“Square cut or pear shape / these rocks don’t lose their shape / Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” Diamonds might be a girl’s best friend, but Marilyn Monroe – who sang the iconic song in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – was called “the best friend a diamond ever had” by Jewelry Academy President Sidney Brownstein.
Monroe’s character, Lorelei Lee, ended up sporting a 14.2-carat emerald-cut engagement ring. In Ladies of the Chorus, she worse a pair of diamond solitaire clip-on earrings, and in How to Marry a Millionaire she was adorned with a pear-shaped diamond pendant.
Off the silver screen, Marilyn Monroe modeled for a number of top jewelers, wearing exceptional diamonds like the 24-carat pear-shaped Moon of Baroda yellow diamond that once belonged to Marie Antoinette.
But ironically, the actress herself preferred costume jewelry and owned comparatively few valuable pieces. Baseball player Joe DiMaggio gave Marilyn Monroe a platinum eternity band set with 36 baguette-cut diamonds after their wedding in 1954. The ring, with one diamond missing, was sold at auction in 1999 for $772,500.
DiMaggio also gave Marilyn a strand of 44 pearls during their honeymoon in Japan.
