Katherine Heigl is trying to resurrect a career that’s been reduced to tattered curtains of divadom. I used to think Katherine got a bad rap because she made the grave mistake of calling an Apatow movie “sexist. It’s never cool to watch someone talk smack about their job, but male actors get away with it all the time. Heigl didn’t fare as well because she was talking back to the dudes.
Anyway. Heigl has proven herself to be a genuine pill over many years. Stories of diva behavior continue, yet she seems genuinely surprised at her career downfall. Now the word “Heigl” is readily associated with rudeness by other actors. Heigl’s new show, State of Affairs, is a last shot at repairing her reputation.
Heigl sat down for a Q&A on Facebook, and a fan asked, “I’ve heard rumors that your [sic] very rude. What’s your thoughts?” That question probably felt like a slap in the face, but Heigl answered:
“Yeah I’ve heard those too…honestly I don’t think I am…nothing makes me more uncomfortable than confrontation or hurting someones feelings and I would never, ever actively do so on purpose. Of course just like any human being I’ve made mistakes and unwittingly or carelessly spoken or acted but I always try to make any wrong right. That doesn’t mean I won’t stand up for myself by drawing boundaries and asking to be treated kindly and respectfully but I don’t do that with any rude or unkind intentions just with the same strength and honesty I think every one of us is entitled to.”
[From Katherine Heigl on Facebook]
I can’t help but feel a little sorry for her. Much of the problem is Katherine’s momager, who had a great hand in shaping the diva personality. Maybe Katherine is telling the truth. She may honestly believe that she is perfectly kind to all cast and crew members, or she may be full of it.
State of Affairs premieres on Nov. 17. Here’s a gigantic trailer:
Photos courtesy of WENN
Fun fact*: If you play 27 Dresses backwards, you can hear Heigl whisper “I will swallow the devil whole.”
(*completely fabricated)
Fabricated? Maybe. Fun? HELLZ YEAH! Thank you for the morning laughs.
lol. I guess goodnames will be out of a job soon.
Lol I just came here to say that GoodNames has apparently been replaced. I am praying for her.
I hear there are good unemployment benefits though.
What? Why?! Can we Kickstarter a job for her?
Do you have some off-the-books devil work?
I’m sure Lucifer’s Homegirl needs some light housework around her sarcophagus.
Oh duh. Duggar post.. Carry on, GNaT!
I think Shonda shouldn’t have kicked her when she was already down. I mean, as I recall, Shonda wasn’t too hype to get rid of Isaiah after he yelled that his costar was a f**got. But he’s okay?
That should tell you how unpleasant Heigl/her mom were. Especially considering that Shonda pretty clearly still doesn’t like her.
I dislike Shonda and Katherine. Both are entitled. Ego’s crashed. That’s what happened here.
Well, I give Shonda Rimes much more credit than I do Heigl. Rimes is the force behind some very successful shows, writing, producing, etc. I don’t think she had anything handed to her.
Thank you for pointing this out. As I recall, Heigl was the only one out of most of the cast that called Washington out, and essentially indirectly put public pressure on Shonda to do the right thing.
The next thing I heard about Heigl was that she dissed the Apatow movie as “sexist,” (and really, who cares about that? It probably was…).
….and the third major thing I heard about her, is that she asked that her name be removed from Emmy consideration for Grey’s, because as I understood she had gotten like 3 or 4 successive Emmy nods, and then there was one season where she had little to no storyline, and felt she didn’t deserve it (yes, it was probably passive aggressive shade against Shonda — who had lightened her load maybe after the Isaiah Washington mess?).
So, given all that…I really don’t see what the ‘Diva’ behavior is. Do ‘Divas’ turn down award noms? Do they risk not being popular, by standing up for the underdog (her co-star who was called the ‘F’ word).
I can’t really say what she was like behind the scenes on her films & rom coms that came after Greys when she was the ‘IT’ girl — but it seems like she was the victim of some false information about her reputation, that preceded her. The public stuff which we all had heard about – really wasn’t bad at all. She came across to me, like a strong opinionated and honest young woman. I think she got on the bad side of some powerful (see Shonda) people.
Now of course Shonda is the queen of having characters who happen to be gay, and writing brilliant storylines around them (it’s hard to even think she’d tolerate a homophobic person on her shows these days – in fact she just excoriated some homophobic twitter person who was complaining about all the ‘gay scenes’ – and so she should have…) – which is to be commended, but I too remember when she was dragging her feet re Washington, and Heigl was the only one calling him and the whole situation, out.
IIRC, the removal from Emmy consideration was for the year where they lightened her story and taping load *at her request* to accommodate time off so she could film outside film projects. They even adjusted everyone’s filming schedule to accommodate her movie filming schedule. And then after all that accommodation, IIRC, she pulled that public move by trashing the writing for her lack of story and complaining publicly about the awful hours she was forced to keep to shoot Grey’s.
I believe she, rightly, got flack for calling out her previous projects as sexist and how awful it was that such work was all that was available when she was in the middle of financing and executive producing and starring in and publicly pushing such sexist, misogynist tripe as The Ugly Truth. She came off as slightly hypocritical.
I totally get your point, Pookah. IMHO, it is not the specific things she said about past projects (the Apatow movie and essentially the writing on Grey’s) but the fact that she was willing to dish at all, which is considered unprofessional. I once read an interview with Julia Roberts, who was asked to list the top five movies she regrets making, and she refused to do it. She said something along the lines of “nobody sets out to make a bad movie,” and that, while some were more poorly received than others, she and the rest of the cast and crew worked just as hard on the bad ones as the good ones. This is the type of response expected in Hollywood. If KH really valued “respect” for all people, she would respect those who helped propel her career and resist the urge to publicly criticize them and their work, even if it seems warranted.
There are numerous stories from film sets that she is unfriendly and difficult. And I mean difficult in the way many celebrities are said to be hard to work with: demanding unnecessary things that they hardly ever use just because they can, hiring their own private chef for the production to pay for and then not wanting to eat the food, complaining about perfectly suitable dressing rooms that other cast members have no problems with, trying to micromanage things about a storyline or character and demanding rewrites when they don’t have a producing or writing credit etc. (the last one can be tricky bc character is important to an actor but everyone has their own job to do). Its both the mother and her that these rumors have come out about. Had a friend that worked on a film with her in Georgia and wouldn’t say anything specific but confirmed it wasn’t a great experience with them.
I used to work on television sets and while an actor is in no way required to be actively nice and befriend the crew, they should at least extend them professional courtesy even if they are the “talent.” In my case, I was lucky that the actors were amazingly friendly (for the most part). The ones that have an ego issue put a extra strain on a job that’s already high-pressure and eats up so much of your time.
She didn’t win any points with the people she worked with or would work with in the future when she went on a talk show (Letterman?) and shamed her crew for their first day back at work lasting 17 hours (and openly said she was saying it so they’d be embarrassed). Like they WANTED to be there pandering to her ego for that long? Look, I know acting is a job and it’s unfair to compare apples to oranges, but she most likely got to spend a majority of that in a dressing room/trailer while the crew is on their feet for almost the entire day. Complaining about your workday in public is an easy way to get your coworkers (which is essentially what a film crew is – even if you don’t view them as being on your level) to dislike you. Plus, in this case its an attack on their work as well. And they don’t get paid nearly as much as she does.
Sorry. Got worked up! I hate it when people abuse their perceived power and belittle those who work hard to make their careers happen.
I agree with pleaseicu about the Apatow movie. Plus, there are things that you just know when you read the script of a movie. If you think it’ s sexist and your morals clash with what is in the movie, you just don’ t so it (same goes for racism, homophobia, or anything else). Accepting the role, getting a career boost, money, fame, whatever from the sexism in the movie and then complain about it is stupid and hypocrital. I completely agree with her regarding that movie, by the way: she complained about the fact that her character, who is female, is basically a stuck up bitch and the other characters (who are male) are loveable goofs who shouldn’ t be burdened with responsibilities and just allowed to have fun by the big bad with with a vagina! She’ s right, but these things were in the freaking script. It’ s what the entire movie is based on!
And therein lies the problem with chronic rudeness. Like stupidity, those who suffer from it, are usually unaware that they do.
Exactly. Headline should be “Katherine Heigl Says Katherine Heigl Isn’t Rude.”
Or maybe just “Katherine Heigl is Oblivious”
She just….. can’t….. stop……… talking!! Somebody should just tell her to shut her piehole for a bit.
In all fairness, she was asked to answer a question.
Isn’t she the one whose name was spelled wrong on her dressing room, so she called her mom/manager on the phone and then her mom called producers and went beserk? Yeah, being non-confrontational and acting live a diva are apparently not mutually exclusive.
Good point. It’s her MOM who handles the confrontation! LOL. Heigl is such a jackass.
Let’s put her personality aside for a second. What is happening with her hair and makeup choices? Especially in the top photo!
Not a very flattering photo of her, is it. She’s usually gorgeous.
she usually dressed like her mom… that is down to the hair/makeup etc… she has gorgeous Raw Materials but that’s where it stops!
You can’t blame someone’s manager (in this case momager) without blaming the star. Who hires the manager? Now, it would be extremely difficult to fire your mother, but my guess is that most mothers would rather the checks keep coming in.
Can someone tell me what her ‘momager,’ or she, has done, that warrants all the ill-will? It’s still unclear to me.
Looks like a Homeland ripoff to me. Hoping it won’t be as awful as Homeland is though.
Oh, but therein lies the problem, my dear bitchkitten: it’s not about what YOU think. We all know what you think because you’re courteous enough to broadcast it constantly and belligerently. But it doesn’t matter what you think. Shall I clap out the syllables in that sentence so it can process through that thick little skull of yours? It does not matter what you think.
EXACTLY. If everyone in the world is telling you that you’re rude and have an attitude problem, you most likely do. It’s not everyone else that has the issue.
She looks like she is trying to pee standing up in the one photo. Now that is rude!
Everyone who’s ever worked with people knows That Face in the header photo. Its the one that says I Want To Yell At You, Your Manager, And Berate Every Person Around Me Because I’m A Petty Human. And you know what? I bet those people don’t think they’re rude, either.
Shoot me. I like her movies. I think she’s cute in them. Aside from the Nut Job where she did the voice of a squirrel and it was so monotone. She’s definitely not a voice over actress.
I think there are many actors like her, but she has been the one everyone has talked about. Meh.
She still doesn’t understand that image is everything. And not just in Hollywood. Heigl has a reputation as a diva so in order to rework her image she needs to fire her mother. Clearly after years being managed by her, it’s NOT working. Professionally at least. Get a new PR/Manager!!! Seriously, this woman cannot be that dumb?
She doesn’t think she’s rude? Still making those “mistakes” then. Carry on, Heigl.
I think her new show “State of Affairs” looks really good and I’m not into these types of shows.
Alienating Shonda Rimes was stupid on her part.
Humans are rude and unkind sometimes – so what? Then we are sorry, and try again. But she doesn’t need to deny her humanity – no one will believe that she’s more than that – no one needs to try to be any more than that, or they will be in danger of losing empathy for other souls. Plus; one needs to understand their “mistakes”, and take responsibility, or they are in denial of all the facets of being, and have lost control of their integrity and the formation of their character. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being sorry.
She IS just like us!
In the thing with Isaiah Washington, I was under the impression that it was a halfway joking argument between Isaiah and TC but Isaiah Washington did not directly call him the Fword. It was something like “I’m not a FWORD”. Why did Katherine conduct a public media campaign about it?
I read recently Isaiah was having an argument with Dempsey when he called TR the F Word. Something like, ‘Im not your little F Word’. But, of course, I dont know how true is that.
It still doesn’t explain why instead of confronting Isaiah Washington if she thought he was bullying someone, or talking with Shonda about it, she chose to conduct a public media campaign against Isaiah.
Maybe I’m a little late to the party on this…but what happened to her face? Looks like she needs to switch doctors…or maybe just an unfortunate pic
I’ve heard about her making OTT requests and just being generally difficult, but I’ve never really heard anything about her being rude or mean. I do think she’s gotten a bad rap. I’m sure she’s a pain to work with, but frankly so are half the actors in Hollywood, so I don’t think her career died down just because of that. I think people didn’t like how outspoken and confident she was, and it was convenient to say they weren’t hiring her because she was a diva.
I have a friend who used to work as an assistant on movie sets. Some of the actors he worked for physically assaulted him, in front of dozens of people, over insane things like their coffee having too much foam or their phone not being 100% charged when they’d only asked him to charge it 5 minutes beforehand . All of those people are still working consistently, some on very big projects. Simply being an a-hole doesn’t get you blacklisted in Hollywood.
‘I don’t think I’m rude’……….I’m sure Napoleon Bonaparte didn’t think he was a megalomaniac either.