Damaged ego

In 2011 Colin Clark’s true life story was converted into film, under the title My Week with Marilyn, it grossed millions of pounds and received great critical acclaim. I mention this because at a recent event I began to start mentally spending the money I would make from authoring the film’s sequel, My BDA Conference with Marilyn, before reality brought me crashing down to earth again.

Obviously it wasn’t the real Marilyn Monroe, and it was just a lookalike hired by an exhibitor to lure in delegates, but I was not going to complain and I duly held my stomach in and tried to appear nonchalant, aloof, James Dean-like as I posed for a photograph with the stunningly beautiful model. The horrible reality of it all wasn’t how awkward and gormless I looked in the picture (who says the camera never lies?) it was the emotional blow that just two minutes after my photo, Marilyn was off posing with other delegates. I felt so used… so much so that I couldn’t even bring myself to write the review of the event this year and relive the pain. As such you can read my assistant Charlotte’s report of the BDA Conference on page 68 of this issue.