Rob Lowe's Nanny: Abuse Victim or Major Liar?

Why was Jessica Gibson, Rob Lowe's former nanny, smiling like a cat that just ate a canary during her interview with Meredith Vieira on the "Today" Show yesterday? Her apparently happy demeanor struck me as odd. As a purported victim of sexual harassment, shouldn't she at least look and sound a little upset?

As the former editor in chief of Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire magazines, I've published my share of feature stories on sexual harassment in the workplace. It's a very serious topic and the victims that my former magazines interviewed were always visibly traumatized by their experiences.

That's why I was so struck by Ms. Gibson's perpetual smile and even giggling during her sit-down with Vieira. After all, even if she happened to be a remarkably self-contained young woman, the seriousness of her allegations and their harmful affects on many peoples' lives, merited a more serious comport. She WAS accusing Rob of exposing himself to her, groping her, and showing her porn — disgusting stuff. And he is the dad of the two boys that Ms. Gibson, 24, cared for and supposedly cared about for a good portion of seven years. Wouldn't she at least be feeling awful about the pain and embarrassment she was causing those two young souls?

Former Lowe family nanny Jessica Gibson on the "Today" Show, April 15, 2008

"Jessica has a radiant, happy, genuinely excited smile. She has natural crinkles around her eyes and dimples in her cheeks while she smiles during her Today Show interview," Dr. Lillian Glass, a body language expert who has a Ph.D. in Communications Disorders, tells me. "She doesn't look like she's telling the truth. She's being asked about serious issues and there's nothing serious about her response."

I have to agree with Dr. Glass' observations. When Meredith asks Jessica "What did Rob Lowe do to you?" She doesn't speak up about the terrible harassment that she claims she's been subjected to. This is her chance to cry out against her supposed abuser and garner much-deserved sympathy. Instead she smiles and laughs, shakes her head and shrugs. When Meredith questions her about emails that Jessica wrote to the Lowes after leaving their employ, telling them that she loves and respects their family, she doesn't deny writing them. She smiles widely — not once but twice — and doesn't respond. When Meredith asks how she is holding up, she doesn't share any of her distress over the abuse that she claims she has suffered. Instead she smiles brightly and says, "I have a great team around me." When her famous attorney Gloria Allred describers her as "courageous," she practically beams. Curiously, when Vieira asks her if she has tried to blackmail the Lowes, she first smiles, then looks away. "Looking away is a sign of lying," claims Dr. Glass.

Call me crazy but this does not at least seem like the behavior of a woman who has supposedly been victimized for years.

Hold on though, says Courtney Anderson, an attorney who specializes in sexual harassment cases. "Yes she's giggling and doesn't seem traumatized, but sometimes young people do giggle inappropriately. Look at Paris Hilton. Let's not judge her too harshly."

Nevertheless Gibson missed "her moment to say how she feels terrible," points out Dr. Sheila Forman, a psychologist and a lawyer who also watched Jessica's "Today" interview. Forman felt that "Jessica didn't look either injured or sincere. Her smiling was incongruent with the nature of her allegations. Instead she looked like she was holding back giddiness and excitement."

Just as puzzling as Jessica's "Today" Show body language is that of her attorney Gloria Allred, who spends the interview almost reaching across half of Jessica's body to hold her hand.

"She looked like she was trying to prevent her from saying or doing anything that would ruin their case," says Forman.

"It looked like Gloria was lying to control her client, like she realizes 'Jessica is acting inappropriately,'" agrees Dr. Glass.

As inconsistent with her allegations as her behavior was on the "Today" Show is Jessica's behavior with the Lowes. The fact that Jessica twice left working for the Lowes — and then voluntarily returned a few months later — undermines her ability to win on the legal claim of sexual harassment, according to Jeffrey Bernbach, a New York state attorney who specializes in sexual harassment cases. "The fact that she came back mitigates against the notion that the situation was so traumatic. Once you came back after leaving, it's with your eyes wide open," says the author of Job Discrimination: How to Fight, How to Win. Nevertheless, he points out that the California courts are incredibly liberal and friendly to sexual harassment plaintiffs.

LA-based media consultant Michael Sands also wonders why Lowe didn't go to the police if his nanny was in fact demanding a $1.5 million payoff to drop her charges, as Lowe alleged in his Huffington Post blog of April 7, where he first broke the story to the world.

"I think he broke the story himself to cover up his misdeeds. People want to believe the first person who goes public, especially when they're a celebrity," believe Sands.

So is Jessica a young, naïve victim of a rich and powerful celebrity or is she an opportunistic liar?

Star magazine tracked down her boyfriend, Jason Lesh's father, Michael, who said, she's a "sweet girl, an honest person who wouldn't hurt anyone."

But another longtime friend of Jessica told the magazine that "she can be manipulative." And furthermore that "she's bragged non-stop about being Rob Lowe's nanny and partying in his Santa Barbara mansion. She also goes on and on about how gorgeous Rob is. I think she harbors a delusional idea that he'll be her boyfriend one day."

As far as I'm concerned, every word that Jessica has said about being sexually harassed by Rob Lowe could be true. But if that's the case, she'd be advised to become as good an actor as he is, so that her body language in her next interview or in front of a jury doesn't project Big Liar instead of Big Victim.

For more celebrities, gossip, news, and photos, visit StarMagazine.com.

Comments

[DLSteinhardt]

Why can't everyone be telling the truth here, more or less?

Families are weird. We know Rob Lowe is weird. Remember the sex tape while he was attending the 1984 Democratic convention?

What if the nanny enjoyed a grope/flash/porn environment in a star's home, then, after leaving, decided to play that environment as a trump card for cash? Lowe's HuffPo piece was an utterly inappropriate venue to claim blackmail, so the likelihood of his innocence here is slim.

[ELC0627]

The "victim' in this case seems to be acting very strangely. She maintains a Chesire cat grin throughout and Gloria is trying to hard to make her appear victim-like. Not buying it.

[DrMHW]

Many of these posts are great news for taxpayers: no more need for trials. Instead, have the community quickly judge all the merits of a claim by the look on the claimant's face, her manner, her non-verbal behavior. All that tedious accumulation of evidence, all that careful jury deliberation, all that thinking... Forget about it! This is an era where truth is decided by the look of a paparazzi photo or by a brief appearance on a news/entertainment show.

As only one indication of how utterly stupid this "face reading" approach to jurisprudence is, consider that the most accomplished and powerful are the very individuals who are most adept at lying convincingly. For example, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky."

[Wanjiru]

...oh well...then this makes her guilty!...next!...

...with someone of your "experience" in interviewing women who have been sexually harassed, I am struck by the amount of scrutiny you put on this young woman's "composure", which--clearly to you--does not meet the traumatised, abused threshold---as opposed to harnessing some of that scrutiny towards Rob Lowe himself...

...obviously the dynamic here is completely skewed and several OTHER mitigating factors come into play; rich, powerful, older, influential, celebrity, actor versus young, naive, unknown, obscure woman...

...she most likely has not had the training and experience in front of the cameras that her alleged abuser has had...I apologize on her behalf that in watching her on the program, her body language did not meet your standards of someone who has been genuinely exploited...

...it is for this very reason...cynicism, skepticism, undue scrutiny of body language "experts" and all the other "experts" real or imagined, and ridicule...that these types of crimes are so under-reported...they are shameful enough for the victim as it is, without adding the cynicism, skepticism and ridicule of people such as yourself...

....allow the FACTS of the case to become known and let the chips fall where they may...hopefully, with time, the FACTS of this case will become more important to you than the demeanor of a young woman who is clearly a deer caught in the headlights here, is way out of her league, and knows it...

...meantime, shame on you....


.

[mr2104]

it is really horrendous that people like gloria allred take cases like this.... sexual harassment is not a gimmick and shouldn't be used in this way. this discredits legitimate claims.

[manndan]

Of all the lawyers who we see on TV way too much there isn't a bigger slimeball than Gloria Allred. I believe that I can spot a shakedown artist when I see one.

[cylindar]

Guess what? Nobody really cares that much.

[jomby]

It seemed to me that even though Meredith was trying to interview Gibson, Allred was apparently confused and thought "she" was the interviewee.

Also Allred kept referring to Lowe as being "powerful". Ummmmmm... he's an ACTOR!

Allred is clearly an opportunist. As to whether or not the same will be said for Gibson remains to be seen.

[obamaSB]

And you think his attorney is not an opportunist? All the attorneys are in it for the money. How will a jury view this? Here's my prediction: this will never see the inside of a courtroom. Why?
A. He is an extremely controversial person in SB, where the suit was filed. He is a friend of Wendy McCaw (they have the same attorney), who single handedly brought down our local paper, firing or causing the resignation of every journalist there (see Vanity Fair article; FYI she is suing the writer with the same lawyer Lowe has). These people have the support of the far right wing in SB; they've alienated the liberal, progressive community and of course all who support intellectual freedom.
B. They have a previous sex tape on him, which can be admitted into court (depending on the judge).
Why this liberal blog publishes his comments and seems to defend him is beyond me.

[NABNYC]

To Obama SB: I didn't know that Rob Lowe was a right-winger, or that he was friends with that Rupert Murdoch wannabee who has destroyed the Santa Barbara paper. I have noticed that a lot of men who are extremely self-indulgent in their behavior in their youth (drink, drugs, sex, think of themselves as "rebels") when they get older turn extreme in the other direction. The one thing that is a constant is that they never stop being self-centered jerks.

[NABNYC]

Ira Brown was a great intellect who was the presiding judge in the San Francisco Superior Court. He also taught courses in a local law school. (He's been dead a long time). He was a very large and intimidating man. He spoke softly, but got everyone's attention because he was truly terrifying in his own scholarly way. I once saw him sitting way back in his chair on the bench, with the half-glass reading glasses on, and he said "I will caution all of you young people," then he pushed the glasses down his nose, leaned forward, stared at all of us and said "deal with Los Angeles counsel only in writing."

Gloria Allred is a Los Angeles attorney. Never get between her and a TV camera. All of her clients are innocent babes in the woods. When she said on TV that she's going to take the Lowes depositions, and we'll see then what they want to answer, to me it suggested that she's digging up dirt, probably completely unrelated to these nanny charges, but she'll spread it all over the country if they don't pay. Notice when Meredith asked the nanny if she'd demanded money, Allred wouldn't let her answer, taking over and insisting that Nanny had done nothing illegal. Perhaps not, but she's got real bad taste in attorneys.

[ailbhe]

It angers me that genuine victims of sexual harrassment are placed under suspicion by the antics of such obvious attention seekers, this woman was no victim. I would'nt trust a word out of this girls mouth, body language is not difficult to read, anyone possessing the most basic social skills can immediately recognise the dishonesty of this interview.

This woman was delighted to be on tv, could not contain her excitement, refused to answer basic questions in a manner which suggested she was hiding something and may as well had a huge neon sign over her head screaming "yay, I'm going to be famous, look at me, look at me.....YIPPEE!".

[BillZBubb]

You can write off her on screen demeanor to nerves and insecurity. But, you cannot write off how thin her claim appears to be. Unless she's got a "blue dress" or some photos, a jury will laugh her out of court.

[pmorlan]

I don't know if this woman's claims are true but I have to agree with you that her behavior on the Today show was very odd. I made the same comments as you when we watched this strange interview. It certainly didn't help that her attorney was Gloria Allred who uses the same argument no matter who she represents. Both the behavior of Allred and the behavior of her client gave the appearance that this was indeed a shakedown. Good luck to a jury on this one.

[Yazie]

I don't think Jessica is a victim per se more like a scorned lover seeking revenge. And about the smiling, which does throw you off is probably nerves and not sure of herself during the interview. I'm 27 and I smile alot when I'm nervous too. You can see that she is a naive girl and probably young, sweet, and definitely confused.

I think Rob should just settle with her out of court instead of making this so public.

[LKnyc]

It's hard to tell who is lying here. Something seems off about this whole story!
At first I thought maybe the was laughing because she was nervous, but she looks so smug. Why did she keep returning to work for them? I think she's just in it for money.

[rzan]

I beileve her. Rob Lowe lost credibility a long time ago. He is a total sleazeball.

[IncredulousGeezer]

If I remember correctly, RL was involved in a sex controversy before. From Wikipedia;
In 1988, Lowe was involved in a sex scandal over a videotape of him having sex with two females, one of whom was sixteen, in Atlanta while attending the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Lowe has asserted that he did not know that the second girl was underaged, and it was confirmed that the two had met at a bar, which the girl entered by lying about her age.
Lowe's career was damaged by the scandal, and he later entered a rehabilitation clinic for alcohol and sex addiction. Eventually, his career rebounded, and Lowe mocked his own behavior during two post-scandal appearances as host of Saturday Night Live.

Relapsed rehabilitation? An inquiring mind wants to know.

[thunderbowl]

Lowe's scandal took place 16 years ago--why when he has a huge hit show now would he risk everything? Plus don't you think this nanny was aware of his vulnerability when it came to sex scandals? She did the Today show and now has a photo shoot and cover story in People. This girl is loving her 15 minutes of fame! she could care less about those two boys she nannied fo seven years!

[bnewbs]

Sure, Paris Hilton giggles...but does anyone believe her?

[bronxite1957]

Can Gloria Allred be any more PATHETIC?

[tinec02]

At first I really did feel sympathy for her until I saw the Today show interview. How can she sit there smiling and laughing? Doesn't she realize not only is Rob's career at stake but he has two little boys who will be affected by this? I hope it is worth it in the end when she cashes in that paycheck....

[weareas1]

Jessica Gibson, "victim". Another potential high-profile Hillary endorser!