1. The producers of Grey’s Anantomy know Katherine Heigl is their biggest star. In an effort to keep the actress within the hit show’s star cast, Grey’s will write around Heigl’s filming schedule as America wants more films from the actress. Entertainment is a supply and demand relationship. Heigl now bridges TV and film, in a way that many actors in Hollywood would envy.
EW.Com have confirmed that Heigl will be taking a 5 episode hiatus to shoot the Greg Berlanti-directed romantic comedy Life as We Know It. ABC are doing everything in their power to keep Heigl onboard their network. A nice team effort from Heigl and ABC so that every wins. Heigl is ABC’s young Diane Sawyer of Prime Time TV drama. They don’t want to lose her audience draw to their network.
2. Katherine Heigl revealed on the David Letterman show that the cast of Grey’s Anatomy can work 18 hour days on set sometimes. This does not sound like a diva to me but a hardworking actress who knows how to commit to an ensemble cast team effort that it takes to make a hit medical drama show. Heigl proves that she’s committed to team.
3. Although, she is the bigger star, Heigl gets paid less per episode of Grey’s Anatomy than her co-star and friend, Ellen Pompeio. The highest paid actresses per episode in TV prime time are: Ellen Pompeo (Grey’s Anatomy) $275,000 an episode and Jennifer Love Hewitt (Ghost Whisperer) $150,000 an episode. Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) gets $50,000 an episode. Although Heigl gets less than Pompeio per episode, she knows her pay day happens in film. Why people think Heigl is a diva in Hollywood is a fabricated story. She checks her ego at the door, every time she leaves her house to drive to the set of Grey’s Anatomy. What a trooper.
4. Katherine Heigl doesn’t pay much attention to the rumors that tabloids make up about her. According to US Weekly magazine, Heigl was quitting Grey’s Anatomy as they reported in February 2009. 6 months later in September 2009, she’s still committed to the TV series despite enduring all of these rumors that she’s a quitter. In Hollywood, she’s the girl that vicious bloggers and unhappy female entertainment reporters love to hate, because she broke through to the other side. But she handles it all in her stride. Breaking through to the other side to the A-List set, is like holding a winning lottery ticket in Hollywood. People get jealous and it’s not her fault. She earned her spot in the fame game, fair and square. Love her!
5. When it comes to Box Office numbers, Katherine Heigl opens movies at #1. This is something that Julia Roberts can’t even do these days easily (Roberts’last film Duplicity bombed). But Heigl can open at #1. Knocked Up, went to #1 at the US box office and in the UK, Heigl’s The Ugly Truth romantic comedy film also opened at #1. She’s an international US movie star.
6. Her friendship with her Grey’s Anatomy costar, T.R Knight, proved to the world that Heigl is a true friend and a defender of the underdog. When T.R went through his gay slur from cast mate Isaiah Washington, Heigl stood beside T.R Knight during that fiasco fueled by prejudice. The issue that Washington now regrets unfortunately cost Isaiah his job on Grey’s but Heigl demonstrated that she would not be party to a gay witch hunt against her friend who was different. She is a loyal friend with principles.
7. Heigl is married to Josh Kelley, musician. singer. When they married, Katie and Josh married in Utah and walked down the aisle to a song written by Josh played to cellos and guitars. The couples bridesmaids wore red. Heigl’s brother-in-law is Charles Kelly of the country group, Lady Antebellum. Katie and Josh met onset when Heigl appeared in Josh’s music video for ”Only You” in 2005. Aw, how sweet!
8. Family trials and tragedy have helped shape Heigl’s view that life is a gift that should be appreciated. Her brother Jason was killed as a teen in a fatal car accident. Katie also has a very close relationship with her mother, who survived a battle with cancer with great courage. Despite seeing her mom go through cancer, Heigl continues to smoke cigarettes. It’s just her one bad habit (along with “cussing”) the star admits.
9. Heigl’s next film, Killers, that’s in preproduction puts a dark twist on her romantic comedy fim genre forte. Killers storyline reads: “A vacationing woman meets her ideal man, leading to a swift marriage. Back at home, however, their idyllic life is upset when they discover their neighbors could be assassins who have been contracted to kill the couple.”
10. Heigl has four films that she is committed to that are in development. These are: Drawn Together, Escape, Life As We Know It, Lost & Found. Clearly, she’s a film actress to the hilt, but Grey’s Anatomy are her Hollywood family she likes to see everyday. She’s not one to sit around the house in between her film roles. She’s rather be on the set of Grey’s with her friends as her schedule allows her. What a humble sweetheart. Image: People Magazine.
