So you read this headline, right?   That Katherine Heigl ‘would love’ to go back to Grey’s Anatomy?

It’s become a bit of a sport to bash Heigl for things she says in the press, so let’s take this one apart a bit.

The Generous Angle

Katherine Heigl knows Grey’s Anatomy was the project that brought her enough fame and acclaim to go on into movies.   While she’s proven herself bankable since then, that was the break that made her so.

And she can see that.   No matter how innocently she made the comments of a few years back – that the writing she was given didn’t warrant being submitted for a performance Emmy, that being on a show playing the same character can be ‘stale’ - Heigl also plays to an audience that’s not so un-Oprah in terms of ‘remembering your spirit’,  which can be seen as ‘remembering your start’.

I don’t think it’s so crazy to think that she was being earnest in her comments – that she would like to come back.  That she would enjoy revisiting the character.   Remember too that an ensemble is a lot more fun for an actor.   Kristen Bell said that House of Lies was a delight for her partly because everything wasn’t resting solely on her shoulders, as it had in Veronica Mars (which Lainey now loves, after scorning it for YEARS.  Just a reminder).  Heigl is big business these days, sure, but when you’re the lead in a movie it takes a lot of damn time and effort, and the long days necessarily involve you every single time, and it’s exhausting.    Rewarding, especially financially, but most actors like to play in a group. It’s just more fun

And in a lot of ways,  Grey’s Heigl was the best Heigl.   Everyone excoriates her for the ‘not given the material’ line, but let’s not forget that she was the quickest to call Isaiah Washington on the carpet for things he said about T.R. Knight (and then defending himself).   She wasn’t worried in the least about what taking a side would do to her career, and I bet she’s proud of herself.   As she should be.

So going back to Grey’s Anatomy might be a way to acknowledge all this – that while things can get overwhelming as a highly-paid movie star (she’s making $16,000,000 for One For The Money), it would be nice to go back to her roots.

The Annoying Angle

Or, you can read it like I didn’t want to, like I tried not to.   That she’s offering them her services.  That she’s told them she wants to go back, but that it’s their failing if they can’t find a way to  incorporate this big movie star into their show, which would so obviously be beneficial to them.

She also said she would like to see where Izzie winds up, that she wonders what happened to her…the implication being that the ending she got at the hands of Shonda Rhimes (which, I was mildly annoyed she called her ‘her’ in the article, but that’s easily taken out of context)  and her team wasn’t sufficient.  That she wants a happier, more complete ending that wasn’t provided the first time around.

The Analysis

If I were Heigl, I would be sick to death of my words always being twisted to sound as negative as possible. I’d be sick, too, of watching my admittedly outspoken mouth all the time, trying to make sure what I said was clean and clear.   

We all have friends who talk out of their asses half the time but it’s done with love, not malice, and if they’re confronted about it, they’re genuinely surprised because that wasn’t what they meant.  Maybe they should know better than to talk like idiots, but then again, maybe they really honestly think they’re being straightforward and kind.

It’s pretty tiring to hate everything, all the time, isn’t it?  Wouldn’t it be refreshing to give her the benefit of the doubt?  But if you did, would you feel like a sucker?  Like she was ‘getting away with’ talking this way?

I mean, I hate to always come to this point, but Tracy Morgan is walking around FINE after having made some ridiculously inflammatory and ill-thought out comments.  Mel Gibson, too.  He’s still employable, somehow.  But it’s Heigl who gets most of our scorn.    

What’s different about them?  Hmmm.

(Lainey: Duana was right, I’m gagging, about Veronica. But…Katherine Heigl is way up her own ass.)

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