumplings flapping around like they probably did in the rehab bathroom. Some dummo actually thought this would be a good move for the career-challenged-at-21 starlet—and honey, it was! Sales and clicks went through the roof, as the world gaped at the detoxing darling's freckled triangle and thrilled to quotes like, "I mean, Bert Stern? Doing a Marilyn shoot? . . . It's really an honor."

Mind you, this wasn't a random match-up, like Tina Turner and Beyoncé (or Tom and Katie). It turns out scrawny Lindsay has a real interest in Marilyn, which started way back when she was filming the toddler-friendly Parent Trap and watching the voluptuous one vamp it up in Niagara on the side. And she's not alone in worshiping the decaying diva: Ms. Hilton herself recently told the press, "I love Marilyn, and I was definitely channeling her while doing The Hottie and the Nottie," as Marilyn's corpse rolled faster than a spinning toilet-paper rod. (As of press time, it's unclear whether Britney's even heard of Marilyn—or even of Lindsay Lohan—but she's definitely a big fan of Monroe from Too Close for Comfort.)

A blonde actress's love of Marilyn has got to be the biggest Hollywood cliché since cute reaction shots of dogs. These girls never claim an affinity for anyone esoteric, like Barbara Payton, Carrie Nye, or Tippi Hedren. (When I told Mena Suvari that she was the new Madeleine Sherwood a couple of years ago, she endearingly glazed over and said, "Who?") They go for the obvious—and for the obvious reason: Marilyn was sex on a stick and knew how to promote that to sell product. Even more appealingly, you never saw the broad get all old and blowsy, which is why no one on the cover of Us Weekly ever cops to admiring two-time Oscar winner Shelley Winters. Eluding the grasp of these starlets is the fact that Marilyn was not just a love goddess, she was actually a brilliant actress herself, one who didn't need the pretentious coaches she kept around in all her crippling insecurity. Even flat and snatchless, Marilyn could have turned out some sparkling performances—but, alas, the letches running Hollywood probably would never have let her do so.

As the New York article unavoidably pointed out, it was six weeks after the legendary Stern shoot that Marilyn died of an apparent OD, a tidbit that looms over Lohan's Stern shoot like the griffin in The Spiderwick Chronicles. But the doomy parallels between M.M. and L.L. seem far less upsetting if you believe, as I'm sure Oliver Stone does, that Marilyn was actually murdered. Why would the Kennedys kill Lindsay Lohan? (Unless maybe Herbie Fully Loaded somehow reminded Ted of Chappaquiddick.)