Back in July, Katherine Heigl appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote The Ugly Truth. When she was asked about the upcoming season of Grey’s Anatomy, Katherine snotted: “Our first day back was Wednesday and it was — I’m going to keep saying this because I hope it embarrasses them — a 17-hour day, which I think is cruel and mean.” Letterman replied, ““I’m guessing if you’re working 17 hours, that means you’re not dead,” as if he was willing her to be gracious. Not so much, because Heigl’s reply was, “What if, however, Dave, I was in a bed in a coma for 17 hours, they could do that to me.” Ugh. The triumphant return of Dame Heigl, right? She got on my good side for a brief moment, and then she destroyed it with that mouth of hers and that snotty attitude.
After that, it kind of became open season on Dame Heigl. We quickly found out that Heigl was part of the reason their first day back was 17 hours long – they had to make up for lost time because Heigl had been given time off to promote The Ugly Truth. Then came the Newsweek piece, “Why is Katherine Heigl so annoying?” After that, it was Heigl’s Knocked Up costar and director taking a couple of shots at her. So it came as no surprise to learn last week, in the Enquirer, that Heigl’s Grey’s costars now hate her, calling her a “spoiled brat”. I wondered at the time why Grey’s producers didn’t get rid of Heigl when they had the chance. And now it looks like ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson is wondering the same thing:
ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson responded to Katherine Heigl’s latest gripe about starring in a hit TV show.
“I think it’s unfortunate,” McPherson told TV critics about her comments.
“People are going to behave in the way they choose to behave. There are so many people who work so hard on ‘Grey’s,’ and all of our shows, without any notoriety and those are the ones I’d be concerned about, people who feel like they’re being criticized or looked down upon.”
Aww, that McPherson, he’s always looking out for the little guy.
For those who missed it, Heigl was on David Letterman last month and said about starting production on “Grey’s”: “Our first day back was Wednesday and it was — I’m going to keep saying this because I hope it embarrasses them — a 17 hour day, which I think is cruel and mean.”
“I’m guessing if you’re working 17 hours, that means you’re not dead,” Letterman said.
“What if, however, Dave, I was in a bed in a coma for 17 hours. They could do that to me.”Which is funny because all the critics here in Pasadena on the last day of their press tour marathon would love nothing better right now than to get paid hundreds of thousands to lay in bed for 17 hours.
[From The Hollywood Reporter’s Live Feed]
So, I’ll ask again, if Heigl is this much of a pain in the ass, why didn’t ABC get rid of her? What does it take to get fired in that town? Or is this now network-level situation just a different set of standards, that old Hollywood sexism? If it was Patrick Dempsey complaining about the hours, calling the cast, crew and/or situation “cruel and mean” and trying to “embarrass” them on a talk show, would the outcry be different? I really don’t think it would be different, actually. If Dempsey did the same thing, I kind of think we would be sitting here calling him a diva.
Katherine Heigl is shown with Gerard Butler at the UK premiere of The Ugly Truth with Gerard Butler on 8/4/09. Credit: WENN.com
It’s unfortunate that medical science has not found a cure for “foot-in-mouth” syndrome that Heigel clearly suffers from…
in other news…Butler looks hot.
@ Ash
yeah he did! I was suprised by how good he looked. He let himself go a bit lately.
Wow, one of the article writers hasn’t left their cave and is still blaming sexism for why Katherine gets so much grief for what she does as opposed to making her own her behavior. An archaic male attitude toward women didn’t turn Katherine into a mouthy bitch-goddess who thinks she deserves everything she has- she did that to herself.
In The first picture she looks like she wants to slap him for touching her.
She’s a fucking hyprocrite and so are ABC’s honchos! Yet, through it all, I smell protectionism in the air.
The kind of abuse she’s visiting upon her employer…and her peers…is tantamount to the same tirade Isaiah Washington regurgitated all over her/their precious T.R. Knight only she got a pay raise for it, ABC got/is getting a shit-load of publicity, and he got fired!!
Between Heigl and her bosses, they’re all playing a game of “tag, you’re it”. But, for all parties concerned, some would call it “biting the hand that feeds you”. I, personally, would call it, “negative publicity is better than none at all” laced with a whole lot of hypocrisy.
Isaiah Washington strangled his co-star Patrick Dempsey. It took forever to get rid of him for that. So Katherine Heigl made a comment about her working conditions. So what? An assertive, outspoken woman speaking her mind is labeled an entitled bitch in like a micro-second. Give me a break.
They haven’t fired her, because her stupid antics are the only thing keeping Grey’s Anatomy in the news anymore, besides the occasional article about how much the show has gone down the toilet.
She needs to go back to blonde. Being brunette hightlights how mediocre her “beauty” really is…
She hasn’t been let loose because she brings attention to the show. Bad attention to herself, but attention to the show.
Why does no one say anything about her teefs? I HATE THEM!
Her movie just made 70 million at the box office in 3 weeks–beating up Funny People even though it cost more. So, the haters can all go suck it.
@j. ferber: Heigl is not behaving like an intelligent, assertive, outspoken woman, she’s behaving like an entitled, bitching-moaning-and-complaining, narcissistic brat!
Since time immemorial, actors have “spoken” about spending 12, 15 hours or more a day on sets of both films and TV serials, not mistreated and dissed their bosses. It’s part and parcel of the job – a job, I might add, that overly compensates them for the privilege and inconvenience of “pretending” (sure wish they thought as much of teachers in the country).
And don’t think for a second I’m excusing I. Washington for his behavior, I’m not. My point is that punishment for “abuse”, in whatever form it takes, should be meted out equally.
If she continues to have a need to openly express her opinions, then why not find a meaningful platform from which to do it. Something sincere and intelligent next time…something besides herself. Then, maybe we can bestow her, and her rants, with some kind of relevance.
Her and Goopy need to get in a movie together so I can read all about how much they hate each others’ guts. Both personalities cause limp-dick/ho-hum pussay syndrome the world over.
god, no…if goopy and heigel made a movie together wouldn’t birds fall out of the sky and winter spread across the land and everyone would die of second-hand boredom? maybe it would only feel that way.
j ferber, if ABC was so bothered by physical altercations on the set then Dempsey would have been fired for physically assaulting Eric Dane. Isaiah wasn’t fired for a physical altercation, he was fired for the slur he uttered.
And part of being an empowered woman is taking responsibility for your actions and I am a little sick of the cries of sexism when it comes to Heigl and the perceptions about her behavior.
If they work her so hard why doesn’t SHE leave the show? Isn’t that why she’s in a union? If this was to help sell her movie, well… On her whining alone, I’ll stay away from any of her projects regardless of who her co-star might be.
The idea of someone so mediocre and overpaid whine, because they can makes me sick. I stopped watching GA because of her and Knight on principle alone! She should have hit the skids with Knight in that last episode! Here’s hoping Knight’s career takes the same dive that Washington’s did!
There are plenty of actors out there who at this stage of the economy crisis would be happy with a third of her paycheck. Shut the freak up!
“So what? An assertive, outspoken woman speaking her mind is labeled an entitled bitch in like a micro-second.”
I’d probably feel differently about her if I could think of something nice she’s said about any of her jobs in the past couple of years.
I was about to say that very thing, Kate. Pulling out the sexism card is a cheap ruse to avoid taking responsibility for your statements. I don’t see it outspokenness, I see it as a means of re-inscribing the idea that women are largely put-upon and vilified by cadres of small-minded patriarchy-junkies.
I’m a female and a minority, so I’ve known discrimination. I have to say it really sticks in my craw when the veracity of legitimate complaints are negated due to the fact that some miscreants are always crying ‘wolf’. It’s not a ‘get out of culpability free’ card. Are women who show more restraint doing so because they’re too scared, docile or dumb to see things for what they are?
Granted, I am starting to feel bad for her, but maybe all of these volleys of criticism are what it takes to make the common denominator known. Sartre said it, ‘Hell is other people’. Don’t the people who work with her deserve a happy working environment based on some modicum of mutual respect? It just seems that if everyone feels this way, it’s not for nothing.
To those who support her ‘outspokenness’: it’s your prerogative, and I’m never interested trolling or launching into attacks, so please don’t interpret this that way.
I guess my question is, how long can you defend a person whose public statements are always geared towards denigration and humiliation? Someone who constantly speaks with such flagrant disregard and responds to so many situations in exactly the same manner is either a sourpuss, or touched in the head and unable to interpret objectively.
We’ve all got people who just bug us. I can’t, can’t CAN’T bear St. Winslet’s fifteen-year whine and bitch-fest about her weight. I mean, if I had the power, I would stick a drumstick in her mouth in order to get her to shut her f****** gob.
Jada Pinkett Smith is creepy as all get-out, and you know it. Scar-Jo has the acting range and personality of a wet salamander, but at least you don’t hear these women lobbing verbal Molotovs at every opportunity.
We’ve all known the person who does nothing but complain, and it’s tiresome, no? But at least these complaints are not widely disseminated. I sure as snot wouldn’t want someone doing that to me–and so often.
It just seems so adolescent. Young girls often don’t see–or won’t– that there is a difference between being insightful and rude. Outspokenness is not the same thing as being mean. Just eating a little crow goes a long way towards creating felicitous circumstances.
@Kaiser: “Douche” sounds better than diva when applied to a dude… think Piven!
@Ana: “Why does no one say anything about her teefs? I HATE THEM!”
OMFG! I was just thinking the same thing! Horse-mouth Heigl! LOLOL!
I actually used to really like Horse-mouth (and all the kids) on Roswell. Was she a diva e’en back then?
I agree w/jferber. We put up with men’s antics more (Charlie Sheen, Jeremy Piven, Christian Bale). Altho I don’t condone High-gal’s selfish behavior, I don’t think we’d criticize a man as much if he said the same. If we treat men/women unequally then it tells women that they need to shut up, not complain and be “sweethearts.” Or they won’t be liked or be considered b*tches. How stifling and sad for all women.
She doesn’t get to complain. Only the crew members get to whine. Except they don’t
Good point mamma Besser she is pushing it..She really needs to stop saying bitchy things,because it comes off as ungrateful. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt one last time and think she’s just a really outspoken person, complainer type. I Loved her in Knocked Up, and thought she was right about calling that movie a bit sexist even though I liked that movie a lot. She’s a really good actress. She’s not under the influence of drugs and endangering other peoples lives on the road’so, I still think she’s ok. :/
That’s true, C. I was already pretty tired of her when KNOCKED UP opened, but it was due to the fact that she irked me. Some people just do that, you know? At that point I thought it was a really great gesture to defend her friend from slurs, but silently wondered if she was in fact turning the situation into her own star vehicle. Both?
Agreed. No one is getting physically hurt. I’m not a fan of hers, but at least people make it home alive when she’s around. Ask Dane’s wife, Mistress Vehicular Homicide to do that dance.
I must have missed some key information about that whole incident when that donnybrook was in full bubble. It wasn’t even her first offense. I cling to the idea that I don’t know all of the facts, because if in fact I do, her ass should be in jail.
The Dempsey-Dane Debacle is news to me, but I wouldn’t put it past him. Nothing dreamy about physically abusing your first wife. Nothing. I thought he had reformed. Maybe not?
@whatever:
Please do correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve never heard of one of those actors you’ve mentioned going on any talk shows and bitch-slappin’ their bosses. If anything, they’re more self-destructive. Moreover, it doesn’t appear to me that High-gal’s (love that, btw) antics aren’t being tolerated. As a matter of fact, she seems to be rewarded for them.
However, you do make a point: behind-the-scenes discord is not at all uncommon in that or any business, which is why I find all the personal “drama” associated with Grey’s Anatomy so offensive. Instead of these personalities resolving their issues one-on-one, like adults, they’re taking their fights to the media, leaving them to do their dirty work for them. High-gal is, therefore, a coward. She needs to man-up & fight her own damn battles.
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