Ex-Stillwater High student on both ends of Lowe lawsuits

Minnesota has a player among the former employees involved in actor Rob Lowe's sordid legal mess.

Jessica Gibson, one of the former nannies sued by the actor and his wife, Sheryl, appears to have grown up in Lake Elmo. A Stillwater High School spokesperson, reached Friday, told me: "She was a student here and withdrew after her junior year."

The Lowe mess first came to light when the "Sisters & Brothers" co-star wrote a Huffingtonpost.com piece about a former nanny allegedly demanding $1.5 million to remain silent about "a vicious laundry list of false terribles." Lowe then filed lawsuits against a chef and two former nannies, including Gibson, who has since filed her own suit claiming sexual harassment and alleging that the actor engaged in a pattern of behavior that included exposing himself and inappropriately touching her.

Gibson and her L.A. attorney, Gloria Allred, did a "Today" show interview during which the famed lawyer said she couldn't wait to depose Lowe. The actor has also claimed that his former employees ran amok at his home by allegedly engaging in wild sex, raiding medicine cabinets and breaking security cameras, according to various media reports.

Gibson's mom, who has been identified as a Lake Elmo teacher, her father and half-sister gave interviews to people.com.

Eileen Gibson, Jessica's mom, told People that she finds it "absurd to say she [Jessica] tried to extort money from the family. She is very compassionate, very caring and honest. She has a gift for working with kids. She loves them. She's very gentle and kind and values her family very much." Eileen told People that Jessica was discreet about her professional life with the Hollywood celebrities, which was off-limits for discussion.

Jessica's father, Jim Gibson -- a technology exec, according to People -- said that his daughter liked being a nanny and that the Lowes required Jessica to work ridiculous hours to take care of their two sons.

Hats off or on? The r. Norman's Steakhouse policy regarding women's hats isn't the only thing that needs tweaking over there.

While reporting on an item that ran here Thursday about Nancy Jones, an assistant Hennepin County attorney, being asked to take off her fashionable hat (an unreasonable request, according to Miss Manners), I learned that the establishment's no-hats policy had been applied to Carl Eller (a reasonable request, according to Miss Manners).

Upon reflection, Randy Norman sounded as though he favors helping staffers see how this policy should be modified for women but definitely not for men.

"I read your column and decided to check out r. Norman's website," wrote Aaron Snyder. "Have you noticed it shows a man wearing a hat and drinking a martini? Kind of gives the wrong impression [about] their strict no-hat rule for guys."

Good eye, Aaron.

Herschel opens up CNN's interview Tuesday with Herschel Walker, who has been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID), left room for continued speculation about whether a 1991 carbon monoxide incident involving the former Viking was an attempt at suicide.

Now, Walker is promoting his new book, "Breaking Free: My Life with Dissociative Identity Disorder."

Talking to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Walker said he'd been a sad and angry person for a long time. But he said he didn't understand why until he received the diagnosis for this disorder, which was made famous by the book and movie "Sybil." "Neither Sybil nor Herschel Walker has multiple personalities," Gupta said. "Instead they have fragments; think of it as alter-personalities that prevent them from developing a single cohesive personality. Today the disorder is called DID because they can't integrate identity, memory and consciousness."

Receiving the diagnosis was "very difficult because people don't believe it," said Walker, who admitted to playing Russian roulette.

Walker's now ex-wife, Cindy, told Gupta that Herschel went through these personality transformations before her eyes; once he put a knife to her throat and threatened her life, she said. Walker said he regrets the pain he caused Cindy and believes the disorder destroyed their marriage.

In 1991, the couple's dog started barking when Cindy discovered Herschel asleep in the car with the engine running at their Irving, Texas, home.

"Suicide?" Walker told the Star Tribune in 1991. "It wasn't anything like that." He claimed that simple carelessness was the reason he started his car without raising the garage door.