There’s a lot of controversy over the relationship between Heroes co-stars Hayden Panettiere, 18, and Milo Ventimiglia, 30. Some people say she’s of age and they’re a nice couple while others find it creepy that a 30 year-old man would date someone over 10 years younger. He’s not admitting much to the press, though, and recently called himself single in an interview with Cosmopolitan Magazine.

34 year-old Grey’s Anatomy star T.R. Knight has a new boyfriend, and he’s a college co-ed who’s just 19 years old. That’s more of an age difference than Milo and Hayden. T.R. and his new beau, Mark Cornelsen, have been seen out together several times, most recently at Elton John’s Oscar Party. They met while they were both volunteering for the Mathew Shephard Foundation, which strives to increase awareness and acceptance for gay youth. (Matthew Shephard was a 22 year-old gay man who was brutally murdered in a hate crime in 1998. His assailants are both in jail for life.) Cornelsen is on the “youth advisory counsel” for the foundation and is listed as a “freshman as San Francisco State University… majoring in Resort and Commercial Recreation Management.”

They met when Knight was a presenter at an event for the foundation:

The actor and his new companion first crossed paths last October at a star-studded awards event the Foundation hosted in Los Angeles.

“T.R. acted as a presenter, and he was immediately drawn to Mark, who was singled out as a scholar at the event,” revealed an insider.

“Although there was some chemistry, T.R. was seeing someone else and he didn’t want to jump into a new relationship…”

After [T.R.'s last relationship] fizzled, [he] hooked up with Mark.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, March 10, 2008]

According to Cornelsen’s bio on the Matthew Shephard Foundation website, he was disowned by his family after he came out to them. He sounds like an accomplished and caring person, as he does a lot of volunteer work and is active in extra-curricular activities. Is he mature enough to have a 34 year-old partner though?

I’m Knight’s age and I don’t know what I would have in common with a 19 year-old, not that I haven’t checked out guys who were that age and felt guilty afterwards. 14 years makes a huge difference at that age as one person already has an established career and the other is just out of high school. They do look cute together though.

T.R. was previously linked with hot Brothers and Sisters star Luke MacFarlane after they were photographed together. The Enquirer claims that he was last in a longterm relationship with “stage actor” Adam Armstrong, but that they couldn’t maintain a long distance relationship as they each lived on separate coasts. Knight and Cornelsen live in LA and San Francisco, which is a much more manageable distance.

Thanks to Just Jared for the header image taken at Elton John’s Oscar Party.

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.

Katherine Heigl might not be smart enough to know when to keep her mouth shut, but she is clever enough to know when to apologise. Or at least clarify. Katherine recently branded the comedy she starred in ‘Knocked Up’ as being sexist.

She tells People.com, “It’s important to me to take a minute and clarify the quote about ‘Knocked Up’ in Vanity Fair.

“I was responding to previous reviews about the movie the interviewer brought to my attention. My motive was to encourage other women like myself to not take that element of the movie too seriously and to remember that it’s a broad comedy.

“Although I stand behind my opinion, I’m disheartened that it has become the focus of my experience with the movie.

“The truth is, it was the best filming experience of my career. Every person that was a part of making ‘Knocked Up’ helped to encourage, support and inspire me. I never intended for anyone to think otherwise.”

San Francisco Chronicle

Katherine has never been afraid to say what she thinks, previously she’s been known to publicly discuss her pay negotiations, and also suggested that Isaiah Washington should “just not speak in public. Period”.

I’m guessing that Isaiah Washington won’t be invited to Katherine’s wedding to Josh Kelly, but it seems the rest of the Grey’s Anatomy cast has been. T.R. Knight will be serving as bridesman, but Patrick Dempsey won’t be coming, instead he plans to stay home and spend Christmas with his new twins.

“It’s the first Christmas with the boys. They’ll be walking by then, so we’re excited,” he says.

As a result, he won’t be attending his “Grey’s” co-star Katherine Heigl’s wedding, but he shares, “I am so happy for her. I’ve never seen her so happy. He’s a great guy, too, and they are a great couple.”

ET

I wonder what Katherine said to Patrick Dempsey to stop him from attending her wedding? She seems to have chronic foot in mouth disease, doesn’t she know that you never say anything disparaging about your co-workers or boss? Except when you are inside a sound proof room, in a different country, and only when you intend on resigning. Or after your 15th cocktail at the office Christmas party.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Katherine Heigl is shown eating brunch on 12/9/07, thanks to Splash News. She is also shown at the Emmy Awards on 9/16/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

“Grey’s Anatomy” star T.R. Knight was on “Ellen” the other day, and told a very cute story about getting a puppy from Katherine Heigl. You don’t often hear about celebrity friendships – it seems like once every couple of years “People” will do a story on celebrity best friends, and it’ll surprise everyone because no one had any idea those two actors even knew each other. Katherine Heigl was a very vocal supporter of T.R. Knight during the whole Isaiah Washington “fag” incident – though I’m not sure if the two became best friends as a result, or if they were close from the beginning. Either way, they’re close enough that Heigl surprised Knight at his house with a puppy for his birthday, which he named Arrow. That’s pretty much the cutest thing ever.

“‘I had been talking about [getting a dog] for a while. I guess there’s a point – too much talk and not enough action,” Knight said. “So she made the decision. It was great, yeah, she showed up at my house with it.’”

[From People]

Knight does tell a story that kind of explains some of the things that are wrong with the press… but does so in a way that doesn’t make me want to kick him. It’s actually pretty funny… though quite the insult to Katherine Heigl’s mom, which I don’t think he realized.

“Although he may be happier, Knight insists that coming out hasn’t much affected his love life.

“‘Recently Kate [Heigl] and her fiancé Josh Kelley and me and her mom went out to dinner, and it was reported that it was with me and my new boyfriend. But that was her mom,’ he told DeGeneres.

“‘So I guess I’m dating Katherine’s mom right now,’ he joked.

[From People]

Um, burn? Ouch! Katherine Heigl is beautiful, what must her mother look like to confuse the press into thinking she’s a gay man? I’m going to do my best to dig up some pictures of said mannish-looking mother. Knight also talked about the process of coming out under fire last year.

“‘I feel I’ve learned so much this past year, so, I’m grateful for that, so yeah, that changes you,’ he said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Thursday. Knight, 34, previously told DeGeneres that hearing his Grey’s Anatomy costar Isaiah Washington refer to him with a homophobic slur gave him the courage tell the world.

“Asked what he thinks about actors who do not come out of the closet, Knight said, ‘Everyone has their own path. You just have to respect that… It don’t think it’s right to force that. It’s impossible to know. There’s a lot of soul searching you have to do.’”

[From People]

What he says makes a lot of sense. We all have a lot of soul searching to do in our lives, and I imagine that it’s hard to guess what it’s like to be a gay person that’s trying to figure out what type of life, and how public a life, they want to live. I think it’s really good that Knight did ultimately come out, but it would have been nice if he did it in his own time and his own way.

Picture Note by Jaybird: Here’s T.R. with Kate Walsh at the Music and Lyrics premiere in February. Header image at Entertainment Weekly’s Pre-Emmy part on September 15th. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Night time ain’t the right time for T.R. Knight. That poor little pudgy faced boy just cannot catch a break these days. Wannabee alpha males seem to thrive on the Knightly smack down. That was the oft told Knight’s tale once again – this time at the Rolling Stone/J-Timber pre-Grammy party. Yet even in this self-same party, open to Cocoon and Mickey Mouse club fans alike, Piddly Duffs could not go along to getalong. Page Six had the details

A spy said, “Puffy was supposed to sit in the same VIP area that had four tables – two were for him and two were for the ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ cast. But he was very, very late, and there are a lot of ‘Grey’s’ castmembers, so T.R., Kate and Sara were at a table set up for Puffy.”

Combs’ bodyguard was a little heavy-handed.

“This guy goes up to T.R., Kate and Sara and started demanding – ‘Get out! Get out now! Move it!’ – T.R. was furious,” our spy who was in the same VIP section said.
The spy added that Combs and Knight exchanged words before the “Grey’s” cast were led away to another table.

And as we all know … exchanging words for the Grey’s Anatomy cast is half a step away from a throwdown and rehab. Chandra Wilson will beat you down with her SAG awards for a split infinitive. Katherine Heigl used to be an alien on Roswell so Duff Piddly and Co. need to watch out — she can phaser beam the heavy hands right off any bodyguards that try to mess with her buddy T.R. Another side of the controversial story was conveyed by:

a pal of Combs’ [who] said, “Listen, if they were moved, it wasn’t because Puffy told [his bodyguard to move them]. He wasn’t aware of what was going on – he had a great time and didn’t realize anyone was upset.”

This version in suspect insofar as Puffy has to date no recorded pals, a deficit of friends, but an embarrassing wealth of lackeys, yes-men and umbrella holders. The record does, however, show that he is extremely capable of being unaware of what’s going on while silmutaeously having a great time, looking like an asthmatic mole in designer shades, not realizing anyone is upset and providing actual proof J-Lo can make a good decision.

It’s the kind of effortless multi-tasking that’s made him the Puff Daddy we all P Diddy-serve.

pics via poster.net and imdb

I wanted to avoid talking about this, because homophobes are so 1987, but Isaiah Washington called his co-star on Grey’s Anatomy, T.R. Knight the f word while they were on set back in October, prompting a fight with fellow star Patrick Dempsey, who came to Knight’s defense. Knight has since come out of the closet, making Washington look like even more of a douche.

Then during a Golden Globes interview, Washington invoked the terrible f word again while denying that the incident happened, and tried to backtrack by saying how much he loves the gays.

Their other co-star Katherine Heigl chimed in, saying Washington should STFU about it and not ruin everyone’s special night. ABC was forced to issue a statement saying they have a good work environment and don’t condone Washington’s behavior, and Washington has finally apologized with a statement admitting that he is the idiot that everyone has been calling him.

Here’s Heigl’s second statement about it. She says they need to stop talking about it, it’s hurtful, and that T.R. is her “best friend in the whole world.”

Can they fire this guy and can we move on now?

Header image is original art for Celebitchy by UrbanDK. Video is from TMZ.

Quote of the week goes to Grey’s Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington following rumors of a nasty fight on-set earlier this week with some rather offensive comments about pudgy co-star T.R. Knight

“I misspoke earlier … I am soooooo, his little faggot.”

This post was originally published on Grumpy Old Indian Man, and is republished here under a content share agreement. If you would like to link it, please link directly to Grumpy Old Indian Man’s blog.

Note from Cele|bitchy: Grumpy Old Indian Man is DJing at the Yellow Lounge at the Grand Hotel Casino in Lucern, Switzerland tonight. Here’s the invite, which links to a bigger version: