'Pan Am' Star Kelli Garner Cast as Title Role in New Marilyn Monroe Miniseries! - Closer Weekly

Actress Kelli Garner, best known for her role as Kate Cameron in ABC’s short-lived period drama Pan Am, has been cast as Marilyn Monroe in the new Lifetime miniseries about the iconic Hollywood sex symbol, a new report states.

The four-hour miniseries, aptly titled “Marilyn,” is based off the 2009 book, “The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe,” and will reportedly chronicle the “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” star’s family drama and private life.

Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon has allegedly already signed on to play Marilyn’s mentally unstable mother, Gladys, in the new series.

Photo Credits: Getty (2)

Lifetime’s official description of the new series, which is set to premiere in 2015, is as follows:

“Marilyn is both the personification of sex, whose first marriage ironically collapses because of her frigidity, and a fragile artist who seeks the approval and protection of men. But after tumultuous marriages with Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, she realizes she has the strength to stand on her own. She becomes the face and voice of an era, yet wants most of all to be someone’s mother and someone’s little girl. She’s the Marilyn you haven’t seen before, the artist who, by masking the truth with an image, gives her greatest performance.”

This isn’t the first time Kelli has portrayed an iconic actress. She also played Faith Domergue, the on-and-off girlfriend of Hollywood tycoon Howard Hughes, in the 2004 biopic “The Aviator” alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett.

With this new role as Marilyn, Kelli will join a growing list of actresses who have starred as the blonde bombshell on both the big and small-screens: Michelle Williams in the 2011 film, “My Week with Marilyn”, Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino as the younger and older versions of the star, respectively, in the 1996 film, “Norma Jean & Marilyn,” and Catherine Hicks in 1980’s “Marilyn: The Untold Story.”