Katherine Heigl pummeled by new team of haters

Poor Katherine Heigl just can't buy a break these days.

First off, her new film, "The Ugly Truth," turned out to be the worst-reviewed movie of the summer, inspiring new heights of critical derision. Secondly, she's been buffeted by scores of snarky blog posts in the wake of her appearance promoting the film on "Letterman," where she took an ill-conceived poke at her hit TV show, claiming that on her first day back at work she'd been reduced to working a 17-hour, sweatshop-style day, although at least one in-the-know TV producer put the blame squarely on Heigl, saying that the show was forced to arrange the 17-hour shooting schedule as a way to make up for allowing Heigl ample time to promote her critically drubbed film.

And now she's getting pummeled by "Knocked Up" director Judd Apatow and that film's costar, Seth Rogen, who are, shall we say, still ticked off about a 2007 Vanity Fair interview where their former costar caused a big Web stir, complaining -- after she'd cashed her check -- that the film "paints the women as shrews" while making the men appear "lovable." Ensconced in the cozy confines of "The Howard Stern Show" where the duo was promoting Apatow's new film "Funny People," Rogen volunteered that he found it hard to imagine how "The Ugly Truth" -- which one critic dismissed as "sexist swill" -- made women look any better, saying sarcastically: "That movie looks like it really puts women on a pedestal in a beautiful way." 

Apatow jumped in, adding to much merriment: "I hear there's a scene where she's wearing underwear with a vibrator in it, so I'd have to see if that was uplifting for women."

It kind of went downhill from there. Since the language got a little raunchy, I've added my own Yiddish euphemisms for the actual curse words, since we can't print them on this blog. It got started with Apatow speculating that Heigl was "probably doing six hours of interviews and kissing everyone's [tuckus] and then just got tired and slipped a little bit" when she made the remarks to Vanity Fair. That inspired this rejoinder from Rogen: "I didn't slip and I was doing [kvetchy] interviews all day too. I didn't say [bupkis]."

Noting that Heigl has been trashing a lot of people lately, Rogen concluded: "I gotta say, it's not like we're the only people she said some bat [gantseh megilleh] crazy things about. That's kind of her bag now."

Maybe the next time Heigl takes a shot at her fellow actors and filmmakers, hoping they'll forget about it before they turn up someday on "The Howard Stern Show," wondering why she simply didn't thank them for giving her a great part to play, she might remember the old maxim: Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Photo of Katherine Heigl by the Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Jorge]

Seth Rogan is just jealous because he can only play one kind of character and his Freaks And Geeks show tanked after one season. Come on Sethy it's ok. We know you're a one note wonder. Stick to those 40 year old virgin clones.

[Max]

Another bash at Katherine Heigl what a surprise. It is just nasty and uncalled for. Of course it had nothing to do with the fact Rogen and Apatow had a movie to promote. Not at all. They did actually say she was great to work with but didnt understand her comments. That might be because they like most of the press didnt bother to read what she had say in full - just that much quoted sentence. Anyway, it seems punching Heigl is the in-thing right now - lets face the LA Times has done nothing but that. It is a shame that outspoken actors are lauded but actresses are made figures of hate and labelled as divas. What is even sadder is Katherine Heigl is actually one hell of a nice lady and this label is very unfair. Please just lay off her - it just seems very mean spirited now. Everything the poor gal says is turned on her in some way and often extremely unfairly. The Letterman interview being one of them. There was absolutely no malice in what she said.

[robjr]

She's still getting work and saying such things keep her relevant but be careful you don't turn into micha barton, I love how she turns bitchy in the car on knocked up. And have yet to see any other film w her and dumb mateo maconahey, now pull off a rachels getting married and then I won't enjoy reading seth and judd backhanded compliments about you!

[greysfan]

You're cranky, ugly and look like that red head kid from the Happy Days. You're just jealous that Heigl represents the cool kids crowd in Hollywood that ignored you in high school and college so now you're just on a bitter rant cause you think being a "journalist" somehow puts you on higher plane. When in fact you work for print dinosaur that is sinking and nobody cares about what you say.

You say how critics pummeled her movie as if that's the barometer but you fail to mention it opened with almost $30 million. Film critics are also almost extinct you loser.

You're sad and irrelevant. Does anyone even care what you say. NO!

Katherine Heigl is laughing all the way to the bank and will have a long career where as your days are number working a sad paper that is on its way out.

[Diggy Zazz]

She is pustulent. Rogen rules.

[M.J.]

I like Heigl (the person) but hate the characters she plays. Must agree with the boys... She need's to stop trashing people. Also, she did kind of trash her character in 'knocked up' and yet she seems to play the same character movie after movie. Versatility would never be synonymous of the kind of actress she is. Really, just watching the preview for the 'Ugly Truth' made me question her ability to choose roles. Honestly, I simply don't think she's as good an actress as she probably thinks she is.... face and admit it, she just isn't.

[movie trailers]

thanxx cute girlll

[AJ]

I listened to the entire Apatow/Rogen segment on Howard Stern yesterday and the media descriptions of it have been far off the mark, describing them as having "trashed" Heigl. Nothing of the sort happened. Stern asked them about Heigl's remarks about "Knocked Up" and both Apatow and Rogen responded in an extremely light-hearted manner and were joking about it. Both of them, rightfully so in my view, seemed more confused about Heigl's remarks than anything else, describing her as having been absolutely terrific on thet set and an absolute pleasure to work with with no complaints about her role or character. According to them, she improvised many of her lines too, which makes her remarks about the movie having portrayed women as shrews and not in a good light even more confusing. Whether Heigl's remarks were truly off the cuff and natural to her personality or calculated to draw publicity is someone's call other than mine, but to have made the public comments about Knocked Up that she did, a movie that more than put her on the map film-wise, was primarily a dumb move. As Apatow put it, maybe she was just tired of being out promoting the movie. But, as Rogen put it, so was he and he didn't make similar backstabbing type comments! I think it's fair to say the two of them were actually kind of sweet about it, considering. Mr. Goldstein: do you really think words such as a*** and s***t are "raunchy"? Talk about trying to stir things up.....

[Christian Toto]

It's refreshing to hear an actor speak frankly ... too often we hear how "amazing" it was to work with so and so.

But Heigl's comments seem to be snarkier than needed, and her point about "Knocked Up" was dead wrong.

[Carlos]

Poor Katherine Heigl. What a terrible life she has. It must be hard to be born pretty, be handed roles she's unqualified for (you want to talk about one-note actors?!?), and be paid millions of dollars. Oh me oh my, and she has to work long hours. Gosh.

She has lashed out at Grey's Anatomy, Judd Apatow, and just about everybody else who signs her checks. If she has issues, how about she just takes them up in private, rather than crying to interviewers. Or how about she takes her millions of dollars and hires a therapist. They're paid to listen to her bull all day long.

And please, don't talk about how there's one standard for women and one for men when it comes to Katherine Heigl. It's not like she's speaking out about AIDS in Africa. She's complaining about her bosses in public. It's unprofessional, rude, and childish. She's not Meryl Streep, she's not Charlize Theron; she's a crap actress with a bad attitude.