‘Gilmore Girls’: Something About Miss Patty’s Past Doesn’t Add up
Miss Patty might not have been the star of Gilmore Girls, but her background was certainly among the most interesting. During the show’s seven seasons, fans learned a fair bit about her Broadway career and her dating life. When you look back, though, something doesn’t quite fit. Was Miss Patty a huge star who decided to go underground or a pathological liar?
Miss Patty claimed to have a lot of information about Broadway’s elite
Miss Patty’s life didn’t always revolve around Stars Hallow and the town’s gossip. Instead, Miss Patty insists she lived the high life as a performer before settling in the sleepy Connecticut hamlet. Apparently, her career was so involved that she had all of the dirt on some of the industry’s most elite stars.
Miss Patty specifically claimed to have worked as Ricardo Montalbán’s assistant for six months. She alleged to have acted with Joan Crawford and once claimed Bette Davis complimented her legs. According to the dance instructor, her career spanned multiple cities and countless productions with some of the industry’s brightest stars, but was it all true?
How long did Miss Patty live in Stars Hollow?
Miss Patty claimed in season 5 of Gilmore Girls that she was celebrating her 40th anniversary. She told Lorelai that she appeared in her first “Off-Broadway” play 40 years prior. If that’s what kicked off her performing career, it didn’t last very long.
In the season 6 episode, “We Got Magic to Do,” Miss Patty hosted her 28th annual grand recital. If Miss Patty settled in Stars Hollow more than 20 years before the start of Gilmore Girls, her performing career, from Cleveland to, allegedly, New York City, would have spanned, at most, 12 years.
Was the Stars Hollow resident really famous or just a liar?
Patty’s Broadway career and life in Stars Hollow didn’t happen concurrently. Based on her telling of events, it would seem her life in show business ended when she opened up her dance studio in Stars Hollow.
That is perfectly understandable, but the timing doesn’t make a ton of sense. Sure, it’s possible that Miss Patty had a ton of success early on and quickly ducked out of the limelight, but that doesn’t seem to gel with her personality.
It seems more likely that Patty worked intermittently on Broadway, but never made it as a big star. Without a big break, it seems plausible that she decided to take her gifts and talents elsewhere. Stars Hollow surely was the perfect place to act mysterious and a bit eccentric without drawing negative attention. If she told a few lies or exaggerated a touch, who was to know?
