Heigl says she’s staying on Grey’s
Reports of Katherine Heigl’s exit from Grey’s Anatomy have been greatly exaggerated, and that comes straight from the actress’s mouth. Heigl’s staying on Grey’s Anatomy for the foreseeable future.
In recent weeks, since choosing not to submit her name for Emmy consideration because she was critical of the material she had this past season, speculation has been that the star wants out of the show. Fueling the fire is the fact that in the past year, thanks to Knocked Up (and a lot less to 27 Dresses), Ms. Heigl’s getting many, many offers to jump to the big screen full time.
Life & Style caught up with her last week at L.A.’s Hotel Cafe, where she was watching her husband Josh Kelly, performing. When asked if she would be on Grey’s this season, she said, “Of course, absolutely. Those people are like my family.” She described the set as a happy, joyful place where there’s lots of laughter despite the serious storylines they’re playing.
Well, what do they think she was going to say? She’s contracted for the 2008-9 season and is already filming episodes. If there’s no actor’s strike — we hope — she’s committed to playing Izzie unless and until the producers choose to write her out.
Heigl strikes me as a smart cookie. If she does want to move on, she’d be wise to work with Shonda Rhimes to come up with a way to write Izzie out that’s beneficial to both her and the show. It’s happened on other shows in a positive way, remember George Clooney and ER?
He actually came back (for a scene) to help Juliana Margulies when she left the show. The bottom line is this, you get more with honey than you do with vinegar, so I suggest Heigl think things out carefully before coming to a decision, then playing nice to get what she wants. Whatever that is. Grey’s Anatomy has been good to her. Thanks to that show, she’s now an Emmy-award winner. Sure, she earned it, but they gave her the stage.
[via TVTattle]
George Clooney Offers Two Cents to SAG, AFTRA
George Clooney doesn’t just play a fixer in the movies.
The Oscar winner, who became an unofficial spokesman for the Biz during the 100-day writers’ strike that screwed things up for a lot of people earlier this year, has spoken up yet again, this time in a letter urging members of the Screen Actors Guild and its little-sister union, the American Federation of TV and Radio Artists, to make sure the very actors they’re trying to help don’t get lost in the shuffle created by the latest studio-union showdown.
AFTRA opted to negotiate with major studios and networks independently from SAG this year, and its leaders have been criticized for their willingness to accept a deal that, as far as SAG is concerned, lets the suits off easy.
“Both are, of course, right,” Clooney wrote in a two-page memo. “AFTRA feels that a work stoppage would be devastating to its members and SAG believes that if they don’t draw a line in the sand, the studios will repeat what they did with DVDs.”
But, the Peacemaker star added, it’s important that union heads remember who they’re really fighting fornot $20 million men like Clooney (although every thesp could be affected by a work stoppage) but the thousands of working actors who don’t necessarily know where their next paycheck is coming from after one shoot wraps.
“Doug Allen (the SAG national executive director) has said on several occasions that this would be a negotiation for ’the linemen, not for the quarterbacks.’ (Doug did a lot of the negotiating for the NFL.) The spirit of the statement isn’t wrong…it’s just the structure,” Clooney wrote.
“Unlike the NFL, in this guild, the quarterbacks protect the linemen. I’ve been very lucky in my career, which has put me in the place that I don’t need a union to check on my residuals, or my pension, or protect my 12-hour turnaround. I used to need that, and may again…but right now I don’t. That means it’s my responsibility to look out for actors who are trying to stay afloat from year to year. Anything less is irresponsible of me.”
In response to Clooney’s attention-getting perspective, a rep for SAG told the Los Angeles Times Thursday that the union “appreciates George Clooney’s observations and opinions regarding our current negotiations and the critical issues facing all actors today. We welcome this valuable input.”
And it isn’t as if Clooney wants anyone kowtowing to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which reps the studios.
“First, we set up a panel…Jack Nicholson and Tom Hanks, for instance…10 of them that sit down with the studio heads once a year…10 people that the studio heads don’t often say ’no’ to. Those 10 people walk in the door with all the new data that SAG and AFTRA compile, and adjust the pay for actors…once a year.”
Hanks was tsk-tsked this week for adding his name to an online petition encouraging AFTRA members to approve the tentative deal the union arrived at last month. A host of other stars, including Nicholson, Viggo Mortensen, Ben Stiller and Patricia Arquette, lent their names to an ad in the Hollywood trades urging AFTRA members to reject the deal and take a tougher stance alongside SAG, whose current contract expires June 30.
“We are not finished,” the ad stated. “We believe there are issues that are at the heart of every actor’s career that remain unresolved by AFTRA.”
What would help would be if these hotshots put their money where their mouth is, Clooney suggests.
“Second, we go to the actors who make an exorbitant amount of money, and raise their dues,” he wrote. “Right now, there’s a cap of 6,000 bucks that actors pay their union…based on $1 million in earnings. Make it $6,000 for every million…if someone makes $20 million, they pay $120,000 into the union. That could go a long way in helping pensions and health care. The quarterbacks have to do more.
“What we can’t do is pit artist against artist…because the one thing you can be sure of is that stories about Jack Nicholson vs. Tom Hanks only strengthens the negotiating power of the producers.”
Well, here’s hoping a Hail Mary pass reaches the end zone in time.
Clooney, Pitt, Damon Make Myanmar Plea
They’re some of the sexiest men on the planet, for certain. They’re also some of the do-goodingest.
George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon are directing their collective goodwill toward Myanmar, asking the country’s political powers that be to allow foreign-aid workers into the cyclone-ravaged region and urging neighboring nations to send any help they can.
Not On Our Watch, the activist group of which the trio are founding fathers (along with Ocean’s abettor Don Cheadle), has already donated $500,000 to the relief effort. The organization has now launched a campaign asking others to do the same, beginning with a full-page advertisement in the English-language Jakarta Post newspaper.
“Burma’s neighbors have the power to help victims who remain desperately in need,” the ad reads, according to Agence France-Presse. It is signed by political and social heavyweights, including Philippine President Corazon Aquino, East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta, former Czech Republic President Václav Havel, and Nobel Peace Prize laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi.
Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) on May 2-3 and left 138,000 people dead or missing. The United Nations reports that 2.4 million are in need of aid.
The ruling junta has refused entry to most foreign-aid workers, a stance the Not On Our Watch team called out in their ad, claiming the military regime reneged on a promise to let them in.
“Despite this, foreign supply ships with emergency and lifesaving equipment have been turned away or gone home. International relief continues to be slowed…Burma’s delta remains shattered, its people starving and in danger.”
The Five: Shows George Clooney wishes weren't on his IMDb profile
src="/celebrities/pic/2008/06/25/20080625001149W.jpg" />George Clooney isn’t the first Oscar winner who started
his acting life on television; heck, he’s not even the tenth. Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt and Hillary Swank, for instance,
all had significant TV experience before making it big on film (Bosom Buddies, anyone? Beverly Hills,
90210?). But has any Oscar winner had the checkered acting history that Clooney has? Yeah, yeah, he came to
prominence in a little medical drama called ER (whatever happened with that show, anyway? Is it still on the
air?), but what came before that is a bunch of roles that Clooney
would rather not talk about:
1. The Facts of Life: This
is the one everyone remembers. He played George Burnett, the contractor hired by Mrs. Garrett and the girls to help
them rebuild Edna’s Edibles after it burnt down. After the store re-opened as a novelty shop, George stayed on to be, I
guess, the "hunky male presence" on the show. He actually lasted on the show for two whole seasons, and came
back for a guest appearance or two in the show’s last year. His role was mostly forgettable and the show had already
run its course, but things could have been worse; he got to stare at Kim Fields’ blossoming womanhood everyday.
2. Roseanne: I don’t think
George would be embarrased by the classic sitcom itself, but with how quickly his role as Booker, the foreman at the
factory where Roseanne and her sister Jackie worked, disappeared. Think about it: he gets a plum role on a highly-hyped
series that’s starring the era’s hottest stand-up comedian. He even had a love interest in Jackie. George thought he had
it made. Then Roseanne decided to shift the show away from her character’s working life and — OOPS! — there goes the
plum role, even before the first season was over.
3. E/R: No, not ER! E/R! With a slash in the middle! E/R was a
sitcom from the mid-’80s that took place in, yes, a Chicago emergency room. It starred Mary McDonnell (currenlty on
Battlestar Galactica), Jason Alexander, and… wait for it… Elliott Gould.
Thaaaaat’s right. Elliott Gould, one of the original series killers. George played the hotshot orderly (or was he a
hotshot intern?) Ace. I vaguely remember this show; it wasn’t bad, but any show with Gould as the star was doomed to
failure.
4. Sunset Beat: I
had no idea this show even existed, but the IMDb description of it is priceless: "A team of Los Angeles cops go
undercover posing as motorcycle bikers to nail street crime and other disorder in town." I’m sure that the mullet
George was growing on Facts was in full bloom here.
5. Bodies of Evidence: The name alone is awful.
I don’t know much about this one, but it was an early-’90s crime drama that starred Lee Horsely or Matt Houston fame. Hopefully, George didn’t grow a moustache to match Lee’s. That
would have looked kinda…odd.
Anyone remember either of these last two shows, or any of Clooney’s other
painful TV roles? Let me know in the comments.