POPPY MONTGOMERY IN "BLONDE"

The 25-year-old Australian actress stars as Marilyn Monroe in "Blonde", a 4 hour miniseries directed by Joyce Chopra and based on Joyce Carol's novel. The miniseries, shot over 10 weeks in Melbourne, Australia, traces Monroe's career from aspiring actress to a studio creation - the proverbial dumb platinum blonde, attempting along the way to offer a three-dimensional look at the pop icon. ``Listen, you don't become Marilyn Monroe without talent, drive and smarts, especially coming from nothing. That part of her personality has been seriously overlooked,'' says Poppy Montgomery,who has been trying to get inside the skin of the enigmatic icon for months. "There were so many layers to her personality," Montgomery says. "She was smart, but she really wanted to fall in love and have children. She wasn't just a victim." Montgomery admits to being a fan of Marilyn's and says that was part of the draw in doing the film. And getting the role of the sex goddess must have been in the stars for Montgomery, who landed the part a week after auditioning on videotape. "I never met the executives, the producers, the director. It was really bizzare. I've had multiple auditions for roles a tenth of the size. I don't know how it happened, I'm just thrilled it did. It's rare you get to do a four-hour film where you're in every scene. ''When I told my mother I got the part of Marilyn Monroe, she didn't even bat an eyelash,'' recalls Poppy Montgomery. ''She said, 'Well, you've been rehearsing for it your whole life." While the Australian born ingenue might seem an odd choice to embody America's classic sex symbol, the 25 year old actress actually had no need of a Marilyn 101 crash course to star in CBS' ''Blonde.'' She grew up with posters of the powder skinned goddess plastered to her bedroom walls, has seen all of Monroe's movies, and read her biography at the age of 12. But what most impressed ''Blonde'' director Joyce Chopra about Montgomery was her interpretive approach to the role. ''Poppy in no way set out to imitate Marilyn,'' says Chopra. ''And by not imitating, I think she achieved a resemblance and was able to create a living, breathing character.'' The only aspect of Monroe that Montgomery did try to copy was her Rubenesque figure. ''I was probably 12 pounds heavier when we shot 'Blonde,''' says the wiry, self described junk food addict, who quit working out to gain weight for the part. Today, dressed for yoga, Montgomery screeches at the mention of a scene that features her round derriere in a snug white skirt. ''Who wants a close up of their butt on camera? It was just so there, and it was mine,'' she says. ''I should have gotten a body double!" It seems that most die-hard Marilyn Monroe fans dislike this movie because it doesn't tell her true story, and it bends some facts and dates to fit the story. While that's true, you have to remember that this is based on Joyce Carol Oates novel, "Blonde", which is a fictional account of Marilyn Monroe's life. The novel and the movie are both intended as works of fiction and shouldn't be read as a biography of her life and work. If that's what you're looking for, then pick up a biography (you have plenty to choose from). Otherwise, this is a decent, entertaining movie.