Home movie said to show Monroe smoking pot

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A never-before seen home movie has surfaced in which the late U.S. actress Marilyn Monroe is seen smoking what a friend says was a marijuana joint.

In the 4-minute, 16mm color, silent film footage from the late 1950s, Monroe, the silver-screen sex symbol who died in 1962, is seen drinking wine and puffing on a cigarette passed to her while sitting with friends at a home in New Jersey, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday. Monroe is shown laughing and at one point sniffs her armpit.

The filmmaker, who the Daily News didn't name and CNN identified only as "Gretchen," told the newspaper the actress was smoking marijuana.

"I got (the pot). It was mine. It was just passed around," she said. "It was not a party. It was just a get-together. You know, come over and hang out."

The filmmaker said she had kept the home movie in an attic for years, showing it only to FBI agents investigating Monroe's death, CNN said.

Keya Morgan, a New York collector who is making a documentary of Monroe's death, bought the film for $275,000 and plans to put it up for sale on eBay this week. The filmmaker retained the copyright.

"This is the late '50s so she is already very famous, but this is a personal side of her we've never seen before," Morgan said.

"People have never seen her in such a relaxed pose."

Monroe's death on Aug. 5, 1962, was ruled a suicide by drug overdose.