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To give her credit, when Katherine Heigl steps in it, she goes full throttle on the crash and burn. To give her discredit, it’s now abundantly clear that Katherine has learned nothing about how to handle these moments, despite many years of practice. Truly, no learning curve whatsoever. A quick refresher: on Sunday, Katherine Heigl attended an event benefitting a dog rescue group — AT Mar-a-Lago, home of America’s worst president, and where he let his PDFile best friend hunt for young girls. Katherine made this comment to a local paper while she was there: “Our biggest goal right now really is to diminish the number of unwanted litters coming into this country, which is what is overcrowding our shelters.” Bear in mind, she said that with zero sense of irony about the fact that she’s speaking from the home of a president who’s been rounding up immigrants with a militarized ICE that, up until recently, was run by a woman who proudly shot her own dog.
So Kathy earned some bigly backlash for going to MAL, to which she released a holier-than-thou statement to Just Jared that boiled down to “Animals don’t vote, how dare you, I was there for the animals, nothing else matters!” Just Jared posted the statement to their website, obviously, but they also posted it on their Instagram. And once again, people chimed in to criticize Katherine for attending an event of any kind at MAL… and Katherine started clapping back to individual comments!!! Here forthwith, a small sampling of my favorite exchanges:
Commenter: There are so many amazing rescues to align yourself with that aren’t hosting events there — and so many ways to get involved that aren’t putting on a dress and drinking cocktails masquerading as helping
Heigl: how are you so sure about that…have you been to any? Have you donated a significant part of your income to anything? Anything you claim to care so much about? Have you done anything more than comment on what someone else is doing or not doing to your standard? Just curious…
…she says while commenting/speculating/lambasting someone else for what they might or might not be doing to Katherine’s standard.
Commenter: That’s why Alex Karev cheated on you with Olivia 😏😂
Heigl: does this make you smile? Making a dumb joke when animals in this country are suffering and I’m doing everything and anything I can to stop their suffering? Let me ask…do you do anything that really matters? Other than comment on some one else’s instagram? Do you really think that actually matters? Makes any kind of difference? Seriously…I’d love to know your thoughts on your uselessness.
The other person is useless for commenting on Instagram, but Katherine isn’t when she does the same thing. Sure.
Commenter: She was hated on Greys. Thats why she can’t get a real job. Difficult. Thinks her sh-t don’t stick.
Heigl: your so silly…what’s a “real job” in your so educated opinion? 😂😂😂
Using the word “educated” after using the wrong “your” is a bold choice.
Commenter: Spare us, @katherineheigl. I didn’t realize starring in MY FATHER THE HERO was your genesis guidebook to becoming a PDO-supporting MAGA Barbie. But are we surprised? Absolutely not. Shonda knew it all along “Animals don’t vote,” please.
Heigl: I’m sorry sir…you seem unreasonably upset…do you think animals are partisan? I encourage you to read and study more than just winning the poo…
Had to include for “read and study more than just winning the poo…”
Commenter: The outfit screamed Republican. Sounds like times are tough, and she’s trying to make deals, no matter who’s offering.
Heigl: really? So I’m using animal advocacy to what? Line my pockets? Interesting…seems to be costing me more than I can make…but that’s ok. At least my parents taught me to give more than I get. Taught me to do more than just judge. You seem…really meaningful in today’s society. Just keep screaming your virtue signaling bullsh-t while doing nothing that really matters. Good on you!
Judging by the unhinged responses, Katherine’s parents also taught her to screech at strangers who call her out for her poor judgment. Katherine has spoken frequently over the last few years about having to limit her kids’ phone usage. I think she should try it herself. Here’s the crux that Katherine mind-boggingly doesn’t seem to get: animals don’t vote; but humans do, with their actions, and there are indeed mitigating factors that trump even the purest of causes. You wouldn’t attend a dog rescue… held in Hitler’s bunker. Her presence at MAL was complicitness, if not outright endorsement of what the place stands for. It’s also willful ignorance if she can’t piece together that MAL reaps millions off of any shindig held on those grounds. Katherine could have supported an animal rescue anywhere else, it wasn’t MAL or NOTHING for the animals! If she can’t understand these critical points, she has no business criticizing others so vehemently.
Photos credit Getty Images and via Instagram
Oh, that’s messy. Yikes.
For what it’s worth, her responses seem perfectly hinged — she is just someone who got drawn into your basic internet pile-on.
I would imagine for working celebs, this is when you call your team while you are blending your health drink and getting ready to go to your job. The first rule is, don’t engage on this level. But girlfriend’s phone aint rang with work for years.
It’s been gruesome to watch her go from approaching A-list and good work on a hit show to having no prospects. But she got herself there, one dumbass comment and action at a time. Going to the residence of this president to support any cause is a bad optics move that even a grade schooler could advise on.
Well, she did have a show on Netflix from 2021 – 2023, three seasons: Firefly Lane. I watched the first season and enjoyed it well enough. As usual, she was really good. But since 2024 onward, it sounds like she hasn’t had a project. It shows she is in one episode of a miniseries that is in preproduction.
Her responses in the comments section come off as aggressive. I agree. Step away from social media and take a minute before pounding out these types of responses. She made a choice to attend this MAGA charity party at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. Yet, she’s playing innocent as to the optics of that.
I begin to understand her deep connection to animals, because those comments remind me of a dog barking out a window or lunging at the end of its leash at passersby.
Oh, there she goes. Heigling again. How could she not know that she was going to get a heap of backlash for attending an event at that place?
Attending an event at MAL, regardless of the purpose of the event or the worthiness of the cause, is a choice. If you want to support the cause and not attend the event, write a check. She chose to go because it didn’t occur to her that it might not be perceived positively. Privilege.
Oh man I wish I had left my comment on their IG post instead of their website so she saw it. I can’t believe she was holier than thou “We need to come together as a society to protect the voiceless and the innocent” like, girl, you know that voiceless and innocent girls were trafficked from Mar-a-lago, right?
Right?! “Dogs can’t vote!” Neither can children, and they were preyed upon and abused and trafficked at that very location.
Plus the guy who owns it hired a woman who bragged about murdering her dog. She thought all the red flags were just fun decoration? But part of me thinks it’s to jumpstart a new career path; it’s gross.
Wait, I have to know this. Does she think that “Winnie the Pooh” is spelled “winning the poo”??
“to read and study more than just winning the poo…”
Seriously, what is she saying?! Is she stupid?
I mean, based on the first exchange shared here, she seems to think there is only one animal shelter in the US and she is the only one to have donated to charitable causes…so I’m going to answer your last question, @ FYI, with a resounding YES.
That was supposed to be Winnie the Pooh? Oh my god, thank you. That statement was so strange. Thought she was talking about poop. So, I guess the answer to your (correct use) is yes she is.
This is who she is and who she’s always been: a petty, self-centered woman.
Thank you. Also Laura freaking Trump hosted this mess so she can pound sand talking about dogs.
That’s the only animal charity in the entire country?
Or the only one that would have her?
It’s the one from which Lara Trump embezzled
This is one of the rare times I have to disagree. MAL sucks but when you are big money fundraising, you have to go where the wealthy people are. It’s not Hitler’s Bunker it’s a golf course/event venue. They are simply going to bring in more money than your basic, “ Let’s go see adoptable puppies from the local shelter” on the town green to ‘donate whatever’ with a $2,500 haul. Or the $50 per plate dinner/dance at the VFW (thats what our local place does) for $80-100k is less than $1,000,000+ from wealthy people looking for a tax write-off and good press. That is math and the reality. Do you want to look good or do you want to DO good? Sometimes you take one for the team. Heigl is gonna Heigl but she gets butts in the chairs and the animals get food/healthcare.
I’m sorry but this is complete bullshit. The owner of Big Dog Ranch Rescue is a longtime Trump donor and a woman who’s threatened to sue publications like The Huffington Post for reporting that BDRR, which has ties to Lara Trump, spent nearly $2 million on events at Trump properties.
This idea that Heigl *has* to prop up this rescue “for the good of the dogs” is just silly. She has her choice of rescues to support and she chose THIS one. She could easily support smaller rescues that could use the PR to prompt donations but she chose the one that’s covered in Trump family stink.
Remember: for every person that went to Epstein Island, there are dozens or more who said “nah, I’m all set with supporting a ped0”. You can be the former or the latter but people will remember the company you keep. Heigl willingly chose to lend her celebrity to this event and people will remember that she chose toxicity.
Yeah no, you don’t promote your cause at a place where young girls were trafficked and then raped by the owner and his best friend unless you are okay with what they did.
No you don’t! This is why the tech bros got as far as they did in this freaking country. Not all money and people are worth your morals. She is telling us her morals.
I RARELY comment. Yes. This is Hitler’s bunker. Full stop.
Preach! Make no mistake…they are Knot-zees. Full stop.
It’s worse. As far as we know, no young girls were raped in Hitler’s bunker.
@SARDONIC WOW there’s a reason this shitty family is banned from running charities in New York. How much of that money you think is actually going to the animals?
@Sardonic Wow — If Katherine Heigl shows up to the VFW, then they absolutely can and will charge more than $50 per plate. Celebrities show up to places because they **themselves** are supposed to be the draw. They’re lending their caché, their visibility, their status. They’re not going where the rich people go; it’s the other way around.
And, as many others have noted, it is absolutely crazy to imply that she was limited in her choices. There are at least a dozen dog charities where she would’ve put butts in chairs and where she could DO GOOD.
I’d love to focus more on her saying she wants to “diminish unwanted litters coming into this country.” That’s such an odd way to frame animal overpopulation. It’s such a dog whistle.
Unless there are unwanted litters being smuggled across the border “into this country” which there are obviously not. Why did she say it like that? That’s what I want her to explain. My guess is she’s got MAGA brain rot and can’t help but see “invasion” everywhere.
I also want to know what the heck that is supposed to mean. Where are these out-of-country animals coming from? As someone who lives in a northern state, I will say that our local shelter takes a lot of animals from southern states, supposedly because their shelters are more likely to be kill shelters and because they have so many more dogs in shelters (I don’t know the actual stats, but that has always been the explanation). But I have never once heard anything about animals coming in from other countries. 🙂 Lord, she is something. If she really wanted to keep the focus on the message, she would answer in a far less personally defensive tone and just keep the focus on the message.
I know in California at Camp Cocker they take in dogs all the time rescued (or some organization rescued) from Mongolia and other places. I only know because I loved my cocker spaniel mix, and they tend to get quite a few spaniels or spaniel mixes in from other countries. I think there are organizations out there bringing in all types of dogs to be adopted in the U.S. She is probably just very passionate about the fact that she wants domestic dogs here in the U.S. focused on as far as adoption.
We are waiting for two Scottish Folds that are Kuwaiti rescues. We were supposed to get them this weekend but because of this stupid war, Kuwait closed their airspace and our Folds are stranded 🙁 Thankfully they’re in the hands of caring rescuers. In Kuwait there is no real culture of adoption and they don’t have real rescues/shelters–just individuals that take on the responsibility of caring for unwanted pets. Maus, Scottish Folds, Persians, Maine Coons, and so many other purebreds are considered “dumped breeds”. They also have a thing called Friday Market–google at your own risk. It is a horrific indoor market full of often sick cats in cages–and all for sale.
Adopting a pet from another country is becoming more common but this idea that pets are flooding our borders and then dumping new litters everywhere is frankly, insane.
@ Jayna – fair enough, but she spoke of “unwanted litters,” not of organizations willing to also rescue dogs from other countries. And this is the “biggest problem” right now? I don’t think so.
When we were looking for a dog a few years ago, we went to the Humane Society and our local animal shelter. I also was looking at a site that specifically brings dogs from Equador. We had a meet up with an adorable little puppy named Mouse.
I have two different friends whose dogs were adopted from Mexico.
That said, Katherine Heigl is incredibly foolish to 1 – do this event and 2 – apparently have ZERO plan for how to talk about it afterward.
I’ve been more interested in seeing Heigl on stage after the TV show she did recently. I don’t remember the name, but it was on Netflix about her and her close friend growing up together and as adults. Anyway, she lost me again. Her comments are gross, her reply to criticism about the events location is MAGA coded.
Remember Heigl- Trump hates dogs. I bet he hates all the animals you care about.
This isn’t a shock. Her husband is a country singer.
Josh Kelley isn’t a country singer, he’s a pop rock/Train/Matt Nathanson type.
KH sucks. She is whining about animal welfare when she’s at the home of a man who hired Kristi Noem.
(But also, “your” is the correct version to use there, Kismet…)
No, it’s not.
“your so silly” should be “you’re so silly “.
The line was, “..in your so educated opinion.” It is correct as written. In the sentence your is the possessive pronoun for opinion while the word educated is the adjective for opinion.
I think that’s correct.
“Heigl: your so silly…what’s a “real job” in your so educated opinion? 😂😂😂”
It should be “you’re so silly…” that’s obviously the part Kismet is referring to here.
I’ll admit that I knew so little about her that this MAGA reveal came out as a surprise. Why would you basically disappear from the public eye only to reappear out of nowhere screaming “I love bigots !” ?