Life is an isle for the ‘real’ Mrs. Howell

By Jill Spitznass

The Portland Tribune, Dec 3, 2004, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Somehow it makes sense that Mindy Burbano Stearns is portraying the wealthy and wacky Lovey Howell on the new TBS reality show, “The Real Gilligan’s Island.”

After all, this is the woman who cock-a-doodle-do’d her way to fame on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” eight years ago after audience members were asked to share an interesting talent.

Since then, life’s been something to crow about for Stearns, a former Forest Grove dental hygienist whom Oprah dubbed “the Rooster Lady” Ñ and still considers one of her favorite guests.

Stearn’s portrayal of Mrs. Howell caps a six-year run as an entertainment reporter for KTLA in Los Angeles and last year’s fairy-tale wedding to Glenn Stearns, who’s playing Thurston Howell III in the show.

The role of the lock-jawed tycoon is hardly a stretch for the 40-year-old entrepreneur, worth an estimated $500 million.

Two sets of castaways mimic the original seven-member cast of “Gilligan’s Island” on the reality show, filmed on an unidentified island in Mexico’s Yucat‡n Peninsula.

Part “Survivor” and part sitcom, the show has 14 contestants who undertake a series of competitions based on original episodes that will produce one rescued castaway Ñ or one couple, in the case of the Stearnses and the other couple portraying the Howells.

The Stearnses dismissed the idea of applying for the show when they first learned of it.

“We originally thought it would take us away from work for too long,” she says. “So when we heard it was only going to be three weeks, we decided to go for it. The next thing we knew, they had called us, we interviewed and we were on an island. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that money couldn’t buy.”

Money also couldn’t buy a Marriott hotel on the undeveloped atoll near Cozumel.

“The tropics are wonderful, but it’s a whole different thing when you’re stranded with no mattress and no creature comforts Ñ none of the usual things you take on a nice vacation,” says the 35-year-old Stearns.

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