(meme | rhymes with cream)

Interesting news out yesterday that Toronto entrepreneur Jamie Salter has bought the rights to the image of 1950s Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. Salter’s New York-based intellectual property corporation, Authentic Brands Group, is thought to have paid in the area of $50 million for Monroe’s name and likeness. “Marilyn Monroe is recognized around the world as the embodiment of beauty and glamour,” says Salter, CEO of Authentic Brands. “Quite simply, her name and her image have timeless appeal. We feel fortunate to be responsible for the future.”

The question in my mind… in this day and age, can you really own a meme?

Images: some quick grid|meme studies I just did… decidedly not of the famed Marilyn, yet triggering recall to the glamorous legacy of the unhappy starlet who died of an overdose in her Los Angeles home in 1962, age 36.