It must suck to work on the set of Grey’s anatomy. Somehow people are always hurling insults and smack-talking about one another.

Isaiah Washington choked and shoved Patrick Dempsey in the famous “f-word” incident back in October, in which Dempsey came to the defense of his co-star T.R. Knight, who subsequent came out of the closet after the news broke. Isaiah then denied he said “faggot” at this year’s Golden Globes, bringing up the whole incident and throwing out the forbidden word again, which prompted him to check into rehab for PR control.

Now there’s word that Patrick Dempsey and Eric Dane were playing a game of poker with fellow cast and crew during a break from filming when it got ugly. Dane accused Dempsey of cheating and lunged at him, prompting Dempsey to try and punch him out. The crew separated the two before any contact was made, but how much animosity must there be on that set?

The star duo butted heads when Dane suddenly threw down his cards and jumped up howling that “Lucky” Dempsey must be pulling some kind of hanky-panky! Inflamed by the cheating charge, McDreamy cocked a fist and started to swing as McSteamy lunged! In an instant, crewmembers leaped up and separated the angry actors, who kept screaming insults at each other until they were led to cool off.

[From The National Enquirer print edition, Mike Walker’s column, January 19. 2007]

Later in the day the two apologized to each other.

Not everyone on Grey’s hates each other. Katherine Heigl and TR Knight are said to be good friends who were perhaps brought together by all the strife on set between Knight and Washington. Heigl came to Knight’s defense earlier, saying Washington just needed to shut up about the gay-bashing incident and that it was not ok that he brought it up again.

Here’s a link to a Grey’s Anatomy spoiler.