49 pages • 1 hour read
Kelly BishopThe Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of abortion.
Bishop joined an LA acting agency, quickly landing her first TV work on an episode of Hawaii-Five-O. In her role as a former brothel owner, she took direction successfully, concealing her lack of experience. The filming process was impersonal, but Bishop was gratified to gain her first screen credit and get paid to stay at a Hawaiian resort.
Bishop went to see A Chorus Line touring in Los Angeles. She was moved by the performance but had no regrets about not joining the production. Nevertheless, she reflected that she would love to play Sheila again. When Bishop returned to New York, the stage manager of the LA tour called asking if she would temporarily replace the actress playing Sheila, who needed minor surgery. Bishop enjoyed her brief return to the show, and when the original Sheila returned, Bishop no longer felt sad about leaving.
Bishop’s next role was in the movie An Unmarried Woman, playing the lead’s friend. The experience was a dramatic change from her previous acting jobs, as each scene was reshot numerous times. In the process, Bishop learned she was able to cry on cue—a key acting skill. Suddenly at 34, Bishop’s acting work seemingly dried up. She changed agencies and was offered roles immediately. She later discovered that her previous agent had been turning down auditions and job offers without consulting her based on commission amounts.
By this time, Bishop’s disastrous relationship with Kevin was over. When Bishop first met Kevin, he was an aspiring actor who cultivated friendships with celebrities. Bishop was soon bored by his company. When she discovered she was pregnant, Bishop was angry with herself over the unplanned pregnancy but was also certain that an abortion was her “only responsible option” (114). Without consulting Kevin about the decision, she went to a Planned Parenthood medical facility for the procedure. Shortly afterward, Bishop agreed to let Kevin move into her garden apartment on 76th Street in New York, despite knowing the relationship had no future. During a role in the off-Broadway musical Piano Bar, she had a brief affair. When Kevin found out and they broke up, he stalked Bishop until she threatened to contact the police. Kevin went on to enjoy “a minor acting career” (119).
Chapter 8 Summary
Bishop appeared as a guest on Midday Live, a talk show hosted by Lee Leonard. A few days later, she accepted Lee’s invitation to dinner. Impressed by Lee’s intelligent conversation, Bishop was delighted to learn that he had a daughter from a former marriage but did not want any more children. Bishop took the relationship slowly, realizing she was in love for the first time. After dating for nine months, the couple married with minimal fuss.
In 1979, Lee became the co-anchor of SportsCenter on ESPN, a then-new cable TV network. Six months later, he was poached by the network CNN to host People Tonight, a news entertainment show based in Los Angeles. Lee interviewed a series of rising stars, including Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise, before he was unexpectedly fired.
Unemployed, the couple returned to Bishop’s 76th Street apartment. That summer, she took a role in the musical Pal Joey. The job involved a two-month tour away from home but allowed her to pay the bills. On returning, she accepted small roles in the soap operas Ryan’s Hope, As the World Turns, One Life to Live, and All My Children. The work was fast-paced, filming an episode a day with little rehearsal time. Bishop usually knew nothing about the storylines or the other characters.
Two years later, Lee became the co-host of the New York-based news program Showbiz Today on CNN. Meanwhile, Bishop took a role in the movie Solarbabies, which was shot in Spain. Bishop enjoyed her first trip to Europe. However, the job only required a few days of filming, and she craved a project that allowed her to get to know the rest of the cast. She accepted a role in the film Dirty Dancing, assuming it would be a similarly fleeting experience.
Chapter 9 Summary
Dirty Dancing centers on the Houseman family’s vacation to a resort in the Catskills. The film charts the developing romance between Frances “Baby” Houseman, played by Jennifer Grey, and dance instructor Johnny Castle, played by Patrick Swayze. Baby’s parents, Jake and Marjorie, disapprove of the match. Bishop was offered the minor role of Vivian Pressman, a guest who attempts to seduce Johnny while taking dance lessons. However, when she arrived on set in Virginia, Bishop was asked to replace the actress playing Marjorie Houseman. Bishop was tempted to decline the offer as she’d had no time to prepare. However, she changed her mind on learning she would be needed for the entire shoot. She ended up having great fun with the rest of the cast.
After filming Dirty Dancing, Bishop accepted the minor role of Adele in an off-Broadway production of the play Six Degrees of Separation. She also offered to be the understudy to Stockard Channing, who was playing the play’s complex female lead, Ouisa Kittredge. When Channing left the show early due to film commitments, Bishop got the lead role. She also negotiated equal pay with the male leads.
In 1987, Bishop was sad to learn that Michael Bennett had died from AIDS.
In January 1994, Bishop’s mother Jane fell while shoveling snow, had a heart attack, and died. Devastated, Bishop busied herself with work. A year later, a bruise under Lee’s fingernail was diagnosed as melanoma. After half of his finger was removed, Lee required regular X-rays and CT scans. Consequently, the couple sold their house and returned to New York. Focusing on theater work, Bishop was given a role in the one-act play Central Park West by Woody Allen. Meanwhile, Lee took an anchor job on the New Jersey show News 12. Now possessing four cats and two dogs, Bishop and Lee bought a house in South Orange, New Jersey, to accommodate them all.
Bishop was in Phoenix, Arizona, playing Annie in Neil Simon’s play Proposals when she learned that Lee had a spot on his lung requiring surgery. After having the surgery when Proposals finished, Lee returned to work as soon as he was well enough and insisted that Bishop do the same. In the summer of 1999, Bishop played roles in local theaters, spending minimal time away from Lee. Longing for more on-screen work, she received a perfectly timed phone call.
Chapters 7-9 Analysis
These chapters chart a period of significant change in the author’s life. Professionally, she transitioned from stage to screen roles. Romantically, she met her second husband, Lee Leonard, starting a relationship based on mutual respect and shared values. Like Bishop, Lee was career-focused, loved animals, and had made an active decision not to have any more children. The support and encouragement Bishop received from Lee was a marked contrast to the emotionally and financially draining experience of her marriage to Peter.
In this section, Bishop’s apartment again represents the ups and downs of her romantic choices. Despite losing all interest in Kevin, she allowed him to move into her garden apartment on 76th Street, passively prolonging a doomed relationship. After marrying Lee, the symbolic associations of the apartment significantly change. During difficult times, Bishop’s New York apartment became a safe and convenient space for the couple. Helping them to weather a brief period of unemployment, it also allowed Bishop to pursue theater work while Lee required regular medical checks.
Positivity emerges as a crucial element of Bishop’s Personal and Professional Resilience. Forward-looking and rarely bitter, Bishop describes going to see the production of A Chorus Line that she had decided not to take part in. Despite missing being the show, she enjoyed the performances of her former castmates and the actress who had replaced her. Moreover, Bishop suggests that her life follows “an intriguing pattern” (107) where she wishes for an opportunity, and it manifests—a phenomenon she attributes to a combination of serendipity and the power of positive thinking. One example of this is her brief reprisal of the role of Sheila in the cast of A Chorus Line.
Gratitude and an eagerness to grow are also key features of Bishop’s resilient outlook. For example, while she found the impersonal nature of filming Hawaii-Five-O unsatisfying, she appreciated both the exotic location and the valuable learning experience. In describing her transition from stage to screen acting, the author shows humility: “I had a lot to learn” (108). Bishop’s adaptability and willingness to rise to challenges ultimately leads to her first artistically fulfilling screen role, in Dirty Dancing. Acting in the movie satiates her craving for more collaborative projects where she feels an integral part of a vibrant, talented cast. The experience resembles the artistic camaraderie she enjoyed in A Chorus Line.
Chapters 7–9 make up the most profoundly personal and reflective section of The Third Gilmore Girl. The memoir explores grief and loss in Bishop’s description of her devastation at losing her mother, who was her lifelong source of love and support. The author’s determination to present an honest, unvarnished account of her life is illustrated in the revelation of her unplanned pregnancy and subsequent abortion. While conveying the emotional toll of the experience, Bishop maintains that her decision was undoubtedly the right one. Defending every woman’s right to reproductive choice, she asserts, “I felt, as I still do, that no one knows better than the woman who’s pregnant whether she’s suitable to be a committed, nurturing, engaged mother” (114). Bishop also displays frank insight into her past shortcomings. Berating herself for failing to discuss the abortion with Kevin and having an affair rather than being honest, she places these events “on my list of times when I really disappointed myself” (118).
The author’s account of her transition from stage to screen provides insider insights into the TV and movie industry. The fact that an agent turned down work on Bishop’s behalf without consulting her highlights how unscrupulous agents can ruin actors’ careers by holding out for jobs that yield the highest commissions. The ruthlessness of competing TV networks is also underlined when Lee is headhunted as a news entertainment host only to be dropped without warning. Collectively, these details convey the unpredictable and insecure nature of a show business career.
