Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. It is the story of a year-long journey she took following a devastating divorce and love affair that left her questioning the most fundamental notions of who she was and where she was going. She decided she would do three things she thought would be spiritually nurturing and sustaining. She had always wanted to learn Italian, which she thought was the most beautiful language. She began in Italy, being kind to herself, and that included not just learning Italian but, as the title of the book suggests, eating Italian, too. Once she felt physically restored, she went to India, to commune with the divine. She meditated in an ashram, learning patience and humility. And then she went to Bali, where a shaman had once invited her to return, to try to achieve balance. The book inspired this week’s feature film, with Julia Roberts. Those interested in the real story can find an update on the book’s most beloved characters on Gilbert’s website.
Here, Gilbert talks briefly to fans about the themes of the book and her hopes that readers will not just imitate her journey but find their own.
And here is a video of one of the people she wrote about in her book, Ketut Liyer of Bali.
Gilbert’s TED talk about the sources of creativity is truly inspiring:
“When Love is Not Enough,” the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie about Lois Wilson, the wife of the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, will premiere this weekend starring Winona Ryder and Barry Pepper. Lois Wilson recognized that the friends and families of alcoholics needed a place to share their stories and find support. She had learned that those who love alcoholics could not change them but that they could find their own peace. And so she and helped to found the Al-Anon Family Groups. From the initial 48 who responded to her in 1951, it grew to over 29,000 groups worldwide and a membership of over 387,000, reaching out with a blog, podcasts, publications, and the core of their program, their in-person meetings, held all over the world. “In Al-Anon and Alateen, members share their own experience, strength, and hope with each other. You will meet others who share your feelings and frustrations, if not your exact situation. We come together to learn a better way of life, to find happiness whether the alcoholic is still drinking or not.”
The motto is, “To help them, you have to help yourself first.” They tell their members, “It is estimated that each alcoholic affects the lives of at least four other people… alcoholism is truly a family disease. No matter what relationship you have with an alcoholic, whether they are still drinking or not, all who have been affected by someone else’s drinking can find solutions that lead to serenity in the Al-Anon/Alateen fellowship.”
Here Bill and Lois Wilson tell their story.
“I believe that people are good if you give them half a chance and that good is more powerful than evil.
The world seems to me excruciatingly, almost painfully beautiful at times, and the goodness and kindness of people often exceed that which even I expect.”
“Twilight‘s” Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning star as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie in the upcoming film about the pioneering all-girl rock group The Runaways. Before it opens on April 9, it might be fun to take a look at the the real Runaways.
Joan Jett co-stars with Michael J. Fox as siblings who play in a rock band in the under-appreciated “Light of Day.” She gives a confident but sensitive performance that makes me wish she had done more acting. And of course the musical numbers are terrific. She also has a live concert film with the group she formed after the Runaways. And her anthemic “Bad Reputation” is on the sound-track of the upcoming “Kick-Ass” as well as many other movies, from “Shrek” to “10 Things I Hate About You.”
As shown in the film, Cherie Currie left The Runaways to appear in a movie, Foxes with Jodie Foster. She also wrote the memoir that inspired the movie, Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway.
Edgeplay – A Film About The Runaways is band member Victory Tischler-Blue’s documentary about the group.
The movie also gives us a glimpse of DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, known as Mayor of the Sunset Strip. His support of the San Francisco music scene is covered in a documentary by that name that features appearances by just about every music superstar of the era, from David Bowie and the Ramones to Coldplay and No Doubt.
And take a look at Slate’s piece on movies about girl groups by Marisa Meltzer. How many of the cliches do you think will be in this week’s release? Well, how many music groups of either gender manage to evade them in real life?
Lifetime’s new movie, “Who is Clark Rockefeller?” is based on the real-life story called “the longest-running con in FBI history.” Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (Eric McCormack of “Will and Grace”), pretended to be numerous people, ranging from a talk show host to a Pentagon adviser, before ultimately claiming to be an heir to the famous Rockefeller family. As the fictitious “Clark Rockefeller,” he married Sandra Boss (Sherry Stringfield of “E.R.”), a millionaire with a Harvard MBA and a partner at the prestigious management-consulting firm McKinsey & Company, and they had a daughter, Reigh (Emily Alyn Lind). They were married for 12 tumultuous years. After their divorce, Sandra was awarded custody and “Clark” abducted her. With the help of FBI agent Megan Norton (Regina Taylor), Sandra’s search for her daughter exposed her husband’s lifelong con game.
The real Gerhartsreiter was convicted in June of last year of kidnapping his daughter during a supervised custody visit, despite his attempt to plead insanity. Fox News reported that the investigation revealed in addition to the “Rockefeller” alias
he told a variety of stories: he was a physicist, a financial adviser who renegotiated debt for small countries, a collector who owned $1 billion worth of modern art, a cardiovascular surgeon from Las Vegas, a ship’s captain based in Chile and a member of the Trilateral Commission, a group established to foster cooperation among the United States, Europe and Japan.
Boss, a Harvard-educated management consulting firm executive, testified that she believed her husband’s stories for much of their 12-year marriage. It was only when she hired a private investigator during their 2007 divorce that she realized he “was not the person he’d said he was,” she said.
Temple Grandin, the subject of the new movie starring Claire Danes, was diagnosed with autism as a child. In this talk at TED, she talks about how her mind works — sharing her ability to “think in pictures,” which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids.
with Jodie Foster. She also wrote the memoir that inspired the movie, 
.
is band member Victory Tischler-Blue’s documentary about the group.
. His support of the San Francisco music scene is covered in a documentary by that name that features appearances by just about every music superstar of the era, from David Bowie and the Ramones to Coldplay and No Doubt.