another one year projectThis year we follow the words of Oprah Winfrey

OK. She is one of the biggest movie stars of our time. Oscar winner Julia Roberts plus one of the biggest selling books of all time Eat, Pray, Love. Put them together and you have one of the most highly anticipated movies of the summer. Come on out Julia. The crowd scream, Oprah and Julia hug and hold hands. Wow, you look fantastic says Oprah. Oprah says that she said to their shared agent that at the end of the movie she teared up because Julia is her friend and she is a bona fide movie star, which she could tell just by the way Julia rode her bicycle. Julia says that it was all consuming and she had a great team. When Elizabeth did the journey she had a carry-on bag, and Julia did it with three children and about 16 bags, full of snacks and medicine. Julia says that it is a bummer that the movie is all her, but Oprah says that is what is extraordinary.

Oprah asks how they all are, Julia says that they are great and that they missed Oprah last night. Her twins are 5 and Henry is 2 1/2, Oprah says that she loves 2 1/2 and Julia says that she loves it all. Oprah asks what she has learned from them lately. Julia says that kids are so fresh and interested and engaged as they are so new into the world. As we get older we get grumpier and concerned with being late while the kids just want to look at a tree. Henry woke up at 5.30 and said it’s a beautiful day, momma. Their day starts at about 5.30 then it’s the big party to get everyone up and teeth brushed and breakfast, including the mom. 2 days a week they all attend preschool for a few hours and Julia picks them up for an afternoon snack and a nap. They carpool and have playdates like every other family. Oprah says that it is so normal in that house. Julia sews because kids clothes are so expensive and the dresses Hazel wears are just two pieces of fabric together. She uses patterns or figures it out from a dress that Hazel loves. Oprah asks why she sews, Julia says that it is soothing and fun and not necessarily for financial reasons. It is her new skill to keep her brain firm- after 40 they say that both the brain and the tush go saggy. She sews big pillows and some simple pants for Danny, which Oprah is very impressed by. That is love, she says. Julia says that Danny is perfect.

People magazine has just voted Julia the world’s most beautiful person for the 4th time. Oprah says that we all say that we don’t care about the list, but as a 42 1/2 year old, Julia must have liked that. Julia says that at her age she’ll take every compliment that she gets. Oprah says that Julia is more beautiful now than ever and that something happens when you come into your 40’s and you become more of your true self. Julia agrees and says that she has a great family with so much fun and that you look like where you come from. Oprah says that she’ll remember that when she next sees someone who looks haggard. Or those days after she has been traveling and her face looks like it has been left behind in Cleveland or Chicago and she’s waiting for her face to catch up.

Oprah asks if aging concerns Julia. Not yet, although obviously society works hard to instill panic as quickly as possible. Her husband doesn’t seen concerned and that makes her calm about the whole thing. She is also the new face of Lancome. She felt reluctant to be the ambassador for a brand, now she calls herself a supermodel at home. It is a fun new avenue. Shockingly, Julia says that she ran a half marathon because her husband is so powerful. She says that she was so happy for 13 miles, how did that happen? The crowd applaud. She trained during the movie when it was so hot so by the time she ran the marathon it was to her advantage. She wanted to show her kids that the power of the female body is greater than just giving birth, which is a great power. It was awesome. The New York Times article Mother and Mega-Star, Happily Balanced was a great article, according to Oprah. Oprah smiled when she read the line that Julia is fulfilled by her life on an hourly basis. Julia says that she has a big family who appreciate and inspire each other- they are filled with gratitude. Oprah says that she loves watching Julia and Gayle have such respect for her kids as well as to love them. Julia thinks that they are fascinating people and that they are spiritually closer to the earth than us, maybe as we get tall we grow dumb. Oprah feels that we are born into the world trailing grace, as if we come from the angels, and the older we get the world reminds you and you forget where you come from. Julia agrees that her kids are heavenly and kind and dear. The chaos and the quiet in the house. Her favorite thing is to watch them wake up and to watch the day come upon them.

Eat, Pray, Love – four years ago the story of Elizabeth Gilbert’s journey to rediscover herself struck a chord with millions of women all over the world, including Oprah. Over 7 million copies have sold in 40 languages and now devotees see it on the big screen. She goes around the world, to Italy, India and Bali. You will not be disappointed says Oprah.

Oprah says that she loves the book and that it cast a spell on Julia too. Julia got a copy from her agent and sent a copy to her best friend Paige so that someone she loved was reading it at the same time. Paige panicked that she had to read the book fast to catch up, but says that it came at a good point at her life. Oprah likes to read that way too. They didn’t really talk about it but they shared moments. In India they met a woman reading the book and Julia’s 4 year old daughter said I know what that says, “Mommy’s Work.” Julia says that she surrenders to the book and there is a resonance, it’s like a bell which keeps ringing. Oprah says that it has become a spiritual companion for many people. Julia says that as a family they had their moments of passage during this odyssey. 5 months was a long time to travel together and play Candyland. Her kids were very interested in the culture of everywhere they went. Julia says that the permission to eat with gusto was a gift. Oprah remembers the famous pizza place, did they go there? They went to that place. Oprah shows a clip of the pizza eating scene. The crowd applaud. Julia ate a lot and says that she gained weight. She loves the food in Italy, it’s so fresh and tastes like Momma is in the kitchen. Next she went to India for the praying part, and she loves it there. The children love it, Hazel wants to live there when she grows up.

The story is as much about her journey as the men she meets along the way. Billy Crudup plays her needy husband that she walks away from. She rebounds with David played by James Franco. In India she connects with spiritual friend Richard played by Richard Jenkins, and Javier Bardem plays Philippe, the man who makes her want to love again. The movie was shot in sequence, Ryan made it easier for her to do it in sequence. The scenes are loving scenes, rather than love scenes says Julia. Oprah asks what Julia believes about love. Both Julia and Oprah adore Julia’s husband Danny. She adores him, and he gets better looking year after year. Julia says that no one calls her to do sex in a movie, they just don’t. Julia doesn’t even want to pretend all that stuff- it makes her feel 12. Oprah asks if she still loves acting- Oprah now sees Julia as a mother first. Julia still loves acting, but she loves her family more. She is fortunate that she doesn’t have to make a choice, and that she can choose when she wants to work. It has always been ok with Julia to take some breaks between films and be more relaxed.

The leading men say what Eat, Pray, Love means to them. Javier says his favorite dish is fried eggs, fries and the best Spanish ham in the world. Richard finds his pray in his home in Rhode Island where it is peaceful and spiritual. They have a screened house in the woods with a chair built by his son when he was in 8th grade.  Javier says love is found in books painting, literature, music- love is about putting ourselves in a place where you haven’t been before. James would eat the Cafe Borrone in Palo Alto’s soup and sandwich for the rest of his life. For his prayer he goes to Palo Alto where his family is from, where he gets a lot of spiritual strength. And his girlfriend grew up in the same city so he gets his Eat, Pray and Love in the same spot.Javier thanks Julia in Spanish for everything and for making it so easy to work together.

Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert is here- she just watched the movie for the first time. She is still misty and emotional about it. She isn’t a visual person, she didn’t take photos of her journey, so it is as if an amazing director made a home movie of her travels and Photoshopped her out and put in someone with perfect skin and 38” legs. Plus, she got to watch herself make out with Javier, which is not a bad way to spend an afternoon. She was an emotional wreck. She saw it with her husband alone in a theater and they were crawled up in a ball together laughing and crying. They didn’t expect that. Oprah says that the book has become larger than Elizabeth. The movie embodied the best time of her life- she cried, went home, drank lots of wine and went to bed. They decided to talk about it in the morning. For the first time, Elizabeth realized why this story is so popular- she suddenly saw that getting over love and disappointment is everyone’s story. She only saw that it was everyone’s story through the movie, not just her own introspective journey as she’d previously thought. It was easy for her to give autonomy to Julia Roberts, Oprah says that when Julia prays you can almost hear what God is saying. Elizabeth says that is Julia’s gift: she takes the personal and renders it universal. Liz says that it makes her happy that Julia can be Liz Gilbert and that she does it so well. Liz can’t contain her feeling about the story, it grew bigger than her a long time ago.

Julia’s favorite all time meal, her Eat, would be a big meal, she likes steak, garlic, anything in a crock pot. Her Pray is hearing her kids sleeping and breathing, holding her husband’s hand and knowing that they get to do it again the next day. Her Love is her family that she belongs to and the family that she has, and her good friends. The writer and director of the movie Ryan Murphy is also the man behind Glee. Oprah welcomes him back. He is bathed in relief that Liz appreciates what he did. They were always about the book, they felt such an obligation to Liz and the book because it is more than just a book. James Franco  says that Julia was pretty shy in the kissing scenes. He thinks that Julia thinks he only did the movie to kiss her, and that’s only half true. He says that he’ll just be sitting there, looking at his photograph of him with Julia.

Oprah and Julia can’t believe that the hour has gone already. Julia mentions her other two costars who have not yet been mentioned. Julia took the whole no phone-zone pledge online  the day after she watched the Oprah show episode. She has signed it. Oprah says that Julia is a responsible mother, Julia says that when she sees people texting, she wants to shout “Don’t you watch Oprah.”

August 13th, Julia’s mom’s birthday is the day that the film is released. Oprah says that everyone should watch it with their girlfriends and then eat and pray and love together.

WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:

You can tell bona fide movie stars by the way they ride their bicycle.

A movie star sewing pants for her husband displays true love.

You look like where you come from.

The permission to eat with gusto is a gift.

Making a movie of a book that is more than a book is quite an undertaking.

A VERY QUICK SUMMARY:

Getting over love and disappointment is everyone’s story, it is universal.