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Lindsay does her best Marilyn

Every sexy young starlet who comes along has a bit of a Marilyn Monroe complex. Such is the unattainable legacy of leaving this mortal coil before one’s time. But besides the flat-put imitators and (rest her troubled soul) Anna Nicole Smith, few have stepped so audaciously into the iconic sex symbol’s footsteps as Lindsay Lohan did

recently. You see, Lindsay, the promising redhead turned paparazzi princess turned rehab veteran, has re-created Marilyn’s famed last photo shoot with its original photographer Bert Stern for New York magazine.

A troubled starlet imitating a doomed starlet? Oh, dear. While it’s admirable to want to emulate Marilyn’s legend, something seems untoward about a young woman with admitted substance abuse issues so happily reprising the icon’s final days. Marilyn’s 1962 photo shoot, simply called “The Last Sitting,” was completed just six weeks before her death from an apparent barbiturate overdose.

No nudity was spared for Lindsay’s shoot, though thankfully the booze that flowed freely during the original sessions was acutely absent at the re-creations. (See the full set here, but I’m not kidding about the nudity — it’s NSFW. And P.S., we’ve also edited out the naughtiest bits in this post for your safe-for-all-ages AfterEllen.com viewing pleasure.)

Now, I don’t have a huge problem with the shots themselves. Linds looks healthier than she has in a while, and heavens knows I, as a rule, never object to women taking their clothes off. But it’s the creepy context and similarities that give one pause. I wonder what exactly Lindsay was thinking by both baring it all and linking herself so closely to such a tragic history.

The 21-year-old star said it was an easy decision to pose for the shoot: “I didn’t have to put much thought into it. I mean, Bert Stern? Doing a Marilyn shoot? When is that ever going to come up? It’s really an honor.” She also admitted to an “abiding obsession with Monroe.” She bought one of her old apartments and has “a lot of Marilyn stuff,” including a huge painting.

Lindsay drew her own parallels to Marilyn’s untimely death and actor Heath Ledger’s recent accidental prescription overdose: “They are both prime examples of what this industry can do to someone.” But when asked about the obvious parallels she was drawing between herself and Marilyn’s fate with the photo shoot, she apparently said, with some annoyance, “I don’t know. I’m not them. But I sure as hell wouldn’t let it happen to me.”

Well, let’s hope not. So what do you think? Classy tribute? Eerie foreshadowing? Or just yay, naked ladies?

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