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  • Melissa Gilbert: ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Star Turns to Politics, Plagued by Back Taxes

    Melissa Gilbert of Little House on the Prairie fame is running for Congress. Will the back taxes she owes stand in her way of getting elected?

    Gilbert is seeking a Michigan congressional seat in 2016, but she owes $470,000 in both state and federal tax liens. A spokesperson for her campaign claims she will have this bill paid in full by 2024.

    “Melissa was caught in a perfect storm of financial difficulty, which is why she initiated an honest conversation with the IRS,” the campaign spokesperson said. “Together they set up a payment plan that will allow her to pay back her federal taxes over approximately 8 1/2 years and her California taxes over approximately 46 months.”

    A $127,752 lien was filed against Gilbert and her former husband in Los Angeles as far back as 2005, according to legal records. Other liens have been filed since then.

    It was Monday when Melissa Gilbert announced she would seek a seat in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District as a Democrat. This is her first run for public office.

    A former president of the Screen Actors Guild, Melissa Gilbert is using this past experience to tout her merits as a member of Congress. She follows a long line of past Guild leaders who have run for public office.

    Melissa Gilbert is running for Congress because she wants to fight for working families.

    “I’m running for Congress to make life a little easier for all the families who feel they have fallen through the cracks in today’s economy. I believe building a new economy is a team effort, and we need to bring fresh voices to the table to get the job done,” she says.

    Melissa Gilbert has spent most of her life in California. She moved to Michigan in 2013.

    Do you think she stands a chance of being elected to Congress? Will those tax liens stand in Melissa Gilbert’s way?

  • Melissa Gilbert Runs For Congress; Republicans Call Her A Tax Cheat

    Melissa Gilbert is running for Congress. While Gilbert has not run for public office before, she spent four years as president of the Screen Actors Guild.

    Gilbert will be running against Republican incumbent Mike Bishop for the Congressional seat in Michigan’s 8th district. Gilbert announced her run on her campaign homepage, saying:

    “Here in Michigan, I know people are doing their best to make a good life for themselves and their families. When it comes down to it, I think that’s what we all really want.

    “I’m running for Congress to make life a little easier for all the families who feel they have fallen through the cracks in today’s economy. I believe building a new economy is a team effort, and we need to bring fresh voices to the table to get the job done.

    “Please join my campaign, and together we can build that new economy for Michigan.”

    Her site features a link where supporters can make campaign contributions.

    Republicans are already squaring off against Gilbert. The actress could attract considerable attention to the race, which has been considered safely Republican for a while. One thing Republicans are mentioning is that Melissa Gilbert had some difficulty paying a tax bill.

    The Daily Press & Argus in Livingston County reported on Gilbert’s IRS difficulties, saying she owes more than $360,000 and faces a tax lien.

    Gilbert’s opponent Mike Bishop moved quickly to respond to Gilbert’s campaign announcement. Bishop campaign spokesman Stu Sandler said in a statement that Gilbert “can afford to have a stylist for her dog, but cannot pay her taxes. Her values are out of whack with the district.”

    Gilbert responded that her tax trouble is no different than what has happened to man Americans, and has been taken care of.

    “The truth is I got caught in a perfect storm of financial difficulty, which is why I initiated a conversation with the IRS, told them I was having trouble and together we set up a payment plan,” Gilbert said in a statement.

  • Melissa Gilbert Owes IRS $360,000, Which She Blames On Career, Recession and Divorce

    Melissa Gilbert is in trouble with the IRS.

    According to CBS News, the Internal Revenue Service says former Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert failed to pay more than $360,000 in federal income taxes from 2011-2013.

    The Detroit News reports the IRS filed a tax lien against the actress in February because of her failure to pay taxes.

    Melissa Gilbert, 51, blames the 2011-2013 tax debt on the lack of acting opportunities, the economy and her divorce.

    “Like so many people across the nation, the recession hit me hard,” Gilbert said. “That, plus a divorce and a dearth of acting opportunities the last few years, created a perfect storm of financial difficulty for me.”

    Recently, Melissa Gilbert announced that she and her family are moving out of their rented home in Howell, Illinois, although husband Timothy Busfield said the move has nothing to do with the debt.

    “(The debt) has more to do with the housing crash and divorce in the past,” Busfield said. “It’s a product of what happened with the economy. It’s unfortunate and it’s been happening a lot. It’s not a big deal.”

    Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie from 1974-1983 said she has negotiated a payment plan with the IRS.

    “I’ve set up an installment plan to fully pay off my debt and will continue to work as hard as I can to erase this debt and dig myself out of this hole,” said Melissa Gilbert. “I am absolutely positive that I can do it.”

    Most recently, Melissa Gilbert starred alongside Juliette Lewis and Ryan Phillippe in the ABC series Secrets and Lies.

  • Melissa Gilbert Has Implant Removal, Criticizes DWTS

    Melissa Gilbert has had her breast implants removed and is ready to age gracefully, not desperately.

    Gilbert said in a blog post entitled “A Tale of Two T-tt–s” that she is done trying to live up to the standards put forth by the media and Hollywood.

    In the funny post, Melissa Gilbert lists some reasons why she is having her implants removed.

    She wrote, “A. I am concerned for my health and 2. I don’t like the way they look or feel. Frankly, I’d like to be able to take a Zumba class without the fear that I’ll end up with two black eyes.”

    Go Spartans!! #cottonbowl #spartywife #football #spartydog

    A photo posted by Melissa Gilbert (@notsohalfapint) on

    But, those aren’t the only reasons. Gilbert is fed up with trying to keep up with an image that isn’t real.

    “During the last few seasons of Little House I was made to wear a padded bra. When I did the re-make of Splendor in the Grass (one of the worst performances of my career, by the way), those in charge, put me in a girdle, a corset, a padded bra and even painted cleavage on me! They also shaded the sides of my nose so it wouldn’t look so wide.”

    After posting a series of visual examples about how women, in particular, are made to feel like they’re not good enough unless they’re perfect, Melissa Gilbert continued,

    “This is our culture. It has been for a long, long time and I fell right into it. I believed that, not only would I work more, but people would love me more if I looked a certain way. Sad but true. My self-image was in the proverbial toilet. Strangely enough though, it didn’t extend to my breasts. I really was happy with them. small (A cups) but low maintenance.”

    Campaign bus Selfie. @MarkSchauer

    A photo posted by Melissa Gilbert (@notsohalfapint) on

    Melissa Gilbert went on to tell of breastfeeding her two sons and the effect that act of motherhood had on her breasts. She says her husband commented that they looked like socks full of marbles with knots at the top. Of course, she eventually divorced that husband, but the comment stuck with her and joined all of the others she had collected as a young woman in Hollywood.

    19 years ago I was blessed with the birth of this boy. Happy birthday Michael Garrett Boxleitner!!

    A photo posted by Melissa Gilbert (@notsohalfapint) on

    “I had spent most of my life pressured to look a certain way and I believed the hype. The height of this obsession with my outward appearance culminated with my appearance on the dancing show. It was all about spray tan and glitter and glamour and what other people think and being skinny, way too skinny!! Yuck!!”

    What effect do you think Hollywood and media have on our body images? Do you agree or disagree with Melissa Gilbert?

  • Melissa Gilbert: ‘A Tale of Two Titties’ Cites Reason for Implant Removal

    Melissa Gilbert has once again defied popular Hollywood trends. The actress who tied the knot while wearing a red dress had her breast implants removed just a couple of days ago.

    The Little House on the Prairie star noted in her blog, A Tale of Two Titties, the impending removal of both breast implants.

    “I am concerned for my health and I don’t like the way they look or feel,” she writes. “Frankly, I’d like to be able to take a Zumba class without the fear that I’ll end up with two black eyes.”

    She had the initial implant surgery when she was in her 20s. Now at 50, she has a whole new perspective.

    Gilbert told People magazine that she got the implants after divorcing her first husband. He made her feel self-conscious about how her breasts looked after breast feeding their baby.

    “Dating posed the terrifying prospect of the guy I chose to make love with next, undoing my bra and running away in abject terror,” she added in her blog.

    She loved the results until she had a second child, and then went for another lift. She proudly showed the results of that surgery off in a low-cut gown at the 2011 SAG Awards.

    “The irony of the fact that I was president of SAG when my breasts were doing the opposite of sagging is not lost on me,” she said.

    Melissa Gilbert even spoke of the insecurity she felt while she was a contestant on Dancing With the Stars, and how she felt the whole experience was bad for her body image.

    “I had spent most of my life pressured to look a certain way and I believed the hype,” she said.

    She has certainly worked through the insecurity, however, and emerged on the other side with an amazing outlook–one that defies Hollywood standards but not her new beliefs.

    “Most of the time, I’m really happy with the way I look. I’m enjoying aging. It’s not going badly either. My sweet husband [Timothy Busfield] is perfectly supportive of my decision to do this. He only wants me to be healthy,” she adds.

    Surgery apparently went well. Melissa Gilbert shared word of its completion via Twitter.

    Kudos to Melissa Gilbert for growing out of her insecurity and becoming confident of her own natural beauty. May her body and soul continue to heal and may she enjoy many years of not only living a (likely) healthier life, but of setting an example for other women that beauty goes far deeper than a pair of breast implants.

  • Laura Ingalls Wilder Autobiography Due Monday

    Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House series of short stories that loosely inspired plotlines of the popular television series Little House on the Prairie, will have her memoirs posthumously published Monday.

    The South Dakota State Historical Society Press is releasing Prairie Girl: The Annotated Autobiography, which Wilder unsuccessfully tried to have published before the Little House on the Prairie NBC series debuted in 1974.

    The television hit starring Michael Landon was based off of Wilder’s series of Little House children’s books, though the autobiography takes a more adult-oriented tone.

    Prairie Girl: The Annotated Autobiography, which was edited by Pamela Smith Hill, contains accounts that inspired Wilder’s more personal writing. It includes annotations, images, appendices and maps that describe the hardships of frontier living. The tales include forthright accounts of domestic abuse, love triangles gone wrong and a man who lit himself afire while intoxicated.

    Fans of ABC’s cult hit LOST might realize that all rogues, cads, hapless knaves and men without scruples are naturally captivated by the life-lessons that can be gleaned from watching reruns of Little House:

    Actress Melissa Gilbert played Wilder on Little House on the Prairie, which ran from 1974 to 1984. The series, which was set in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, explored a myriad of social intricacies. Alcoholism, racism, adoption, drug addiction, cancer, rape and blindness were exhibited during the decade-long run of the show.

    Here is a clip:

    Wilder, 1867-1957, got her start in writing after being invited to submit an article to the Missouri Ruralist in 1911, which led to a permanent position as a writer and editor with that publication.

    The Stock Market Crash of 1929 decimated Wilder’s savings, though she and her husband still had the deed a 200 acre farm they couldn’t realistically afford to maintain. In hopes of generating more income, Wilder began writing her Little House series, with encouragement from her daughter Rose.

    The book is priced at $39.95, and will be available in bookstores, online and directly from the South Dakota State Historical Society Press.

  • Melissa Gilbert Slams “Little House” Co-Stars

    Melissa Gilbert shared some juicy gossip about her former “Little House On The Prairie” co-stars on Wednesday’s episode of “Watch What Happens Live”, saying she would punch one of them right in the nose if she ran into her today.

    According to Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson, who played sweet, blind older sister Mary on the show, wasn’t anything like her character.

    “[Anderson was] “hateful, horrid, mean, terrible, mean, difficult,” Gilbert said. “She hated me. She knocked me off the wagon when I was nine.”

    Wow! Looks like there was some drama going on behind the scenes of the family-oriented show. But Gilbert didn’t just have an issue with Anderson; she says Shannen Doherty, who played Jenny Wilder from 1982-1983, went on to have a one-night stand with Gilbert’s first husband, Bo Brinkman. Doherty better hope she never sees Gilbert on the streets, because things could get violent.

    “[I] would just punch her in the nose,” Gilbert said.

    The 49-year old actress also got candid about a celebrity boyfriend from her past, dropping the bombshell that she used to date Tom Cruise.

    “When I dated him, he was Tom Mapother still,” Gilbert said. “He had just moved to Los Angeles. I did not have sex with him. We made out, but honestly, there was no sex.He was a struggling actor and I was working, I actually bought him his first set of dishes.”

    Gilbert and new husband Timothy Busfield have just moved to Michigan, and she spoke recently about their goal to bring the film industry to the state.

    “Our objective was to come to Michigan and create a film and television and theater industry here as well,” she said. “The state needs it. They have a great tax-incentive package for films and television. There’s an amazing talent pool here. We just bought our own camera and we’re going to start shooting stuff and create our own stuff. We’re shooting a short film with my son Michael in February. A Michigan-based story that Tim’s writing and directing that we’re starring in.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Melissa Gilbert Wants To Bring Film Industry To Michigan

    Melissa Gilbert is still very connected to Hollywood–she recently served as president of the Screen Actors Guild and took a turn on “Dancing With The Stars” in 2012–but she and new husband Timothy Busfield have recently made a big move that made them feel far removed from the glamorous world of film.

    The newlyweds bought a home in Michigan, in a tiny town with a population of just 9,000. And while it may be a big change, Gilbert says there are positive things that come with it.

    “Here’s one of the things I noticed almost right away,” she said. “When you walk into a restaurant everybody doesn’t turn around to see who just came in. That’s an amazing difference. For the first few weeks it was a bit like living in an exhibition in “Jurassic Park” because they had never seen anything like us here. People would drive by really slow looking at the house. It felt like were the T-Rexes. It’s kind of evened out now.”

    The move doesn’t mean the couple have given up on their passion, however; Gilbert says they have at least one project in the works with her son Michael, and plans for more.

    “Our objective was to come to Michigan and create a film and television and theater industry here as well,” she said. “The state needs it. They have a great tax-incentive package for films and television. There’s an amazing talent pool here. We just bought our own camera and we’re going to start shooting stuff and create our own stuff. We’re shooting a short film with my son Michael in February. A Michigan-based story that Tim’s writing and directing that we’re starring in.”

    The former “Little House On The Prairie” actress announced her engagement to Busfield last January, and they wed in April. Gilbert went through a painful divorce in 2011 from actor Bruce Boxleitner, but said the split was hardest on their children.

    “It’s been hard on the kids and that’s been hard to watch but ultimately everyone’s going to be fine,” said Gilbert. “Everything takes time.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Melissa Gilbert Grabs A Double Handful Of Booty

    “Dancing With The Stars” saw a raunchy samba on Monday, danced by Melissa Gilbert and the Chmerkovskiy brothers to a version of The Black Crowes’ “Hard To Handle”. The dance didn’t score very high with the judges–ultimately, she got sent home–but it left audiences shouting for more after Gilbert ended the performance by grabbing the admittedly round backsides of her dance partners.

    Gilbert, who was injured previously in the season after she slipped and fell on the dance floor, has shone in the competition since and says she has no regrets at the end of the day.

    “Two of the best butts in the world – I mean, they were in my hands. What am I going to do?” Melissa said in an interview after the dance.

    Her partner this season, Maks Chmerkovskiy, said he wasn’t sure what exactly would happen at the end of the dance but he knew it would be good after advising her to try something spontaneous and wild.

    “I threw it out there, just like, ‘Look, dominate. Do something.’ She goes, ‘Bam!’ I’m like, ‘We’ll take it,’” Maks said.

    The team has not been without their share of tension during rehearsals, but have parlayed it into dance floor heat throughout the season. No doubt Gilbert has a lot of envy coming her way after her impromptu butt-grab.

  • Melissa Gilbert Tweets Her Condition After DWTS Injury

    The seasoned dancers on “Dancing With The Stars” make it all look so easy, doing complicated turns and flips in their sparkly costumes with grace. But dancing is hard work; it takes a toll on the bones and muscles in the legs, it puts stress on ankles and knees, and when you’re in slippery high heels on a shiny stage, it can be dangerous to the neck and head as well.

    Actress Melissa Gilbert learned this fact the hard way last night after a difficult pasodoble move with partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy sent her to the floor with a crash. She was rushed to the hospital, where an exam determined she sustained a mild concussion and whiplash from the fall.

    It’s unknown as of now whether Gilbert will return for this week’s results episode.

    Gilbert tweeted about her condition from the hospital to update fans:

    (image)@MelissaEGilbert
    Melissa Gilbert    I’m alright. Mild concussion and whiplash. Very soon I will be safely home resting and being taken care of.(image) 16 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    She also thanked fellow DWTS contestant Gavin Degraw for being a gentleman and helping her out:

    (image)@MelissaEGilbert
    Melissa Gilbert    @MaksimC you are my champion. I adore you.
    @GavinDeGraw bless your heart for carrying me down those stairs!(image) 16 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Fans tweeted their concern:

    (image)@DrivingMissPeta
    Donald&Peta(Amanda)    Omg I just heard Melissa Gilbert just went into the hospital…does anyone know what happened and if she is okay?!(image) 18 hours ago via Twitter for iPad ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@FLLottoDreamer
    Tracy    I hope this is not as bad as it sounds 🙁 http://t.co/5uLQimUi(image) 18 hours ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Her sister Sara Gilbert–perhaps best known as “Darlene” from the hit ’80s and ’90s show “Roseanne”–tweeted her support.

    (image)@THEsaragilbert
    sara gilbert    You were awesome last night. Even in the emergency room. love you RT @MelissaEGilbert I’m alright. Mild concussion and whiplash.(image) 4 hours ago via Twittelator ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto