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NEW YORK — In a Hollywood museum specializing in erotica, there lies a grainy tape of a woman having sex with a man on a couch. The museum says it’s widely believed, though denied by her estate, that the woman is Marilyn Monroe, circa 1948.

Fast-forward some 60 years, past Rob Lowe and Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton. The latest celebrity sex tape contains 14 minutes of seriously hard-core action between actor Colin Farrell and a former Playboy Playmate, punctuated by dialogue such as: “Where’s the zoom on this?”But like his predecessors in the genre, Farrell’s career is not likely to be harmed at all.

In fact, it could even get bigger. It seems what we expect from our celebrities is radically different from what we expect from, say, our politicians. Or ourselves.“The public is very forgiving,” says Kate White, editor-in-chief of Cosmpolitan. “And very intrigued. It’s not like, ’Oh no Colin, not you!’ ”And so it would appear that Colin Farrell has little to worry about.

The Irish actor, star of Oliver Stone’s “Alexander” and the upcoming “Miami Vice,” is currently in theaters with “The New World,” the revered Terrence Malick’s film about Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century. The film has received mixed reviews.