Katherine Heigl can’t seem to open her mouth lately without bitching about her charmed life and trashing the people who pay her millions of dollars for a few months work. The mainstream media has noticed, and Newsweek has a thoughtful editorial about how Heigl went from potential romcom sweetie to shrew in a little over a year. Heigl could have possibly become some kind of post-feminist icon, writer Sarah Ball observes, but she seems more content to just complain than to make any kind of point about how movies are too male-oriented:
In January 2008, Vanity Fair’s cover girl was Katherine Heigl. “Hollywood’s hottest blonde,” as they called her, was stunning—a soothing dollop of peach gelato poured into a column gown, brows intelligently arched, lipstick perfectly applied. Inside the magazine, she smiled regally behind the wheel of a Rolls, stretching her arms in silk opera gloves. The accompanying text told a different, less rosy story: the Grey’s Anatomystar detailed the shocking death of her older brother Jason, chatted about her Mormon childhood, and discussed her struggle to break out as an actress. She projected a kind of loose-cannon candor, blasting the film that launched her stardom, Knocked Up, as “a little bit sexist” and her character, reporter Allison Scott, as “a shrew.” Back then, it read as refreshingly daring: That Heigl! She’s a pistol.
Today, that issue looks like a yellowing relic ready for a Planet Hollywood display case. Heigl’s biggest accomplishment of the past 18 months, if you buy the blogs, has been to fully squander her prime position, dropping from a cherubic, popular new actress with a brain to a diva-like shrew…
How did Katherine Heigl fall so far and so fast in esteem? Part of it is pure sexism. Every decade has a Most Annoying Actress (not that long ago, Jennifer Love Hewitt was the object of tabloid disaffection), never an actor, and it’s a distinction doled out via a caveman’s principles. Heigl violates every archaic, unspoken rule of being America’s box-office sweetheart. A lot of actors smoke, curse, drink, and mouth off, but she gets the most grief for it. Last summer, when she was caught flicking a finished cigarette onto the sidewalk, Star magazine quickly tarred her as an environmentally unfriendly “litterbug” who inappropriately goaded a nearby police officer into letting her off without a ticket.
But more than simply daring to challenge chauvinistic mores, Heigl has shot herself in the foot with her delivery. Everybody applauded her defense of Grey’s costar T. R. Knight after costar Isaiah Washington called him a “fag.” But then Heigl kept prattling on and on, even after Washington was fired in disgrace. People started to wonder if Heigl’s comments were less about Knight and more about her. Last July, in an attempt to be noble, she removed herself from the Emmy race because, she said, she had not been “given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination.” The press again slammed her for the diva attitude (did she really need to issue a statement? And did she have to insult the show’s writers and producers while she was at it?). When she resubmitted herself in the race this year, Emmy voters failed to nominate her—even though she’s done her best work on the show this season as cancer-stricken Izzie. But forget about Izzie and her eroding brain. Heigl wants all the sympathy for herself. This week, she carped to David Letterman that she’d had a “seventeen- (dramatic pause) hour (dramatic pause)” workday on set, and that she was “going to keep saying this because I hope it embarrasses them [the Grey’s Anatomy show runners].” Embarrass them for what? Keeping her employed? To a country nearing 10 percent unemployment, the remark was tone-deaf.
[From Newsweek]
The Ugly Truth was third at the box office on this, it’s opening weekend. It’s behind Harry Potter and a movie about talking guinea pig secret agents. It’s getting overwhelmingly negative reviews and has a 15% aggregate rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics say it’s a “series of cliches… off the romantic comedy checklist,” “about as subtle as a boulder rolling downhill through a crowded playground,” and “crass and contrived… the sort of comedy that requires you not only to suspend disbelief, but your sanity as well.:
If Heigl has so many problems with the negative portrayal of women in films, why is she playing such a demeaning, cardboard cutout of a female executive who falls for a condescending creep? She seems to have no issue accepting fat paychecks and then complaining about the material she’s given afterwards. Wait and see what she says about this movie.
Katherine Heigl, T.R. Knight and his boyfriend, Mark Cornelsen, are shown out in LA on 7/26/09. Credit: INFPhoto.com
Good question Newsweek, good question.
I actually don’t find her annoying at all. Granted I do ignore her most of the time. The troll, Hayden, is much more irritating and annoying than this woman will ever be.
i agree. i hope she sees that article. she seems like a b*tch.
I agree, this last season of Grey’s she was fabulous. BUT… her personality off set is so annoying, so openly antagonistic to her coworkers and employers, I find myself rooting for her to be written off the show on that point alone. Shut up, Heigl, and stop biting the hand that feeds you!
I don’t get her appeal at all.
She’s a mediocre actress at best and her looks are average (and I mean normal-people-average, not Hollywood-average).
Does she have famous parents who have pull in Hollywood?
wow- newsweek, why just heigl? Could they maybe ask why Jon Gosselin or Hayden Pantyloons, or Megan Fox is so annoying?
Hollywood is used to submissive women (and men, by the way) who will keep their mouth closed.
Good for her for having a personality and opinions.
This generationg of actresses is so much more fun and confident than the ones before, and the times have changed.
Good for her. She is maintaining her integrity while drawing the audience.
I don’t find her rude or shrewish at all, I find her refreshing and self-depreciating and funny. I think she’s very sarcastic and it leaves a bit to be desired when it’s in print.
For instance, her comments about the first day back to work being 18 hours days being brutal…come on it’s just like kids and teachers who have summers off, that first day back IS brutal!
Get off her bra strap, haters!
I liker her outfit. Minus the shoes tho.
It’s her voice. She has the wrong voice as an actress.
I can’t stand listening to her whenever she delivers a line, not even mentioning when she voices her opinions. blah blah blah. whatever.
If actresses can do plastic surgery to their voices, I think it would help a lot of career.
The thing that annoys me about her is that she calls Knocked Up “sexist” but then goes on to make…The Ugly Truth…?
Last summer, when she was caught flicking a finished cigarette onto the sidewalk, Star magazine quickly tarred her as an environmentally unfriendly “litterbug”
Yeah that what she is if she throws out cigs onto or into the street!!! How do you think all those fires that burn over there in Cali start? By careless people.
I just find her annoying and she seems to feel somewhat entitled, and not at all happy to get in on a good thing (Gray’s A) a hit the ground running hit show. I do wonder if she would have had this attitude if she didn’t get offered any movie deals and was just on Grays.
Look if I worked 17hrs and got paid what she did, I would not be bitching but great, that my show was still on the air. When most everyday working people are struggling to pays their bills she’s bitching about her hrs.
This unfortunately happens all the time. She was an out spoken, intelligent strong woman not afraid to challenge society who degenerated into a diva big-mouth with a chip on her shoulder. Maybe she’s not as strong or intelligent as we thought. She certainly wasn’t immune to corruption.
The awful truth looks like crap. Since Heigl complains so much about the material given to her, why doesn’t she write a screenplay? (a la Matt Damon). I think that it would be wonderful to see her as a strong female character that she aspires to portray.
I think she needs to be more positive and turn problems into opportunities!
I don’t find her annoying. But then, I don’t find women with a spine and a voice annoying. I can see how the majority would find it annoying/challenging. There are far more “annoying” actresses than KH. Hayden Planatarium springs to mind. And that Transformers chick. And the british one who likes busting up marriages. Too many idiots to choose from. KH just doesn’t make that list.
Is she annoying? Where do we start? Is it a spine she has or just a big inappropriate mouth. I don’t get the sexist angle. If a guy said these things he’d be a douche. She didn’t say the 17 hoursfirst day back was because it was her first day back, she said she wanted to embarrass the show because they should be embarrassed (for what? subjecting her to a work schedule just about every other working TV actor has). Sure she has a spine, but only half a brain.
You know what I find annoying? Newsweek.
I agree with Sauronsarmy. Every review I’ve read of THE UGLY TRUTH calls it a misogynistic film. If she was upset about the character in KNOCKED UP, why did she sign up for an almost identical role for one of her follow-up films?
She can voice her opinion all she wants, but it doesn’t seem like her actions mirror her mouth at all.
And the whining about the 17 hour day on Letterman didn’t help. Poor abused, underpaid, overworked Katherine Heigl.
She doesn’t bother me. She tells it as she sees it. And she seems to have a working brain, unlike some vapid Hollywood actresses.
Yeah thats right throw a seem lit cigarette into a trash can. Brilliant idea!
the movie the ugly truth was a chance to make her look nice. but she suffers from foot in mouth disease
it looks like she’s headed for an early burn out, which is sad
pretty girl needs a long vacation. and a good script
I find her and Meghan Fox annoying. They don’t seem to have “filters” placed on their mouths and it’s unbecoming because neither is smart or witty. So what comes out of their mouths is unflattering and drone.
Not only did she sign up for Ugly Truth, but she EXECUTIVE PRODUCED it. Meaning she had influence over the story, the lines, etc. So for her to call Knocked Up sexist and then turn around and make the reportedly terrible UT is very hypocritical, in my opinion.
I used to like her, but now find her annoying – she comes across as entitled, spoiled, and ungrateful. It’s one thing to speak your mind, and I very much agreed with her publicly supporting TR Knight, but to whine about the work she gets to do and get paid millions for (while so many people are out of work and struggling) is just ridiculous. Everyone knows TV is long hours, but even so she could have said it was a long and tiring day without saying she wanted to embarrass anyone. Just as she could have not thrown the GA writers under the bus when withdrawing from Emmy contention last year. It takes a lot of people to get that show on the air, and she should be grateful it’s been as successful as it has been because it’s opened a lot of doors for her and paid her very well for her work.
If a guy in her same position made these same comments, I’d feel the same way about him. Yes, Hollywood has a long history of being less forgiving of women, but that doesn’t give her a pass to complain about every job she gets, just because she’s a woman. True equality is considering her words and actions by themselves, regardless of her gender.
She does seem to be making a habit of “biting the hand that feeds” her. This is not what annoys me about her though. The way she doles out her opinions on the work she does may be tacky, insensitive and without a shred of class, but it is, after all, only her opinion, and it is entertaining. What annoys me about her is the self-satisfied, smug look she always has on her face. It’s the kind of look you want to slap off somebody’s face, hard. Especially on a Monday morning, lol.
“celebrity sites now routinely pad pageviews by blasting her foibles”
Funny how this qoute was left out of your article…..
I love her, she speaks her mind, has opinions..exactly what we promote in young women. The Izzie/George storyline was lame, what were the writers thinking the Callie/George storyline was more interesting. The writers somehow could not get the stories organized when it came to George’s story lines..to confused and disoriented. Yes at times she should pick her fights but then it is refreshing to hear her uncensored comments.
She is a moron and it has nothing to do with her being a woman, Terrence Howard has a big mouth and he got replaced in Iron Man 2…so Hollywood doesn’t discriminate about men or women, a big mouth and pissing off the wrong people, leads to no work…just sounds to me like she either wants to get fired or she is just plain stupid and would have been fired from any other realworld job by now for bad mouthing her bosses in public. And I agree with her, she doesn’t deserve an Emmy, but that is because of her acting and not the writers, they can only work with what they are given and she ain’t much more than a one trick pony. I hope she gets her Hollywood walking papers soon, she deserves them.
A few commenters say that Heigl is being crucified for having an “opinion” or being “a strong woman”. While being strong and having an opinion is fine, biting the hand that feeds you is not. Heigl trashed the movie and the tv show that made her. If she was REALLY smart, she would focus on proving herself as an actress instead of screeching about how hard her life is to the press. Charm goes a long way in Hollywood. Badmouthing people is not the way for an actress or actor to get around. If Heigl keeps this up, she’s going to be out of work in a couple years.
P.S. If she is such a groundbreaking actress, why is she starring in crap formulaic movies like “The Ugly Truth”?
She makes the worst craptastic movies.
She sucks on Gray’s but that whole show has gone down the crapper since season one.
TR’s boyfriend is pretty cute. Kinda Chace Crawford-y in the face.
Heigl is annoying. She isn’t as big a deal as she thinks she is. Hell, Madonna isn’t as big a deal as what Heigl thinks of herself.
She’s incredibly snotty about her relatively minor career accomplishments would be my first guess.
I like Katherine a lot and if the magazines published what any of us, ‘the public,’ said between our own friends, we’d be just as unflattering to complete strangers as some make her out to be.
We want people to be honest, but then knock them for it when they do so publicly.
Why, oh why do people confuse a strong woman with valid opinions with a b***h like this girl. She has a job, be grateful. She is still America’s darling, be grateful. She has a thriving career made out of her mediocre acting, be grateful. A strong woman would have more sense than to put her dirty laundry into the air. She is not a strong woman, she’s a spoiled brat. She needs to learn some grace and poise.
There’s nothing ‘refreshing’ or ‘honest’ about Katherine Heigl’s never-ending whinge-binge that she seems to be on. Ooooh, she works 17hrs days! But she forgot to mention the millions of dollars she pockets in exchange. Gosh, I’m a tv/movie star, my life is so hard! Is she freaking kidding me???
She’s a smug, entitled, spoiled little brat that needs to learn a little gratitude and grace sometime. Ugh.
The ugly truth about Ms. Heigl.
She is not a lady.
She is not nice.
She is not considerate.
I’ve never really liked her all the much. I’ve watched her since her Roswell days, and her character even then seemed “entitled”.
You work 17 hours and months at a time and get paid millions, whereas the rest of us work 5+ days a week ALL YEAR LONG???
There is a big difference between people who are confidant and stand up for themselves (or others) and people who are just loud and complain. This beezy definitely seems like the latter. Stuff all that money you make in your mouth and stfu!
i dont feel anything towards her one way or another because i think people put way too much stock in the ramblings and opinions of actresses talking about their work. ive never heard her opinion on anything other than her work related stuff, so i have nothing to go off. I am, however, disappointed that newsweek feels this is something i as a reader would care about. stupid. save it for people magazine or something. there are bigger fish to fry.
She is not strong. She’s whiney. She doesn’t have opinions she has complaints. Nothing is ever good enough for her and she has a sense of entitlement that is horrible.
And her boobs are saggy!!!
She’s so self-righteous, esp. with the way she carried on and on even after Iasiah apologized for calling TR the “F” word. But she couldn’t let it go, could she? As if she’s so perfect herself. Who does she think she is?
She’s just another mediocre actress who will be forgotten in 5 years (10, if she’s lucky) once Hollywood has moved onto the next blond It Girl.
honestly my sympathy goes to the crew. If she worked a 17 hour day that means the crew worked a 21 hour day..
I like her. She catches heat for ‘biting the hand that feeds her’ but come on…have you NEVER complained about your job? Not even once? Same thing, just on a smaller scale. She seems much more true to herself and real than 90% of the plastic nitwits in Hollywood.
She’s a lifetime movie network star waiting to happen.
I never could stand her self righteous shit. I can’t stand her, never could, can’t stadn her movies.
I dont like her at all, and it’s not because she’s outspoken. I am an outspoken person, and I like me just fine. It’s because she seems ungrateful and entitled. She really doesnt seem to know that she has a great job, and she is so miserable of a person that she doesnt know how to just be happy about it.
It’s cause she’s ‘this’ close to becoming the next Janice Dickerson. Who wants to listen to somebody who complains all the time.
…I just wonder if Shonda Rhimes was part of the “good-ol’-boy-network” of Hollywood if Miss Heigl would be so critical & loose-lipped about her employer. Perhaps her “blondness” makes her resent feeling subservient to Shonda’s “blackness” as an employee. IMHO, what Ms. Heigl needs is a good, old-fashioned blackballing. Hopefully, she’ll soon prattle her way into one.
she’s pretty, but the type that will lose people’s interest, but not sure why. hollywood could do without her. and yes, she seems annoying and petty, and needy and these traits will doom anyone. when someone thinks they are too cute, it’s also a turnoff, as there isn’t much more mystery to that person as they have exposed themselves already. tries to hard, is pretty, but not by far. too bad so many lack what was so brilliant about hollywood in the past. now, most of us can count up to ten people we still find appealing, but even those are so exposed most people are hungry for some true entertainment, and reason even robbots and super spiders, and wallie are more appealing than most humans in holly wacky. even letermen these days is so not funny. people we ounce looked up to are below average, and who needs it when internet and books are more appealing now than ever. who would have taught that most people these days find the news and jounalism more interesting than entertainment business.
IMHO, Heigl behaves like someone’s old aunt who over-indulges on the sauce: you just hate it when she shows up falling all over you, with her reddened visage, reeking of last month’s stale cigarette smoke. Too much boozing has an uncanny way of making you feel all-powerful – not only loosening your inhibitions but your tongue, as well. I look forward to the day when Hollywood declares her persona non grata, and she hightails it into rehab to do a mea culpa.
Dude, TR Knight has the hottest boyfriend EVAR!
Who gives a rat’s rump about Katherine Heigl?
She is an independent woman, pretty with a brain. She dares to be herself, and is not intimidated by people who don’t approve of her.
So many people hate that. Some men are threatened and some women are jealous (because they don’t have the courage to do what she does?). How dare she be her own person and female! How dare she not conform! Who does she think she is?