Melissa Gilbert: On Child Stardom, Losing Rob Lowe's Baby, & Alcoholism

on June 23, 2009 at 7:00 AM

Photo from Melissa Gilbert

Little House on the Prairie child star Melissa Gilbert's new memoir Prairie Tale has just been released, and boy, does she have a lot of not-so-prairie secrets to share.

Let me just say I loooooooved Little House on the Prairie when it was on TV. To this day, for most trying life situations, I can apply a lesson learned from an episode of the show.

And I'm also thrilled to see that Little House on the Prairie: The Musical, in which Melissa Gilbert plays Ma is coming to my city soon.

All this said, I'm very excited to read Melissa Gilbert's new book Prairie Tale, in which she chronicles her life — from her adoption as a baby into a show biz family and child stardom to substance abuse and dysfunctional relationships (yes, one being with the babe-a-liscious Rob Lowe) and then onto marriage, motherhood, and her more recent struggle with alcoholism and sobriety.

Photo from Powell's Books

While I loved the idyllic tales from the prairie when I was a child, this book sounds like one I can relate to as an adult, a wife, and a mother (and also as an alcoholic).

Read a great interview with Melissa Gilbert about her book on momlogic.

About the author Sheri Reed

is a writer and the Entertainment, News & Sports editor for The Stir. She loves a good film, watches lots of good TV and follows Ryan Gosling's every move because she has to -- for work.

Filed Under: books, celebs, television

Comments (3)

kyledavidsmom

on Jun 25, 2009 at 12:14 AM

I would love to read her book. I love little house on the prairie watch it every day. I have put alot of lessons i learned from that show. Into my daily life and have learned alot.

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Nonmember comment from Caroline

on Jul 2, 2009 at 1:25 PM

I am reading Melissa's book and I must say I am not at all impressed with the part about her losing her virginity at barely 17 to Cyrill O'Reilly. I don't care if she was willing and he was kind and she was fine with it all being over shortly thereafter. She paints it all up as an experience that she would recommend to any young women. First of all, I don't define 17 as being a young women and second of all, if they had been in California instead of Georgia when this all happened, Cyrill O'Reilly could've gone to jail as a for statuatory rape. I am really glad I didn't know this was all happening at the time it was because I was only 13 and really looked up to Melissa as an example of how you could be an entertainer and a wholesome teenager. There are still many things I respect and admire about Melissa Gilbert, but this is a disheartening story to read and probably the worst part about it all is that someone as bright as Ms. Gilbert still looks back on that memory with fondness rather than feeling like she was exploited by this young man for no other reason than that she was six critical years younger than he was. How many decent 23-year-old men are on willing to take a 17-year-old virginity no matter what the circumstances? This book is recommended to be read by kids under 18, but in the book, Melissa Gilber doesn't even acknowledge that maybe those that are too young to be reading her book shouldn't be having sex themselves.

on Jul 2, 2009 at 3:43 PM

sorry...in my previous comment there was a typo...I meant to say that Prairie Tale was recommended as NOT being appropriate for readers under the age of 18 so that is why it seemed ironic to me that Melissa was recommending that type of first sexual experience to 17-year-olds when our nation doesn't even classify 18-year-olds as being adult enough to read the content in that book let alone be doing the things written about in the book.