India, Sept. 11 -- "I just love finding new places to wear diamonds."

That was Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), referring to the joys of a tiara.

Today, it isn't just new places. It's new people. New songs, new movies and new rap. Natural diamonds - those unique, glittering fragments that are like nothing else on Earth - have always been an integral element of popular culture. A way to get cameras to flash and heads to turn.

This is truer now than ever. In an era of individual style statements, few fashion choices says "This is who I am" quite as dramatically as a unique arrangement of priceless natural diamonds.

Take men on the red carpet. Their gems are no longer tucked into watches and the occasional tiepin. At th...