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The Katherine Heigl Question, take two
Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes won't be at press tour until Thursday, so we'll have to wait until then to ask her the Katherine Heigl Emmy Question. TV critics being a generally impatient lot, though, we put the question to Rhimes' boss, ABC chief Steve McPherson, during his time in front of us Wednesday morning.
Like co-star Chandra Wilson earlier in the press tour, McPherson did his best to defuse the controversy (to recap, Heigl decided not to submit her name for Emmy consideration this year, saying in a statement that she didn't feel like she was given Emmy-worthy material last season, reportedly causing hard feelings on set). He called it the whole situation "unfortunate."
"It's unfortunate when there's any kind of turmoil on a show," McPherson says. "There's so many people who work so unbelievably hard to make that show the No. 1 show in the country. I think it's a beautifully written, beautifully acted, beautifully produced show. Everyone from the grips to the writers to the [executive producers], I think, deserves an enormous amount of credit. And I never like to see when any of them are in any way taken lightly."
As to the other part of the scuttlebutt -- that Heigl's Emmy statement was part of some calculation to get out of the show now that she's got a burgeoning film career -- McPherson says no way. In fact, he says, Rhimes is cooking up something special for Heigl's character, Dr. Izzie Stevens, this season.
"She's absolutely staying with the show," McPherson says. "There's an unbelievable storyline for her this year which is really central to everything that's going on this season. We're really excited about that. Shonda is really excited about that."
Cynics may read "unbelievable storyline" as "season-long coma" or some other sort of payback scenario on the part of the writers. I kinda doubt that; whatever else may be happening on that set, it seems unlikely that the show would sideline one of its core cast members for an extended period of time just out of spite.
That, I suppose, will be a question for Shonda Rhimes on Thursday.
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They should get her off the show. I am tied of these unknown thinking they are owed more as soon as they become a house hold name. The show will still be fantastic with out her. What carries the show is Shonda not Katherine!
Pam | Jul 16, 2008 10:25:40 PM | #FTR, I think it was terrible that Katherine Heigl won the Emmy last year, but that is more of a knock against the Emmy voting committee than it is Heigl.
Heigl has yet to outact her fellow supporting actresses on Grey's in Sandra Oh or Chandra Wilson in a single scene let alone over the course of an episode let alone the entire season so that her winning over those 2 shows how bad Emmy win was last season.
This is coming from someone who used to be a fan of Katherine Heigl's (Roswell and even Under Siege 2 - never saw "My Father the Hero"), but I've since lost respect for her -> that happened when she 'unofficially' got Isiah Washington fired from Grey's.
As for what to do with Katherine Heigl, if I was Shonda Rhimes or Steve McPherson I was let Katherine Heigl familiarize herself with the following 2 words:
"Christmas Snow"
Rishi | Jul 17, 2008 1:07:49 AM | #Katherine Heigl speaks the truth...Grey's Anatomy has gone downhill the past two seasons. I hope they do kill her character off so she could move on to something better (which is about everything).
Gerard | Jul 17, 2008 2:19:02 AM | #i think it is kind of silly for people to be equating her decision to withdraw her name - with the show has gone downhill for two seasons... I never reakky got into the whole george/izzie affair - but it did keep me on my toes. also, to be blunt, when the strike ended, and Grey's was back - it was as if the writers had found their missing mojo... just like that - that last run had me as engaged in their lives as i was in season 2... kudos to the writers for not giving up and coming back with even more inventive storylines and pushing the drama factor off the proverbial scale...
str8boypatryk | Jul 17, 2008 8:56:46 AM | #Christmas Snow - BRILLIANT!!!
I saw a comparison to David Caruso on another site but Rishi topped that one!
Ginni | Jul 17, 2008 10:50:23 AM | #Str8boy, spot on. If the writing was that bad last season when she won the Emmy then why didn't she give it to someone else? Obviously, she felt that it was Emmy worthy material for her to throw her hat in the ring then. It amazes me how some people believe Heigl is "speaking the truth". Well she will be speaking the truth right out of her job into a job in a department store. You don't burn bridges in Hollywood, especially as a newcomer. She might got a couple of hits, but, hell she even dogged the material from "Knocked Up", the movie that pretty much jump started her little movie career, so if people see that she is hard to work with then why hire her? I say all of this out of the love of her as an actress and the character she plays on Grey's, but until she has clout along the lines of Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks, she needs to know when to pick her battles and hold her tongue.
Mark O. Estes | Jul 18, 2008 12:00:04 AM | #Bring back Isaiah
Anthony | Jul 18, 2008 8:14:58 AM | #Get over yourselves already. You PTB need to get a clue in reality. Last year sucked for Grey's Anatomy and one good (final) episode can not make up for all the previous episodes. Katie did the right thing by not allowing herself to be nominated for something that was sub par.
everwood | Jul 18, 2008 8:47:54 AM | #No, everwood, there is a way you handle things like this and I'm just flabbergasted that folks don't get the whole idea behind why people are upset. She has only did TWO MOVIES, and she bashed one of them herself. She is NOT Julia Roberts or Angelina Jolie. She can be like that if she would just SHUT UP!
Mark O. Estes | Jul 19, 2008 11:34:13 AM | #
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