One of the world's most glamorous women, Marilyn Monroe, was flatulent, dirty and ate in bed, it has been revealed in a new book.

Portraits of her as the image of womanly perfection may hang on walls of admirers' homes all over the world. But when it came to personal hygiene, the Hollywood star's habits were a huge turn-off to her co-stars.

Gable and Monroe appeared together in the 1961 movie 'The Misfits' which was written by the husband of Monroe, playwright Arthur Miller.

It had always been Hollywood legend that the two co-stars had a torrid love affair together.

This claim is rubbished in the book 'Clark Gable: Tormented Star' by author David Bret, to be published in the US in September 2007.

Bret dismissed rumors of the affair as rubbish. While Gable was a lover of cleanliness, "she could not have been less fastidious regarding her personal hygiene."

Bret says Monroe's interest in Gable was not returned, but was spurned by Gable, who was discouraged by her living habits.

"Like Jean Harlow, she bleached all her pubic hair and never wore panties. She suffered from what today would be described as irritable bowel syndrome," Bret writes.

Bret also claims: "She rarely bathed, slept in the nude and ate a lot in bed - shoving what was left on her plate under the sheets before going to sleep."

The Misfits was both Monroe's and Gable's last movie that either Monroe or Gable worked on before they died. Gable died from a heart attack two weeks after shooting finished. Monroe's suicide followed a year later. The movie's third lead, Montgomery Clift, died from drug and alcohol abuse four years later.

Miller and Monroe's marriage broke down during filming, and Monroe was turning more and more to prescription drugs and alcohol.

Filming had to be stopped in August 1960 so she could be sent to hospital for detox. It was this instability, and the steamy scenes on set that led people to believe an affair might have taken place.

- July 24, 2007