Ripley's Believe it or Not

OK, I guess this is the second reference to Ripley's in recent times. Last month, there was a stir when Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum lent Marilyn Monroe's iconic "Happy Birthday Mr. President" dress to Kim Kardashian to wear at the Met Gala.

I have a few opinions on this, especially as the interwebs blew up with stories about how she wrecked the dress.

First, I find the Met Gala super vulgar. It's for a good cause (the Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute), but I do not dig the lead up or the photos or -- I don't know. For whatever reason I shun the coverage.

My ears pricked up, however, when I heard that Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson were planning to attend (yay Pete Davidson!). And then when I read the coverage about her wearing the Marilyn Monroe dress, I had various feelings. First, I felt like nobody besides Marilyn Monroe should ever wear that dress. And then I also felt like that dress should never be seen by humans -- that it should exist only in photographs. And then I realized that Ripley's Believe it or Not is the owner of the dress. And then I realized that the dress is unobtanium, but at the end of the day it's just a dress. Good for you, Kim Kardashian.

People are now schvitzing over the fact that she wore the dress. That it might have been damaged by her wearing it. And to them I say a hearty "tough toenails". The owner of the dress may do whatever the owner of the dress wants to do with it. And if a real museum belonging to the AAM had been willing to pony up 4.8 million clams to own the dress, only a mannequin would have ever worn it.

But no museum would spend that much money, I imagine, to buy a dress whose story reveals the public besmirching of the presidency by a sitting president. It has been one of the most famous dresses of all time, to be sure. And it was worn by one of the most famous tragic beauties of the 20th Century. And the story behind it, that she and her voluptuous body had to be sewn into it at the side of the stage, is captivating. Over time, and even right now, how does the scenario of her affair with the sitting president, and singing to JFK, who was POTUS and her lover, much to the chagrin of the First Lady, sit with us? The dress is borne of a stunt and continues with a stunt... 

I didn't post this post at the time I wrote it, for some reason. I think it was because I decided to watch some Kardashian show, for the first time. I had judged without actually knowing anything about it. The jury is still out on that for me.

Anyhoo, I hear from a friend that since the Kardashianing of the dress at the Met Gala Ripleys Believe it or Not has draped the dress on a Kim-proportioned dress form. Instead of returning it to the Marilyn-shaped dress form. The story of the dress continues. It is probably worth less now, but that also remains to be seen.