I Was Not Picturing Julia Roberts When I Read Eat, Pray, Love

Admit it, you weren't either.

Call me stuck in the 80s, but I saw her more as one of the Elizabeths. Elizabeth McGovern (from her She's Having a Baby days) or Elizabeth Perkins (somewhere between About Last Night and He Said, She Said). Possibly Elisabeth Shue, post Cocktail but pre-Leaving Las Vegas. (Facebook friends suggested more modern picks Anne Heche or Naomi Watts.)

But Columbia Pictures decided to make the movie starring Julia. For ratings perhaps? The book wasn't exactly a riveting plot twister, as much as I enjoyed it.

I just can't imagine Julia Roberts lying on her bathroom floor bemoaning her unhappy marriage. Or gaining 25 lbs. in Italy. Or meditating for days on end in India.

I can't, in fact, stop picturing her blissfully happy in her marriage to camera man Daniel Moder, living in Taos with her three conspicuously-Hollywood named kids - Phinnaeus, Hazel and Henry.

Either that, or I'm trying to shake the image of her as a female escort, accepting that beautiful necklace from Richard Gere with her genuine Julia-only laugh, or listening to her Walkman in the bubble bath, singing a bad Prince song.

I bet author Elizabeth Gilbert, while she maintains in interviews she is honored, agrees that Julia is just a little bit too perfect to play this role perfectly. Nonetheless, I can't wait to see the movie.