27. The Queen and Marilyn Monroe
Queen Elizabeth II has demonstrated that she takes her coronation oath seriously, and has exhibited a strong commitment to her civic and religious duties. The royal family around her has been engulfed in frequent scandals and has provided the tabloids with steady fodder for decades on end. However, the queen herself has been not only scandal-free but seemingly free of any hint of frivolity. While the queen is a cultural icon, she is worlds apart from another cultural icon born the same year as Her Majesty, in 1926: Marilyn Monroe, whom the queen met once.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born on April 21st of that year, while Marilyn was born about six weeks later, on June 1st. The two icons lived worlds apart, one in Hollywood, the other in Buckingham Palace. However, the two did cross paths once on common ground, when the monarch met the movie star at the London premiere of the Battle of the River Platte. Both women were thirty-years-old at the time, when Monroe waited in a line of guests to shake the queen’s hand. It was the only time those two different royals – a Hollywood queen and a real-life one – met.