Whatever Happened to Mr. Liz Gilbert?

How does it feel to be one of the world’s most famous ex-husbands, watching your wife (as portrayed on screen by Julia Roberts!) rocket to fame, fortune, and Oprah’s book club with the success of her book all about your divorce? In the case of Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert’s ex, Michael Cooper, it apparently feels just fine. Friends say he is doing well, and that he’s remarried (to a Canadian diplomat, no less) with two sons and a law career at Georgetown.

When approached by the Daily Beast, Cooper “didn’t launch into a tirade about the throngs that were cheering for the woman who temporarily destroyed his life,” writes Danielle Friedman (he returned her call but declined to comment). He showed the same “reticence, or perhaps classiness” when his own book deal fell through: He wanted to talk about human rights work; the publisher wanted him to take it in a racier direction, which Cooper found “tasteless,” a source says. Perhaps Gilbert’s own dedication from her first book sums it up best: “To Michael Cooper—for playing it cool.”
(More Eat, Pray, Love stories.)