#Giant Marilyn Monroe statue sparks backlash in Palm Springs

Marilyn Monroe’s legendary rump is getting a bum rap.  

With her bodacious bottom perched 26 feet over Palms Springs, a supersized statue of the late screen goddess — posed with her skirt up — has sparked a booty backlash in California.

And the fact that kids are going to be getting a load of Monroe’s panties is the top concern. 

“She’s literally going to be mooning the [Palm Springs Art Museum]” Elizabeth Armstrong, a spokesperson for a new Change.org petition, told NPR. 

With more than 40,000 signatures collected, Armstrong’s online call-to-action demands Monroe’s backside get the boot out of Coachella Valley. 

The cheeky sculpture — aptly named “Forever Marilyn”— is a stainless steel shrine inspired by Monroe’s iconic dress-billowing subway grate scene in the 1955 blockbuster “The Seven Year Itch.” 

The statuesque stunner stood as one of the desert’s hottest tourist attractions during its initial run as a Palm Springs landmark from 2012 to 2014. 

But now, as “Forever Marilyn” makes its permanent return to the center of the city seven years later, members of the community are arguing that it’s sending an ass-backwards message to children who visit the Palm Springs Art Museum. (The monument is slated to stand at the entrance of the institution — with Monroe’s well-rounded rear to visitors as they exit the facility.)

“The thought of those kids leaving our museum and having the first thing they see is the undergarments and underwear of this enormous Marilyn sculpture would be highly offensive,” said Louis Grachos, director of the Palm Springs Art Museum. 

Grachos reportedly first expressed his concerns about the sculpture to the city council in November. 

But his cries over Monroe’s unmentionables apparently went unheard. Officials ruled that the provocative piece be placed in front of the museum for the next three years. 

In addition to kids being flashed by the full-figured figurine, protesters contend that the monolith is “sexist,” and that its placement goes against city codes and highway planning guidelines. 

But the managing director at the Palm Springs Hilton and the head of PS Resorts, Aftab Dada, says “Forever Marilyn” is a welcomed addition to the city’s sights.  

“She makes [the] majority of the people very happy,” said Dada, who spent years fighting for the saucy statue’s return to the Springs. 

“The photos taken, and being transmitted all over the world, will do nothing but benefit the city of Palm Springs.”

Dada and the PS Resorts purchased the eye-popping effigy of Monroe — who died of a barbiturate overdose in 1962 — for $1 million. 

He plans to commission a cost-benefit analysis of “Forever Marilyn,” including her effect on museum attendance, to determine the statue’s overall value to Palm Springs.  

“We are going to conduct [an] independent research study and notify the city what the economic impact and benefit she has been,” Dada said.

And it’s a good thing they’re taking Monroe’s problematic patootie seriously. 

Because as the celebrated Hollywood sweetheart once famously said: “I don’t mind making jokes — but I don’t want to look like one.”