The Arts and Leisure section of this Sunday's New York Times included an article about movie director Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol) and her new film, The Notorious Bettie Page.  Harron's film about the sensational pin-up goddess of the 1950s opens on April 14th and though the director does include the abuse Bettie suffered at the hands of her father as well as Bettie's experiences with the sensation-seeking Kefauver committee's hearings on juvenile deliquency, there is no attempt to make the film into a simplistic TV Movie of the Week cautionary tale.  Gretchen Mol, who portrays Bettie, manages to conjure up the playful life force that came through so clearly in the pin-up photos, while also demonstrating the off-camera reserve of a character, who has spent the later years of her life as a relative recluse.

While there may not be as much Bettie Page merchandise available now as there was during the Rocketeer-fueled 'Bettie Revival'of the 1980s (thank you, Dave Stevens), retailers do have numerous ways in which to take advantage of the new film including a Bettie Page Calendar (and greeting cards) by Olivia, as well as posters, t-shirts, coasters, air-fresheners, stash tins, magnets and all sorts of other items bearing the pin-up queen's image. 

James Silke's Bettie Page, Queen of Pin-Ups (Dark Horse) is still available as are two biographies, The Real Bettie Page: Queen of Pin-Ups (Citadel), and Bettie Page Confidential (St. Martins), and there are no fewer than 4 different DVDS collecting (with many duplications between the DVDs) the bondage films Bettie made with Irving Klaw.