People: Monroe one of Brando's 'too many' affairs

THE MAN who says he has had 'too many affairs to think of myself as a normal, rational man', Marlon Brando, reveals in his forthcoming autobiography that he had an affair with Marilyn Monroe.

In an excerpt from the book, Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me, to be published by Parade magazine, Brando says he and Monroe 'saw each other intermittently for years'. He tells of a phone call from Monroe inviting him to dinner: 'I already had plans but promised to call the following week. She said fine. Two or three days later, she was dead.' He claims to be 'pretty good with people's moods' and sensed no depression or clue of impending self-destruction during her call. Monroe's death from an overdose of sleeping pills in 1962 spurred rumours that she had committed suicide in a deep depression or that she had been murdered.

A POPULAR Iranian singer, Marzieh, has left her country and endorsed the opposition leader, Maryam Rajavi, who lives in exile in France. The National Resistance Council of Iran said the singer met Mrs Rajavi in Paris and expressed her support. Marzieh, who is 69, began her singing career in Iran more than 50 years ago but opposition sources said she has been banned from performing for the past 15 years. Mrs Rajavi was chosen by the opposition to serve as interim president of Iran if the Islamic government is toppled.

ITS SACKED musical director, Myung Whun Chung, accused the Paris Opera yesterday of dismissing him 'like a 19th-century domestic servant' by terminating his contract six years early. Mr Chung, who was appointed in 1979, is suing for breach of contract. The opera countered that he was 'only a conductor with a future', not one of the greats. A ruling is expected on Monday.

HE MAY NOT need the money, but Silvio Berlusconi became dollars 40m ( pounds 26m) richer this week after selling one of his nine homes to a member of the Saudi royal family. The Italian Prime Minister sold his 27-room villa on Sardinia's Emerald Coast.

John Wayne Bobbitt, world famous for having lost his penis in June 1993 to his kitchen-knife wielding wife and then having the organ retrieved and reattached, is to star as himself in John Wayne Bobbitt . . . Uncensored, due for release next month.