Katherine Heigl has declined to submit her name to be a contender for an Emmy Award this year, releasing this press release to explain her absence.

“I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention,” she tells Gold Derby. “In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials.”

LA Times

It is not unheard of for multiple Emmy winners to withdraw their names to give others a chance, but they would normally announce this before the nominations were released. Katherine has released the information after a request for a statement, making it looks like she really is stubborn and obstinate.

This year Grey’s Anatomy hasn’t been very good, particularly Katherine’s character Izzy has been dull. Possibly as a result of Katherine last year publicly criticizing the writer’s for the storyline, saying her character’s storyline was a ‘ratings ploy’.

Katherine is really outspoken in interviews and says some unflattering things about scriptwriters. If this is what she says to the press when she is, I presume, self censoring, I think she must be very difficult to work with. If she keeps criticizing everyone she works with she may find herself unemployed very soon.

I think that Katherine is trying to move away from television into film, although her last film 27 Dresses was a hit it was an awful movie. Her only other film post-Grey’s was Knocked Up, and she’s signed on for another comedy about polygamists, which could be a poor move depending on how the charges against the sect in Eldorado, Texas pans out in public opinion.

Katherine Heigl is shown on the set of her film The Ugly Truth with Gerard Butler on 6/3/08, thanks to WENN.

I picked up the latest issue of Marie Claire Australia this week, the one where nude, pregnant Christina Aguilera is knocked off the cover by some chick that won Miss Universe, and it’s totally devoted to skin cancer and how to avoid getting it. Normally after reading a women’s magazine I feel like going out and buying some new shoes and maybe trying a new hair colour, after reading this one I feel like taking my (fake) tanned hide down to the hospital and updating my life insurance. Zooming in on my newfound paranoia about the fact that I obviously am going to die of skin cancer before I’m 30, is Eric Dane, McSteamy himself, who has recently recovered with his own brush with death. And selling the story to OK!

“I went to my dermatologist,” Eric reveals in an exclusive interview in the new issue of OK!. But the last thing the 35-year-old expected was to be diagnosed with skin cancer. “He said it was malignant tissue caused by sun damage.”

The malignancy was treated by freezing the cancerous tissue off with liquid nitrogen. Unfortunately for Eric, the actor had a severe reaction to a cream given to him for his lip after the treatment . “My skin is very sensitive,” the actor most famous for playing Dr. Mark “McSteamy” Sloan, explains to OK!, “and my lip was traumatized by the procedure I had to go through.”

His lip’s overreaction to the medication created a painful scenario that made eating difficult, if not impossible. “I didn’t eat very well for a couple of weeks and lost a bunch of weight,” Eric explains, estimating that he dropped at least 10 pounds off his 6′1″ frame while dealing with his cancer.

“Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States,” Dr. Micki Ly, a Maui, Hawaii-based dermatologist, explains to OK!. “More than a million cases are diagnosed annually.” But Eric was extremely wise to act quickly in dealing with it, she says. “The mouth is a bad area for a malignancy because they spread faster in mucosal areas, of which the mouth is one.”

OK! Magazine

It’s not only the middle aged and elderly that get skin cancer, but also people as young as twenty can suffer from skin cancer as a result of sun exposure. Recently an Australian 25-year-old woman actually died after repeated exposure to a solarium. I thought they were safe.

If you want to get checked out for skin cancer, check out the Cancer Council website. It tells you how to identify possible melanomas. Interestingly, Marie Claire says that that one of the most common places to get skin cancer is on the soles of your feet, because who remembers to put sunscreen there?

Oh, and Eric Danes has nothing to worry about. He is still completely McSteamy, and is almost cute enough for me to join in on the Grey’s Anatomy obsession everyone seems to have right now.

Note by Celebitchy: I am a very fair-skinned person and freckle and burn easily. Every winter I will do about 3-4 tanning bed sessions total in order to get some sun and boost my mood. Last week, though, I went to a new tanning salon and stupidly asked for 12 minutes on a medium-strength bed, because it was the lowest option listed on the board. I should have asked for 4-5 minutes, which is what I normally do. Of course I got a bad burn, my first in over ten years, and that m’fckr hurt! It is healthy to get some moderate sun for the vitamin D, but use sunscreen and don’t abuse the tanning beds.

Eric Dane is shown in the header at the Primetime Emmy Awards on 9/16/07, and below at the Glamour Magazine “Women of the Year Awards” on 11/5/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

Like many parents, I like to joke that I want to book myself into a psychiatric hospital and get a break from my kids – and it seems that I’m not alone. Grey’s Anatomy star and father of five Justin Chambers (he plays Alex, for those of you who don’t watch it) has booked himself into UCLA psych ward this week for treatment of a sleep disorder.

Chambers, who plays Dr. Alex Karev on the ABC drama, checked into the facility on Tuesday, before promptly checking himself out the following day.

Chambers, 37, who is married with five children aged under 10, went in voluntarily, according to his publicist.

“[He is] exhausted and suffers from a sleeping disorder,” the rep said.

Celebrity Truth

Justin was only in for a short, unspecified amount of time earlier in the week, and missed the drama that must have been last nights admission (oh, you all know who I’m talking about!)

If reports in the New Zealand Herald are to be believed, than it was not necessarily the best place to get some sleep. They say that the hospital has all patients on 24 hour supervision, and that patients can be “quite agitated and screams being heard all hours of the night.”

That seems like a pretty scary place to be. The only psych ward I have ever visited was quiet and pleasant, with patients playing ping pong and watching the Today show. Although I think that people who need to be restrained are usually in a medical ward until they are calm in some hospital systems. Possibly it depends on where a bed is available.

I hope Justin had some good rest, and is ready to tackle the demands of a large family again.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Justin Chambers is shown at the Enchanted World Premiere on 11/17/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

Talk about awkward. Former cast member Isaiah Washington joined the cast of Grey’s Anatomy on the WGA picket lines on Wednesday. Washington was fired from the show after he “reportedly” referred to gay castmate T.R. Knight as a “f*g.” According to pretty much everyone who was there and has talked about it, Washington was referring to Knight. According to Washington, he was referring to himself and/or Patrick Dempsey (depending on which of his interviews you read) in a derogatory manner. However he definitely repeated the word at the Golden Globes, leading to one of the most awkward cast interviews in history.

The WGA dubbed Wednesday “Diversity Day,” and requested that writers and actors who are gay or a minority show up on the picket line. Washington is currently on NBC’s “Bionic Woman.”

Even without a script, the cast of “Grey’s Anatomy” generated plenty of drama Wednesday when they showed up to support picketing writers outside the fabled Paramount Studios lot. Katherine Heigl, who plays Izzie Stevens, and T.R. Knight, who plays her on-screen love interest George O’Malley, were posing for pictures and giving interviews - when controversial former cast member Isaiah Washington showed up. Washington, who played Dr. Preston Burke, was fired from the show in June amid tension that began when he allegedly used a gay slur to refer to Knight and used the word again during a Golden Globes appearance.

He has since apologized, met with gay leaders and checked into rehab on the advice of his handlers. Grey’s creator and writer Shonda Rhimes [who made the decision to fire Washington], considered one of the most powerful black women in Hollywood, was among those picketing at Paramount. Asked if Washington was with the Grey’s group, Heigl, who had previously publicly criticized Washington told The Daily News, “He’s not with me.”

But Washington denied there were problems with his former co-workers. “They’re former castmates. I’ve been in over 25 movies, I have lots of former castmates.” he said.

[From the Daily News]

Sounds like a pretty awkward reunion to me. And while I’m sure Isaiah Washington has lots of former castmates, to my knowledge he hasn’t referred to any of them with unsavory gay slurs. Frankly if I were in his shoes, I would try to keep a low profile for a few years and do my best to keep getting steady – but not attention-producing – work.

In other WGA strike news, there are some pretty loud rumblings that all of the late night hosts - including Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Craig Ferguson, and Jimmy Kimmel – will be returning to their shows in mid-to-late January. Though they all stood by their writers and refused to cross picket lines from the beginning, their shows have lost a massive amount of viewership and most of their staff and crew have been fired. No word on how they’ll return. One would assume less or no monologues or sketches, so probably a mostly interview format. Here’s a funny video about the strike starring Saturday Night Live cast member and writer Fred Armisen as fictional studio head/Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers member (they’re the Writer’s Guild’s foes) Roger A. Trevanti.