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The 5 biggest 'Gilmore Girls' revelations from Kelly Bishop's memoir

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The 5 biggest 'Gilmore Girls' revelations from Kelly Bishop's memoir

On the Shelf

The Third Gilmore Girl

By Kelly Bishop
Gallery Books: 256 pages, $29

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Long before she ever took on the now-iconic role of Emily Gilmore in Amy Sherman-Palladino’s beloved comedy-drama “Gilmore Girls,” Kelly Bishop had a stunning résumé. From the mid-1960s and on, Bishop appeared in numerous Broadway shows, earning a Tony Award for her performance as Sheila in the first iteration of “A Chorus Line.” In the ’80s, she appeared as Frances “Baby” Houseman’s mother in “Dirty Dancing” and in subsequent years lit up daytime television on “One Life to Live” and “All My Children.”

For all her career highs, however, Bishop likely will remain best known for her cutting and complex performance as the moneyed New England matriarch in “Gilmore Girls” from 2000 to 2007 — a period she chronicles beautifully in her new memoir, “The Third Gilmore Girl.”

In candid and down-to-earth prose, Bishop, 80, looks back at her early years as a trained ballet dancer, moving to New York and entering the Broadway scene (then under her birth name Carole Bishop), auditioning for Woody Allen’s one-act play “Central Park West,” transitioning to film in Paul Mazursky’s 1978 Oscar-nominated drama “An Unmarried Woman” and meeting Sherman-Palladino, with whom she continued to work on “Bunheads” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

“There was no pretense about [Sherman-Palladino], no slickness, no political glad-handing or equivocating,” Bishop writes in her book. “Just a woman who knew the value of her work and the quality of her project and was crystal clear on how it should be done.”

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Here are a few more “Gilmore”-themed revelations from Bishop’s memoir — out now.

Sorry, Jess and Dean fans — Bishop is Team Logan

For as long as “Gilmore Girls” has been a part of the cultural conversation, viewers have been split over which of Rory Gilmore’s (Alexis Bledel) beaus was the best — an argument that extended into Netflix’s 2016 “Gilmore Girls” revival. Typically, the fight boils down to Team Jess (Milo Ventimiglia), an emotionally avoidant but well-read “bad boy” who becomes a self-actualized published author, and Logan Huntzberger (Matt Czuchry), Rory’s classmate at Yale who is being groomed to take over the family publishing empire. Then there’s Dean (Jared Padalecki), Rory’s first boyfriend, who is kind, stable and communicative but periodically acts threatened by Rory’s Ivy League aspirations. Not to mention he cheats on his wife with Rory.

“I was always Team Logan,” Bishop writes in her memoir. “All the young actors on ‘Gilmore Girls’ were terrific, on- and off-screen, but while several of them seemed boyish, Logan took a more manly approach that I thought worked perfectly as a partner for Rory.”

As for Lorelai’s romance arc, Bishop is Team Luke

Fans also have squabbled over the question of which love interest was best for Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham), who started the series dating one of Rory’s prep school teachers, Max Medina (Scott Cohen). Later, she pinballs between Rory’s unreliable yet charming father, Christopher (David Sutcliffe), and Luke (Scott Patterson), the local diner owner with a gruff exterior and unextinguishable torch for Lorelai.

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“I was definitely Team Luke,” Bishop says. “It wasn’t just that Luke genuinely loved her. He also understood that he was dealing with a very quirky, specific woman, and he ‘got’ her. I loved watching them together.”

Bishop’s favorite Emily insult was aimed at Logan’s mom

One of Emily’s defining characteristics was her seemingly endless supply of scathing insults. Though the bulk of Emily’s barbs were reserved for her mother-in-law, husband and daughter, in the Season 6 episode “We’ve Got Magic to Do,” she unleashed in grand fashion on Logan’s mother, Shira (Leann Hunley), upon learning that the Huntzbergers told Rory she wasn’t “properly bred” to date Logan.

Bishop writes: “I kept a smile on Emily’s face so that, from a distance, it could have appeared that she was complimenting Shira on her dress and asking who designed it, while she was actually delivering lines like, ‘You were a two-bit gold digger fresh off the bus from Hicksville when you met [Logan’s father] Mitchum at whatever bar you stumbled into. … Now, enjoy the event.’

“It was an absolute masterpiece by Amy and a joy to deliver, not only because it was Emily at her force-of-nature best but also because it was another display of her fierce love for her granddaughter.”

A woman and her daughter stand outdoors watching her parents smiling at each other.

Kelly Bishop as Emily, left, Lauren Graham as Lorelai, Alexis Bledel as Rory and Edward Herrmann as Richard in a scene from the WB’s “Gilmore Girls” in 2002.

(Mitchell Haddad / The WB)

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Bishop didn’t like the final season of ‘Gilmore Girls’

Very few “Gilmore Girls” fans think highly of its seventh and final season, which ran from 2006 to 2007. Due to a breakdown in contract negotiations, Amy and husband/co-writer/producer Dan Palladino exited the show after Season 6. Though Warner Bros. brought in a new writing team, Bishop recalls that “Gilmore Girls” “seemed to get kind of sleepy and tired from one week to the next, as if the air was being slowly let out of a big, sparkly balloon, and we could sense that the party might be ending, even though no one wanted to say it out loud.”

Bishop also says, “To the best of my knowledge, Amy still hasn’t watched a single episode of [Season 7].”

She did, however, love Netflix’s divisive ‘A Year in the Life’

When “Gilmore Girls” hit Netflix in 2014, it experienced an extraordinary bump in popularity. “Not only did its original viewers jump right in to enjoy it all over again, but whole new generations were introduced to it and fell in love with it too,” Bishop recalls.

The renewed interest led to a 15-year reunion panel at the ATX TV Festival in 2015 and, one year later, a Netflix revival. Though the four-episode “A Year in the Life” brought the Palladinos back, reception was decidedly mixed. Critics overall favored the miniseries, but fans “were frustrated by the loose ends they felt they were left with,” as Bishop writes.

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One of those loose ends was Rory’s infamous “last four words” to Lorelai: “Mom?” “Yeah?” “I’m pregnant.” Cut to black.

“Those mysterious ‘last four words’ … struck me as more interesting than infuriating, since it opened debates among viewers to decide who Rory was pregnant by, and what the repercussions would be. I personally think it was Logan, by the way.”

Movie Reviews

Movie Review – SHAKA: A STORY OF ALOHA

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Movie Review – SHAKA: A STORY OF ALOHA
SHAKA: A STORY OF ALOHA is shared with the audience by investigator Steve Sue in a calm and charming manner, but this documentary tells a powerful, positive and fascinating story. The “hang loose” thumb, pinky sign that originated in Hawaii and carries many meanings is the focus of this film. I just learned this gesture is called a “Shaka” and has a worldwide impact.  And, there are Shaka Contests.  Who knew? And how do you throw a Shaka? For me, […]
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Tommy Lee Jones’ daughter reportedly found dead at San Francisco hotel on New Year’s Day

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Tommy Lee Jones’ daughter reportedly found dead at San Francisco hotel on New Year’s Day

Victoria Jones, the daughter of Academy Award-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones, was reportedly found dead at a hotel in San Francisco on New Year’s Day. She was 34.

According to TMZ, the San Francisco Fire Department responded to a medical emergency call at the Fairmont San Francisco early Thursday morning. The paramedics pronounced Victoria dead at the scene before turning it over to the San Francisco Police Department for further investigation, the outlet said.

An SFPD representative confirmed to The Times that officers responded to a call at approximately 3:14 a.m. Thursday regarding a report of a deceased person at the hotel and that they met with medics at the scene who declared an unnamed adult female dead.

Citing law enforcement sources, NBC Bay Area also reported that the deceased woman found in a hallway of the hotel was believed to be Jones and that police did not suspect foul play.

“We are deeply saddened by an incident that occurred at the hotel on January 1, 2026,” the Fairmont told NBC Bay Area in a statement. “Our heartfelt condolences are with the family and loved ones during this very difficult time. The hotel team is actively cooperating and supporting police authorities within the framework of the ongoing investigation.”

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The medical examiner conducted an investigation at the scene, but Jones’ cause of death remains undetermined. Dispatch audio obtained by TMZ and People indicated that the 911 emergency call was for a suspected drug overdose.

Jones was the daughter of Tommy Lee and ex-wife Kimberlea Cloughley. Her brief acting career included roles on films such as “Men in Black II” (2002), which starred her father, and “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” (2005), which was directed by her father. She also appeared in a 2005 episode of “One Tree Hill.”

Page Six reported that Jones had been arrested at least twice in 2025 in Napa County, including an arrest on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance and drug possession.

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Movie Review: “I Was a Stranger” and You Welcomed Me

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Movie Review: “I Was a Stranger” and You Welcomed Me

Just when you think that you’ve seen and heard all sides of the human migration debate, and long after you fear that the cruel, the ignorant and the scapegoaters have won that shouting match, a film comes along and defies ignorance and prejudice by both embracing and upending the conventional “immigrant” narrative.

“I Was a Strranger” is the first great film of 2026. It’s cleverly written, carefully crafted and beautifully-acted with characters who humanize many facets of the “migration” and “illegal immigration” debate. The debut feature of writer-director Brandt Andersen, “Stranger” is emotional and logical, blunt and heroic. It challenges viewers to rethink their preconceptions and prejudices and the very definition of “heroic.”

The fact that this film — which takes its title from the Book of Matthew, chapter 25, verse 35 — is from the same faith-based film distributor that made millions by feeding the discredited human trafficking wish fulfillment fantasy “Sound of Freedom” to an eager conservative Christian audience makes this film something of a minor miracle in its own right.

But as Angel Studios has also urged churchgoers not just to animated Nativity stories (“The King of Kings”) and “David” musicals, but Christian resistence to fascism (“Truth & Treason” and “Bonheoffer”) , their atonement is almost complete.

Andersen deftly weaves five compact but saga-sized stories about immigrants escaping from civil-war-torn Syria into a sort of interwoven, overlapping “Babel” or “Crash” about migration.

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“The Doctor” is about a Chicago hospital employee (Yasmine Al Massri of “Palestine 36” and TV’s “Quantico”) whose flashback takes us to the hospital in Aleppo, Syria, bombed and terrorized by the Assad regime’s forces, and what she and her tween daughter (Massa Daoud) went through to escape — from literally crawling out of a bombed building to dodging death at the border to the harrowing small boat voyage from Turkey to Greece.

“The Soldier” follows loyal Assad trooper Mustafa (Yahya Mahayni was John the Baptist in Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints”) through his murderous work in Aleppo, and the crisis of conscience that finally hits him as he sees the cruel and repressive regime he works for at its most desperate.

“The Smuggler” is Marwan, a refugee-camp savvy African — played by the terrific French actor Omar Sy of “The Intouchables” and “The Book of Clarence” — who cynically makes his money buying disposable inflatable boats, disposable outboards and not-enough-life-jackets in Turkey to smuggle refugees to Greece.

“The Poet” (Ziad Bakri of “Screwdriver”) just wants to get his Syrian family of five out of Turkey and into Europe on Marwan’s boat.

And “The Captain” (Constantine Markoulakis of “The Telemachy”) commands a Hellenic Coast Guard vessel, a man haunted by the harrowing rescues he must carry out daily and visions of the bodies of those he doesn’t.

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Andersen, a Tampa native who made his mark producing Tom Cruise spectacles (“American Made”), Mel Gibson B-movies (“Panama”) and the occasional “Everest” blockbuster, expands his short film “Refugee” to feature length for “I Was a Stranger.” He doesn’t so much alter the formula or reinvent this genre of film as find points of view that we seldom see that force us to reconsider what we believe through their eyes.

Sy’s Smuggler has a sickly little boy that he longs to take to Chicago. He runs his ill-gotten-gains operation, profiting off human misery, to realize that dream. We see glimpses of what might be compassion, but also bullying “customers” and his new North African assistant (Ayman Samman). Keeping up the hard front he shows one and all, we see him callously buy life jackets in the bazaar — never enough for every customer to have one in any given voyage.

The Captain sits for dinner with family and friends and has to listen to Greek prejudices and complaints about this human life and human rights crisis, which is how the worlds sees Greece reacting to this “invasion.” But as he and his first mate recount lives saved and the horrors of lives lost, that quibbling is silenced.

Here and there we see and hear (in Arabic and Greek with subtitles, and English) little moments of “rising above” human pettiness and cruelty and the simple blessings of kindness.

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“I Was a Stranger” was finished in 2024 and arrives in cinemas at one of the bleakest moments in recent history. Cruelty is running amok, unchecked and unpunished. Countries are being destabilized, with the fans of alleged “strong man” rule cheering it on.

Andersen carefully avoids politics — Middle Eastern, Israeli, European and American — save for the opening scene’s zoom in on that Chicago hospital, passing a gaudily named “Trump” hotel in the process, and a general condemnation of Syria’s Assad mob family regime.

But Andersen’s bold movie, with its message so against the grain of current events, compromised media coverage and the mostly conservative audience that has become this film distributor’s base, plays like a wet slap back to reality.

And as any revival preacher will tell you, putting a positive message out there in front of millions is the only way to convert hundreds among the millions who have lost their way.

star

Rating: PG-13, violence, smoking, racial slurs

Cast: Yasmine Al Massri, Yahya Mahayni, Ziad Bakri, Omar Sy, Ayman Samman, Massa Daoud, Jason Beghe and Constantine Markoulakis

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Credits: Scripted and directed by Brandt Andersen. An Angel Studios release.

Running time: 1:43

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About Roger Moore

Movie Critic, formerly with McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Orlando Sentinel, published in Spin Magazine, The World and now published here, Orlando Magazine, Autoweek Magazine

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