Gilmore Girlies listen up– this is not a drill! A Gilmore Memoir has just been released! Kelly Bishop, the actor who played the infamous Emily Gilmore just released a book called “The Third Gilmore Girl” this past Tuesday the 17th. She did a great interview on CBS which I of course watched immediately. This is what I’ve gathered.Â
While it definitely talks about Bishop’s 7 years on the hit show Gilmore Girls, she also talks about her amazing life on Broadway, her career as a dancer, and her Tony Award winning career as an actress in other shows and movies such as Dirty Dancing.Â
To make this memoir even more perfect, it starts with a forward from Amy Sherman Paladino, creator, producer and writer of Gilmore Girls. She also created Gilmore Girls: A Day in the Life, The Marvelous Ms. Masel, and Bunheads. She talks about the process for picking the actress to play Emily. This basically boiled down to, I’ll know her when I see her. Then Kelly Bishop walked in and the rest is history.Â
Bishop says that even though she doesn’t see Emily as a victim in the show, she also doesn’t think she could be friends with her character in real life. She really liked playing the character, regardless of friendship or not. Bishop explains that she likes playing complicated and/or messy characters. It seems that through these she demonstrated a type of feminism. She says in her interview with Gayle King;Â
“I find with women very often other actors that because we’re taught to be good little girls and to be ladies and all of that sort of thing…they’re playing a rough character, but they kind of pull back a little bit because you don’t want to make her too mean. I’m going no, no, no, no, no! Bam!”
CBS News Sept. 17, 2024
Now the question everyone wants to know: Is Emily/Kelly, team Dean, Jess or Logan?
She says she is team Logan all the way. “There’s just something about the way that Matt [Logan] presents himself that I said it’s like the old movie stars…he was manly.” This is a huge win for the team Logan girlies, not only does Emily approve of Logan in the show, but Bishop approves of Matt in real life!
It is clear that Bishop is in her healing era. This memoir came in the wake of her husband, Lee’s, death. In her book she says she is looking for serenity after this loss. What she found and what helped her find peace is a therapist. “I found myself a therapist… I love this woman… it’s like girlfriends talking” This is a very different take on therapists than Emily has in the show. In season 4 Episode 16; “The Reigning Lorelai” she says “Lorelai Gilmore. Are you seriously suggesting that your father go to a complete stranger and talk about his personal life? … Yes, Disturbed people. Deviants. People with multiple personalities who see things and hear things talking to them and roam the streets talking to themselves and licking parking meters” However, in the Gilmore Girls Revival: A year in the life, Emily does go to therapy and real life Emily goes to therapy, so this is your sign if you’ve been thinking about going to therapy – it’s Emily Gilmore approved!
Gayle ended the interview by asking what I think us fans can already answer. Why after all these years, is Gilmore Girls still going strong? From the mouth of Emily herself: “Partially because it’s just a really good show. It’s well written. It’s well cast…There’s a genuine kind of sweetness about it. …it’s safe.” I think most of us can agree that Gilmore Girls is a comfort show, and now maybe her book can be a comfort book as well.