Person of the Week: 'Eat, Pray, Love' Author Elizabeth Gilbert

Aug. 6, 2010 — -- Elizabeth Gilbert came back from crisis. Eight years ago, she was getting divorced and had no money. She felt like she had no door and no way out.

"I was hiding in the bathroom for something like the 47th consecutive night and, just as all those nights before, I was sobbing," Gilbert said.

So she embarked on a spiritual journey, traveling to Italy, India and Indonesia to find herself. She documented that experience in the book, "Eat, Pray, Love," a New York Times bestseller which has sold more than 9 million copies worldwide. Next week, "Eat, Pray, Love" is being released as a movie starring Julia Roberts.

"People say, 'When you watch the movie, isn't it amazing to see yourself up on screen?' and I'm like, 'It's not difficult for me to tell the difference between me and Julia Roberts,'" Gilbert joked. "There's no part of me that get's dizzy thinking, 'My God, there I am! There I am with my perfect skin and my 40-inch smile,' she said, laughing. "One of my favorite headlines through this whole thing that I saw was Julia Roberts had to gain 10 pounds to play Elizabeth Gilbert. I'm like, 'Thanks!'"

What many people don't know is that this is not the first movie based on an episode in Gilbert's life. She began her career as a freelance writer for GQ magazine. An article she wrote for the magazine titled "The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon" was the inspiration for the 2000 film "Coyote Ugly" starring Piper Perabo and Maria Bello about a New York City bar.

"The article was the first memoir piece I ever wrote, actually," Gilbert said. "It was sort of a confessional piece to a men's magazine about how female bartenders keep men from leaving the bar."

The secret? Listening attentively.

"Just about everybody has a story that would stop your heart and that everybody wants to tell and nobody has anyone listening," she said.

Her own story began on a Christmas tree farm in Connecticut where she grew up--a childhood she described as a "prairie upbringing."

"We had running water, sometimes, when it worked," Gilbert said. "Mostly we had electricity, [but] not always. We didn't have a furnace, [so] we heated the house with wood we cut all summer."