Look at those Cannes.

Cannes has selected Marilyn Monroe as the official "icon" of its upcoming 65th Festival--the bombshell is to be featured in advertising for the fest. In a statement printed on Deadline, the French cinephiles noted: "“Fifty years after her death, Marilyn is still a major figure in world cinema, an eternal icon, whose grace, mystery and power of seduction remain resolutely contemporary."

Well, of course she is contemporary! We can hardly escape her! Before the Oscars at which Michelle Williams was nominated for making her voice all breathy came the Dior ad in which Charlize Theron meets a dazed-looking Norma Jean. Smash is still on (somehow--we thought once we cracked the case on the pilot, it might disappear) and treating its viewers to original songs, weekly, about the life of a tragic icon. Hugh Hefner claimed Lindsay Lohan's cover shoot in Playboy was inspired by the photos of Marilyn Monroe; the continued travails of Lindsay Lohan seem inspired, to magazine editors and to Ms. Lohan herself, by the life of Marilyn Monroe. There's very likely a Marilyn cover package brewing at Vanity Fair, once they make one more cycle through the four living celebrities (Clooney-Roberts-Depp-Jolie) allowed on the cover.

"Iconic" is an easy word; perhaps Marilyn Monroe remains popular because the big, bold things she signifies (sex, death, unresolved questions about feminine mystique and female vulnerability, power, powerlessness) do not need any elaboration in order to convey a false sense of authority. They give an unearned authority to the banal or the minor, rather as though this blog post tried to steal Raymond Carver's symbolic authority by calling itself "What We Talk About When We Talk About Marilyn," even though it's been years since there's been anything to say.

David Cross (Getty Images)

It would be hypocritical for us to wag a finger at David Cross for divulging to Playboy that he had snorted "a granule" of cocaine during the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2009, because who hasn't just fallen face-first into mind-altering substances during a celebrity-filled function before? It happens!

However, we do take issue with how self-righteous Mr. Cross--last seen slamming a producer for being the human embodiment of a negative Jewish stereotype--gets whenever talking about politics or narcotics. Combine the two, and it's almost like listening to the Bizarro Glenn Beck.

From a Fox News excerpt of the piece:

"It was a tiny granule of coke that I put on my wrist and said, 'Watch this. I need a witness.' And then I ducked under the table and did it," Cross said. "It wasn't like I got high. The jolt was similar to licking an empty espresso cup."

There has been speculation for years that Mr. Cross did cocaine at the event, but the Playboy interview was the first time he gave details.

"It was just about being able to say that I did it, that I did cocaine in the same room as the president. I'm not proud of it, nor am I ashamed by it."

So what was the point? Bragging rights? Yes, it's very cool that an actor with a history of substance abuse snorted a tiny amount of drugs just so he'd be able to say that he did cocaine 65 feet away from the P.O.T.U.S. (Even that number has changed: he originally said it was only 40 feet away.)

Mission accomplished, we guess.

(image via i.Playboy.com)

Due to "high demand" (as evidenced by last week's leak), Playboy has published its Lindsay Lohan pictorial and profile ahead of schedule, the company announced over the weekend.

The digital edition is available now at i.Playboy.com, and the print version will be on newsstands Friday.

Below are a few snippets from her interview:

On her transgressions and what’s she’s learned in the past five years: “That ultimately we are each responsible for ourselves and for our actions…Looking back, I probably would have listened to and taken more advice from the people whom I admire and would have followed through with it more.  My stubbornness at 18 and 19 years old got in the way.  During the past five years, I’ve learned that time flies faster than you think, and because you only live once you have to learn from your mistakes, live your dreams and be accountable.”

On her sexuality and confidence: “Sex and sexuality are a part of nature, and I go along with nature.  I think Marilyn Monroe once said that.  I certainly agree with her…Knowing yourself and your body is so important because it gives you confidence, and in life, women need confidence.  It’s a very male-dominated world to begin with, so knowing yourself and being comfortable with your body is an important thing for me as a woman.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but this is mine.”

On the paparazzo’s fascination with her: “I have no idea why there is this fascination with everything I do.  I suppose it is all part of this trend of people wanting to know every single detail of a celebrity’s life.  I mean, once we get to the point where magazines are doing pictorials on my wardrobe to court, that’s just so unimportant.”

McCain. (Getty)

It wouldn’t be another glorious fall week in New York if there weren’t more celebrities down at Zuccotti Park. Unfortunately, Kanye has not made a return visit, but Alec Baldwin did put his hours in, as did Meghan McCain, who voiced approval for the message of the 99 percent in her recent Daily Beast column. Ms. McCain’s biggest issue with the protests? Pot smoke and a guy wearing a tinfoil cape. Mr. Baldwin? Hippies pressuring him to admit he’s a libertarian.

In other Occupy news (if you can call it that … it certainly wasn’t in The Occupy Wall Street Journal!), a Staten Island couple has filed paperwork to trademark the term “Occupy Wall St.” When the Smoking Gun asked Robert Maresca if he was just attempting to “crassly” cash in on the anticorporate brand, he replied, “If I didn’t buy it and use it, someone else will.” Ah, the power of the free market.

Speaking of trademarks, The New York Times is playing tug-of-war with the Huffington Post, and not the fun kind, either. No, after losing stars like Peter Goodman and Tim O’Brien to Arianna’s media company, the Gray Lady finally had it when Lisa Belkin jumped ship … and brought the name of her blog (albeit slightly altered) with her. Ms. Belkin’s new HuffPost soapbox is “The Parentlode,” which is rather reminiscent of her former Times column, “The Motherlode.” Sure, it’s different—more gender-neutral!—but not enough for The Times, which fired off a cease-and-desist letter. Arianna Huffington vs. Jill Abramson? That’s one cat (or puppy) fight we’d like to see.

But even the scuffles of the Gray Lady and the Grecian Goddess pale in comparison to the real news of the week: nude photos of Lindsay Lohan. No, not the naked pictures that were spread around the Internet in the mid-aughts after she said she’d never show skin in a film. (Ah, remember the days of Lindsay Lohan thinking she was still going to be doing films?) Nor are we referring to the seminudes she did for the cover of New York magazine. These are new nudes, for Playboy exclusively. Wonder if Ms. Lohan will become one of Hugh Hefner’s new Bunnies: it would certainly beat her current gig, on clean-up duty at a morgue. Of course, if her parole judge were really looking to impose some punishment, he’d assign her to Occupy Wall Street’s Sanitation Committee.

editorial@observer.com

Rejoice! Because the wheezing publishing giant is subleasing its former digs to ICM Entertainment, the talent agency to just about every star in the universe, including John Hamm, Beyonce, Thomas Friedman, Tennessee Williams (formerly) and The Shins. In a celebrity tenant swap for the ages, ICM has taken 50,000 square feet for the balance of Playboy's lease until 2019. 

The megalithic agency, with offices in London, Los Angeles and New York, was holed up in George Comfort's Worldwide Plaza, where it moved from 40 West 57th Street. Apparently the Death Star didn't have quite the shine ICM was looking for, but a spot on Fifth Avenue and 47th Street is about as close to glamorous as Manhattan gets. 

When ICM moves in at the end of the year, 730 Fifth Avenue, a 25-story gem owned by the Winter Organization, will be 100 percent occupied. 

The tenant was represented by Cushman & Wakefield's Dale Schlather. Playboy, which has been in the building since 1992, was repped by a team led by Mitti Liebersohn, formerly of Cushman and now at Jones Lang LaSalle. 

lkusisto@observer.com 

"It's an independent homage to Tron," Playboy chief content officer Jimmy Jellinek told the Observer. "We're tapping into a cultural phenomenon in our style." He confirmed that they haven't heard from Disney on the topic.

Phenomenon, indeed. Jellinek said it's one of their highest traffic web features ever. It probably doesn't hurt that the web-only pictorial (below) is outside their paywall. There is an interview with Tron Legacy star Olivia Wilde in the December issue as well, but she's not involved in the photoshoot.

It's not the first time in recent memory that Playboy has played into cultural touchstones from readers' pre-Playboy-buying life stages. Marge Simpson graced the cover in October 2009, although in that case the magazine collaborated with The Simpsons creators to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary. There was an episode pegged to the issue's release.

Jellinek hasn't even seen Disney's update Tron Legacy yet.

"I'm old, I like the original," he said.

Check out Ten Better-Than-The-Original Remakes.>>

kstoeffel [at] observer.com | @kstoeffel

NSFW

Playboy editorial director Jimmy Jellinek confirmed that Roald Dahl's classic children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was the inspiration for the promotion in a conversation with Reuters.

"This is the first time we’ve literally swung the doors open … the average reader will go home with stories they can’t tell their wives and girlfriends but will last forever," Jellinek said.

The issues containing the "golden tickets" hit newsstands Friday. Access to Hefner's palatial Beverly Hills mansion and its stable of buxom Playmates is normally reserved for the 84-year-old publisher's high-profile friends.

Playboy hopes you'll turn to their new geo-local app, Scout, for suggestions.

As Kara Swisher notes, this is an attempt by the ailing media company to break into the digital world.

Like Foursquare, Scout uses GPS to make recommendations to users about where they should go.

And because it's a Playboy promotion, users get invites, deals and perks ... ahem, that normal folks wouldn't.

Surprisingly, Scout will only be available on Android for now. Perhaps Playboy didn't feel like submitting to Apple's rigorous moral testing in order to get their app approved?

"Yes!" cried a few people standing nearby, perplexed as to why a reading would interrupt the usual routine of music, schmoozing and liquor.

"Well," she sighed. "I'll try to make it more interesting. Maybe I'll start stripping for you."

Coming from Paz, this was far from an empty threat. Star of the new HBO series "Boardwalk Empire," the stunning actress, model, and embodiment of sex was brought in to justify calling this sub-High Line gathering a "literary salon," and Flaubert's deflowering of the stodgy 19th-century novel goes well with Paz's proclivity to shed clothing. If you saw the pilot of HBO's Atlantic City nostalgia spectacle, you saw all of Paz de la Huerta. 

The House of Waris Tea Room is a pop-up space that jewelry designer and occasional Wes Anderson troupe member Waris Aluwalia has opened for a ten-day period, to display his documented affection for the brewed leaf. The drink of choice last night, however, was a bit on the stronger side: scores of bottles of Belvedere vodka were dumped into glasses, mixed with juice or tonic and affixed with Playboy bunny stirrers. In the back, there was a VIP tent lined inside with overstuffed cotton-lined beds and bottles of champagne.

As is to be expected when Playboy-approved fiction meets Waris' downtown cache, the crowd was a mix of writers and the usual subjects. Byrdie Bell danced to Nate Lowman's DJ stylings, novelist Jonathan Ames chatted up screenwriter Paul Haggis, Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. swung by, et cetera. 

But have the luminaries of this set actually read the book of the evening?

"I read Madame Bovary 20 years ago and I loved it because it was about somebody who was unhappy and was a romantic," Ames told The Observer. He was wearing a pageboy cap and nursing one of the complimentary drinks. 

"Paz is the perfect Madame Bovary," Haggis chimed in.

Waris said he could only level one real criticism against such an event. "Next time we're gonna make sure there's bunnies," he told us. "I said to Playboy, 'I'm not doing anything without bunnies. Bring me the bunnies!'"

We caught up with Paz after she finished reading, and she was in the middle of a footwear emergency — one of her shoes was malfunctioning, and she put her hands on The Observer's shoulders to balance as an assistant took it off. 

We wanted to find out more about why she was twisting her legs together and pressing her palms to her chest as she read the more suggestive passages. 

"I hope I got across the sexuality," she said, clawing beneath the frilled plumes of her tiny dress's one strap.

Then Paz de la Huerta asked us for a light, and somehow convinced us to give her a cigarette as well. 

nfreeman@observer.com

Twitter: @NFreeman1234

It is, Hugh Hefner reports, "a great read."

At last, some common ground for fans of this and fans of this.

(via Bookforum)