Marilyn Monroe graces Playboy's December 2012 cover

Lindsay Lohan attempted to channel Marilyn Monroe for 2011's year-end Playboy cover. Now one year later, Playboy is paying tribute to the original blonde bombshell -- in honor of the 50th anniversary of her death -- by placing her on the December 2012 cover.

Marilyn covered the first issue of Playboy in December of 1953. Hugh Hefner at the time bought the rights to use a nude photo of Marilyn taken four years prior, which he published inside the magazine.

Hefner now says of Marilyn, "She was most in control when she was in the nude. What would be a position of vulnerability for others was a position of power for her."