Sept. 4 '08 Update: Kate Moss, international model, goes platinum blond! See photo at end of column.

The cool icy blonde is famous for having a hot steamy look. From actresses of the thirties, Harlow, Lombard, to celebs of today...Christina Aguilera has particulary embraced this look...it's a timeless appeal that makes women want to grab for some Platinum dye and a set of false lashes. Even our iconic Marilyn Monroe started her career as a warm brunette...it took going ice cold blonde for Monroe to get hot, hot, hot! In the forties and fifties we had a bevy of blonde bombshells, Lana Turner, Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, Kim Novak...In the sixties we still had Marilyn and Angie Dickinson and singers like Dinah Shore, then evolved into hip blondes like MIchelle Phillips and Peggy Lipton. Seventies glamour blondes like Faye Dunaway evolved into ice cold hotties like MIchelle Pfeiffer. Not all these here, but great pics of Nicole Kidman, Lindsey Lohan, Charilize Theron ... Marilyn, of course, and others! A salute to icy hot blondes. Enjoy!

Born 1980, from Staten Island, Christina hasn't always donned the style of luscious classic glamour blonde...but I think we'd all agree...it's a good look! At age 12 she joined the Mouseketeers along with Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. Her first big song was Genie in a Bottle.The Grammy Award winning performer also writes most of her own songs, co-wrote Kelly Clarkson's Miss Independent song, and has a fantastic voice that needs no studio 'embellishments.' She's had a darker grungier black-haired phase...but let's hear it for Christina as Glamour Blonde!

More of Christina below!

This hard working actress made dozens of movies, and was THE BLONDE of the forties...not so much for academy award performances (although she was nominated in 1957 for Peyton Place), but for her high profile life. She was photo'd out partying and in the movie star magazines like Paris Hilton is today...the publicity went stratospheric when her mobster boyfriend wound up shot to death in Turner's home. From The Sweater Girl in 1940 to Madame X in 1966 to dozens of appearances on TV shows in the eighties like Falcon Crest and Love Boat...this lady was one hot blonde.

Kim Novak won Golden Globe for "most promising newcomer" (tied with Shirley MacLaine) in 1955. Her sensual role with William Holden in Picnic got her loads of attention and tons of male fans. Her role as nightclub performer who does a luscious 'strip' alongside Frank Sinatra in the 1957 Pal Joey cemented her status as blonde bombshell. (There are even cute innuendos in Pal Joey that Novak's "assets" make her outweigh the ultra-short, ultra-slender singer/actor) Alfred Hitchcock used her icy cool sexy hot appeal in his famous Vertigo co-starring Jimmy Stewart. When the sixties rolled around and morals loosened a bit, Novak was the perfect choice for the bawdy The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965).

Lauren Bacall was only 19 years old when she was cast in a film opposite the famous actor Humphrey Bogart. The two married soon after and were a hot couple on and off screen until Bogart's death. Bacall's career stayed active on screen and on Broadway over the decades and she won an Academy Award for her role as a harsh mother in The Mirror Has Two Faces. Wouldn't all of us want to age as beautifully as Bacall? Trivia: Madonna included Bacall in the litany of stylish hotties in her 1990 song Vogue. Bacall is the only surviving woman of the "babes with attitude" listed in song. Also immortalized in the 1980s song Key Largo..."we had it all just like Bogie and Bacall."

Bacall the only blonde on this list to co-star with the USA Ultimate Blonde, Marilyn Monroe in the comedy How To Marry A Millionaire.

Eternal Blonde...Marilyn Monroe

But for the USA the ultra blonde is Marilyn Monroe...her fame, her appeal, her looks have inspired blondes or blonde wannabes across the last four decades of the twentieth century and through each year of the 21st. Here's a refresher of the great tragic Marilyn and of today's beauties emulating her style. From the side-walk vent air-blasted blowing white dress of Seven Year Itch, to the pink satin strapless siren of Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. From the backless see-through filmy creation of Some Like It Hot to the Fishnets and tight skirt of Bus Stop, and all the other luscious Marilyn images ... here's to the women who carry on the Monroe mystique.

Marilyn, above, in her famous number from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes movie, singing her iconic song Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. At right, a Marilyn costume, complete with wig and shoes, from internet costume shop Tops 'n' Tales. Just one of many costume shops ready and waiting to turn any woman into Marilyn Monroe! Below, just another example of the Monroe influence, even if the attire is just a basic black turtleneck sweater...shown, the Jessica Simpson version of the Monroe Alfred Eisenstaedt 1953 photograph for LIFE magazine.