Rob Lowe Memoir Grazes Over Tumultuous Love Affair With Melissa Gilbert

By Rob Shuter Posted Apr 27th 2011 11:40AM

In her 2010 tell-all memoir 'Prairie Tale,' actress Melissa Gilbert revealed she had had three nose jobs by age 20, struggled with drugs and alcohol and shocked the world with pages and pages on her tumultuous love affair with Rob Lowe, including losing his child. Laura Ingalls all grown up. Now, Rob has released his own biography and, amazingly, it contains only a handful of passing mentions of her.

The book, 'Stories I Only Tell My Friends,' hit shelves on Tuesday and is heavy on his Hollywood bromances with Charlie Sheen and Sean Penn, dining with Chris Farley and his eery connection with the 9/11 tragedy. An amazing and fun read, no doubt.

Much has been made of the fact 'Stories' only grazes over his infamous (underage) sex tape, but a close inspection shows just as little attention on his former love, Melissa, whom he dated off and on for six years and proposed to.

A search using Google Books of both tell-alls surfaces 77 mentions of "Rob" in Melissa's book, but only four "Melissa" shout-outs in 'Stories.'

She writes that she "fell instantly, hopelessly and stupidly in love" with him and later talks about the anguish of losing him.

Oddly, the most he talks about her is when he describes how when her mom was keeping her from seeing him, he began spending more time with Sheen and his brother, Emilio Estevez.

There is no mention of the length and intensity of their relationship -- which was filled with infidelities -- nor their brief engagement and tragic miscarriage.

It's a far cry from Melissa's description of losing their child in 'Prairie Tale.' After praising Rob for vowing to stand by whatever decision she made, she described waking up one day with blood on her sheets.

"Scared, I finally told my mother what was going on and she took me to my doctor. He did an ultrasound and told me that I was having a miscarriage. I went home in a daze and let nature take its course. I called Rob and told him what had happened. He seemed relieved. We made an attempt at a conversation but it was too sad."

She later writes about the tragedy, "There was nothing left for me to do afterwards but go home and face reality. I had lost the baby and my relationship with Rob. Now I was completely, totally alone, and it hurt like hell."

I've left messages for comment from reps for both Rob and Melissa, but a friend of the actress tells me she's "devastated" by the apparent slight.

"Of course Melissa has read it," a friend of the actress tells me. "She's devastated that someone who meant so much to her, someone who dominated her young life, doesn't think she was as important to him as he was to her."

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Tags: Melissa Gilbert, Rob Lowe

Comments

(122)

Thursday 28 April

By Carrieann

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As if anybody cares about these two has-beens -- trying to grab a little bit of the spotlight again -- have to say! GAG! Their 15 minutes of fame were up a long time ago.

Wednesday 27 April

By maria1963

Melissa needs to get over it. I think she's a little too self centered. He probably looks at her now and says "yikes!"

By ruby

Highest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

Don't bother this book is a bore! It covers non of his more news worthy facts, such as his relationships with Melissa or Princess Stephanie or the trouble between he and the Nanny,the sex tape nor anything else interesting for that matter. Guess his friends are the only ones that enjoyed these stories, hope they'll buy plenty of his books before they end up at the 99c only stores.

By sue

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Jealous, Maria?

By Crys

To be quite honest, I actually respect Rob Lowe for not digging up the "dirty laundry" on Melissa. There were things that are best left unwritten or not discussed. A lot of things written about ex-lovers can be seen as tarnishing or negative. Not writing about such things allows for a few things to be left sacred in a very public life. People know that he dated her. People know that he had scandel in the past. It just seems rather silly to dig it all up just to try to sell books.

By Ha

Yes, but that's kind of the point of a scandalous, tell-all book now isn't it?

By QueenKate

Without the "dirty laundry", he is just like every other Joe Schmoe on Main Street. So why would I then pay to read his "memoire"?

By Dee

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You said it best.

By Bratpack1

Melissa Who? Maybe thats why. Rob Lowe was and is A list material, whereas Melissa is who? what? and Yuk.

By MrsKiwi

Hello? Where you even alive in the 80's? Rob Lowe is a sleaze and he always has been. The only reason his book is so boring he because he's probably legally forbidden from talking about all of his sex-drama. Melissa was as A-list as they get back in her day and Rob is just a self-centered jerk. Always was--always will be!

By angelo

Sorry Mrs Kiwi, but Melissa was hardly A List back in the 80's, "television star" just didn't have the status that it does today, and Little House, whether you like or not, was a corny kid's show.

The fact that you remember Rob Lowe from the 80's movies shows your age & limited range in television & movies. Melissa Gilbert had Little House, which whether you like it or not, was a huge success & is still being shown today. She also did many made for TV movies. I think that 90% of you responding negatively to her are just jealous because she dated a hunk that you could only dream about.

By Pixie

The last time Rob was A-list was in the 1980s. He's a mid-level TV actor now, can't carry a show.

Little House on the Prairie was hardly a kids' show. One of the girls went blind and her baby was killed in a fire. It was a family-type show like The Waltons. People grew up with Little House and it meant a lot to them, just like those "Brat Pack" flicks meant a lot to people who grew up in that era.

Neither one of them is A-list, or ever was, really.

It sounds like he avoided discussing his romances, maybe trying to be a gentleman.

By BAT

I think she should be flattered he didn't mention her. It shows respect for her by not airing their dirty laundry in public.

By vickie

I agree...he left things alone...why now would she bring all the garbage up ....he was just as young as her.....

By janilee

That is exactly what I thought. Sometimes, it is the ones that You don't want to talk about who have meant the most to you, because either 1) you never really got over it, or 2) it is too painful to remember in detail because you 1) Never really got over it. Guys can be like that. He does mention her, and she should be happy about that, but he also obviously didn't want the appearance of trying to make money off of someone who he really loved. Six years is a LONG time when you are that young. It HAD to be love. Also, considering all that she wrote about him, he probably didn't want to seem redundant and he was letting what she said stand on their relationship. Either way, I have some respect for him for wanting to keep those chapters of his life to himself.

By casla

He just doesn't want the whole world to know that he failed at being an honest, loving, trustworthy man.

By moo

He's always seemed phoney to me - then and now.

Thursday 28 July

By gladys

casia, did you even read the book? I did and he does mention cheating on her. I think he was being a gentleman and keeping that stuff private. I thought the book was very well written. He does not trash anyone.

By Maleejo

It's typical. Men tend not to dwell on the past. Doesn't mean it wasn't important then.

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