Bashing Katherine Heigl has become everybody’s favorite game over the past month. While Heigl’s antics had previously been here and there, every three months or so, she seems to have annoyed and disgusted a rather large and important consistency all at once – the media and her co-workers, all of whom seem utterly revolted with her behavior. First, Katherine decided to complain about her first day back on set at Grey’s Anatomy while appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman. It turned out, she was the one to cause the 17-hour work day. Then, Newsweek did a piece called “Why is Katherine Heigl so annoying?” in which the word “shrew” was used more than a few times. After that, it got worse. Both Seth Rogan and Judd Apatow busted Katherine’s annoying chops in interviews last week, all because of her previous statements about their “sexism”.

After all of that, this little piece seems rather innocuous. It appears that after Katherine’s whines to David Letterman, her Grey’s costars, producers and crew are giving her the silent treatment. They think she’s a “spoiled brat”:

Katherine Heigl is getting the silent treatment on the set of “Grey’s Anatomy”. After [she] bemoaned her workload on “The Late Show With David Letterman”, the star found herself frozen out by her co-workers.

Describing her first day back to work on the hit drama after doing a movie, Katherine whined: “I’m going to keep saying this because I hope it embarrasses them – a 17 hour day – which I think is cruel and mean!”

But the public bellyaching didn’t sit well with her co-workers – especially since SHE was partly to blame for the long hours! “Producers allowed her time to promote her movie, The Ugly Truth, which meant they had a rough first day back to work.”

“They had to catch up on the work that was missed while Katherine was doing the movie promotion. And the thanks they got was Katherine intentionally trying to embarrass them on national television,” a set insider told the Enquirer.

“To make her happy, the rest of the crew and cast had to work overtime – and they’re fighting mad that Katherine had the nerve to gripe about her long hours!”

“At least during breaks she can rest in her trailer. But some crew members work straight through. The cast and crew are taking it out on her by giving her the silent treatment.”

“Katherine used to be the set sweetheart, but now many of us think of her as the spoiled brat who thinks she’s too good to be on the show.”

[From the National Enquirer, print edition, August 17 2009]

While I have no doubt that Katherine is a piece of work (and then some), I really wonder why the Grey’s producers didn’t get rid of her when they had the chance. Wasn’t this upcoming season the time and place when they could of figured out a way to get her out of her contract? Last year, when Katherine was acting snotty about working on Grey’s, I theorized that the producers were trying to teach her a lesson by making her honor her contract and forcing her into crappy storylines. If that is what the producers were doing, I think the damage has been done. At some point it becomes less about teaching her a lesson and more about keeping your sanity by ditching this diva.

Katherine Heigl is shown out for lunch with her mom, Nancy, on 8/6/09. Credit: Fame Pictures