One of the first moments most of us had on our multi-year realization that Katherine Heigl is an insufferable diva was a little incident that happened almost two years ago exactly. Dame Heigl released a public statement in June 2008 about how she was withdrawing her name from the Emmy nominations because, in her own words, “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… In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials.” She threw the Grey’s Anatomy writers under the bus, plus she’s so conceited that she insinuated that she would probably win if nominated, and she wanted to deign to give another actress a shot.

After that, a lot of sh-t went down, and Dame Heigl has only reaffirmed (in my mind) her bitchy, holier-than-thou, conceited diva ways. In my opinion, she felt like she was too good to be on Grey’s, and was trying to talk her way into getting fired. It worked, kind of. In the 2009-10 season, Katherine was only in a handful of episodes in the fall, with the idea that she would come back in the spring. She didn’t. But that’s not stopping her from submitting herself for an Emmy!

Though she sat out more than half of the season of Grey’s Anatomy, Katherine Heigl has submitted herself in the supporting actress category for this year’s Emmy race, her representative confirms. There is no set amount of episodes that an actor must appear in to be eligible for either the supporting or lead actor categories.

Heigl only appeared in a handful of episodes this year before her character, Dr. Izzie Stevens, was last seen around Seattle Grace in January. Heigl was due back on the set of the ABC drama March 1 but she never showed up. Heigl told EW that “rumors that I refused to return were totally untrue.” ABC Studios said it was mutually agreed upon that Heigl would end her run this season.

Nominations for the 62nd Primetime Emmys will be announced July 8. As for the rest of the Grey’s stars, Ellen Pompeo submitted herself as lead actress, while the other ensemble members — including Patrick Dempsey — will duke it out in the supporting categories. To vie for the best drama prize, Grey’s submitted the two-hour finale, as well as the episodes “The Time Warp,” “Suicide is Painless,” “I Saw What I Saw,” and “Give Peace a Chance” for consideration. NBC will air the Emmys on Aug. 29.

[From Entertainment Weekly]

Perhaps I’m unfamiliar with the way Emmy campaigns are run (I’m more familiar with Oscar campaigns, honestly), but it was my understanding that it’s the show runners, producers and network/cable company that does the majority of determinations for Emmy nominations and Emmy campaigns, rather than the individual actors and actresses. Granted, I don’t doubt that an actor can wage a one-person campaign, but it seems like the most effective campaigns are going to be with the explicit blessing of, you know, the show, the producers, the other cast members. A lot of money goes into these campaigns, and I doubt ABC and Grey’s producers want to spend money waging a campaign on behalf of Dame Heigl.

Anyway, I hope whoever does the determining of Emmy nominations (a committee? Emmy pre-voters?) hands Heigl her ass on a platter. Oh, and you know how Dame Heigl left Grey’s because she’s a big movie star because she’s focused on being a mom? Well, the movie star stuff isn’t working out quite as she planned. The Killers, her movie with Ashton Kutcher made a paltry $16 million on opening weekend, coming in third. My guess is that it will have something like a 70% drop in the second week.

Heigl on June 1, 2010 and May 20, 2010. Credit: WENN.