'Julia Roberts Doppleganger': 'Eat, Pray, Love' Author Elizabeth Gilbert On Good Morning America

"Julia Roberts' doppelganger" is what George Stephanopoulos called Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the monumental blockbuster book, "Eat, Pray, Love," on Good Morning America. The author appeared on the show to discuss the film adaptation of her best-selling memoir.

Gilbert took no pictures or videos during her one-year journey of self-discovery that became the subject of her memoir. As a result, the film is "a chronicle of your life that you didn't have," as Stephanopoulos pointed out.

Gilbert admits to "shaking and crying" throughout the first screening of the film, explaining the film is like a "surreal home movie." Are you going to see it even if you've read the book?

WATCH:

Comments

[Gomorrah]

09:57 PM on 08/16/2010

I am a guy and I know nothing about this movie or book but I was just reading the posts here. I understand this is about a woman's story.

I see a few guys here who didn't appreciate either the book or the movie or both. So the Q is, why would you read this book? or see this movie and then post here a million times about why this story sucks? One Mr Veggie with a Mush and few others seem like lunatics.

Thats all I have to say on the subject. :)

[playsindirt]

04:46 PM on 08/15/2010

What really irks me about this woman, besides the fact that she seems very self-important and spoiled, is that she got a big advance to write this memoir BEFORE she even set out on her journey to self-realization. In other words, her memoir is really a contrivance. The purpose of the whole journey was to gather material for the book. Her experiences didn't evolve organically. How much more charming, adventurous, playful, and full of life and wonder would we all be if we knew we had to document our experiences?

[RootBeerWriter]

12:55 PM on 08/16/2010

Hit the nail on the head.

[nanlee]

07:19 AM on 08/15/2010

Just saw the movie - so disappointing! Half of the scenes do not even exist in the book. Why would you take a memoir that connected so deeply to so many and cut and paste a bunch of scenes together, without coming close to the spirituality that is the core of the book? Ryan Murphy doesn't get it - it is obvious when you see the film. Elizabeth Gilbert would have done better to write the screenplay herself and shop around for a woman director. Hollywood movies amaze me. Such huge budgets which produce such crap work.... but make a ton of money, anyway.

[edchuckndoug]

09:31 PM on 08/14/2010

eat pray love,

I say starve, wonder, yearn,

the poor suffer under your dancing feet, the poor are victims of your leisure...

donate our money to the poor now hypocrite woman!

aside from that I wonder what the atheists think, I'm agnostic and think both camps are full of SH17!

[ochowalo8]

06:00 PM on 08/14/2010

bought the book, read it, and now, in love with it...

hated the movie though...

[Contact1972]

05:23 PM on 08/14/2010

I'm SO happy Elizabeth is now lobbying for the Uniting American Families Act(UAFA)!

[giraf]

12:25 PM on 08/14/2010

Where is the next Eat Pray Love book/story going to come from and what is it that drew so many readers to this story, publishers must be dying to bottle this formula. is it about a woman beating the odds? Woman finding happiness? Woman traveling, eating and having sex? Apparently this new book, the BlackBerry Diet, has all the ingredients and more, Paris, London New York, beauty, aging, modeling, celebrity chefs, seductive french women and the struggle with how to "get away" from it all, http://theblackberrydiet.wordpress.com/

[gayleg]

09:30 AM on 08/14/2010

Let's be real here for a second. The reason why there is so much hating on this thread is because it's a movie based on a book based on the life of a relatively privileged woman.

If this same book had been written by a dude everyone would praise it for its depth. It would win the praise of critics, maybe earn an Oscar nod or two, etc.

Compare the reaction to the television shows Sex and the City and Entourage. They are more or less equally vacuous and they both push a materialistic, selfish lifestyle. But you don't see Entourage stirring up nasty comments or getting repeatedly bashed and scorned. Neither of these shows is in anyway comparable to Eat Pray Love or its message. I'm using the two shows only as an example of how anything considered to be a "Women's thing" is automatically ridiculed.

This is something women in particular need to be aware of and work against. The attitude is so prevalent sometimes we fall into it, too.

[lrubemp]

09:39 AM on 08/14/2010

Nice try playing the misogyny card. But doesn't fly. Entourage has been ridiculed for years for many of the reasons you cite. That it stays on the air is just as befuddling as the popularity of Eat Pray Love, unless you take into account the fact that the privileged classes are as thoroughly self-centered and parasytic as they have ever been.

What IS mysogynistic is to associate all the degrading, false, delusional "romance" stuff with "Women's things". Maybe YOURS. But not MINE!

[naschkatze]

10:48 AM on 08/14/2010

Actually, if the book had been written by a dude, say her ex, he would have been mauled for presenting her as the black villain and dork she made her ex out to be.

[OceanAsheville]

05:49 PM on 08/14/2010

Uh, did we read the same book ... I don't remember Gilbert making her ex out to be a black villain and dork?

[ochowalo8]

05:51 PM on 08/14/2010

the movie presented liz' ex husband to be a dorky... but if you read the book, she clearly stated on the first few pages that she DID NOT want to talk so much about her ex husband (which she did not) to pay respect as to what happened in their marriage.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

09:23 AM on 08/14/2010

Shouldn't someone as educated as George is and paid as much as George is use words correctly?

1. If anyone was the 'doppleganger' it would be Julia

2. Where is the evil necessary to have a doppleganger?

In fiction, folklore, and popular culture, a doppelgänger (About this sound pronunciation (help·info)) is a tangible double of a living person that typically represents evil.

[bulbul2]

09:06 AM on 08/14/2010

Elizabeth Gilbert on creativity.

www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

[bulbul2]

07:53 AM on 08/14/2010

I am planning to see the movie, so I will hold on to reading the book. I don`t undestand all the negative comments, coming out of this thread. None of the two women are promoting anything but to be happy and content and Peace, what some of us long for.

[Leigh49]

08:45 AM on 08/14/2010

Some people are against all those things.

[milomilano]

11:46 AM on 08/14/2010

Yes and have not or never will achieve it.

[Janis Moorhouse]

01:36 AM on 08/14/2010

Eat Pray love, figure out how to write the best seller, and get the movie deal...Then figure you my dear author writing this has not figured out how to do this....well there's always the lottery

[Janis Moorhouse]

12:08 AM on 08/16/2010

Oh now I suppose we have to sit here and read about how EG and JR "bonded", ad nauseum...

[Promise]

01:02 AM on 08/14/2010

I loved the book, as many of my friends did. I was happy to hear they were filming it but not pleased when I heard Julia Roberts was cast as Elizabeth Gilbert. Roberts doesn't have the depth or intelligence needed to do the part justice. But that's Hollywood. The trouble is that many people who didn't bother to read the book will form their impression of Gilbert's story from the film.

[flyn2hi]

12:58 AM on 08/14/2010

I found the book to be quite boring, the story of a spoiled, self absorbed, DINK (double income no kids) who had it all and still found her life a reason to complain about her unfulfilled, dissatisfied life . What I took away from it was that she never considered the feelings of others and created the perfect storm, leaving disaster in her wake. We no longer live in a society that requires you to do what was expected in the '50's. Was I the only one who felt sympathy for her first husband, whom, if she had just started out her relationship honestly, would not have had to endure her midlife temper tantrum? Now he gets to watch it unfold again on-screen and she is still reaping the rewards for her self-entitled behavior. Personally, I think I'll pass.

[SheilaKhani]

01:39 AM on 08/14/2010

I sort of agree, but in her story her life is touched by so many others like Richard from Texas (sad, sad story); or poor families who have so little and get by and are happy too. The practice of meditation and selfness acts. She DID try hard to be a selfless person to bring meaning to her life. At least that's what I got out of it. Nobody is perfect :)

[SheilaKhani]

01:40 AM on 08/14/2010

btw, the pizza place in Italy is overrated. I've had pizza there, not that special. We have far superior pizza places here in the US. My 2 cents.

[milomilano]

11:20 PM on 08/13/2010

Lot of little haters posting. You'd think Liz Gilbert started two wars, wrecked our economy and drove our nation into the ground !

[Leigh49]

08:50 AM on 08/14/2010

Then she'd be W Gilbert.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

09:19 AM on 08/14/2010

lol had to fan that.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

09:18 AM on 08/14/2010

First fan and excellent point.

You would think she started the dirivitives market.