Katherine Heigl open to returning to ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
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Katherine Heigl has a big new movie coming out, ‘One For the Money,’ in which she’s the main star, but she seems open to returning to ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ to play Dr. Izzie Stevens. The question now is: Do they want her?
Heigl was promoting her movie on E! when the interviewer asked her about the potential of a possible ‘Grey’s’ return and Heigl surprised everyone with her response. ‘I’ve told them I want to.... Being a showrunner and being a writer of a TV series like that is so complicated that, I mean, she’s got how many characters on there now? There’s a lot and so she’s balancing about 40 different story lines, so I don’t know if it fits into their sort of vision for this season or next or however many seasons it goes.’
Heigl, who left the long-running ABC series in January 2010 to be with her adopted daughter Naleigh, has had a long and rocky history with the writers of ‘Grey’s.’ In 2008, previous Emmy-winner Heigl withdrew her name from the Emmy race because, ‘I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination, and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention.’
Words like that did not endear her to the writers, although show creator Shonda Rhimes later said Heigl’s lack of meaty scenes was a result of the actress’ request for a lighter work schedule. During the summer of 2009, she publicly complained to David Letterman about the long hours she was subjected to on set, grousing about a 17-hour work day, which she called ‘cruel and mean.’
When filming resumed in March 2010, Heigl did not show up and was eventually released from her contract, leaving her character’s story line, which had recently involved a bout with cancer, unresolved.
As she told E!, ‘I really, really, really want to see where [Izzie] is. I just want to know what happened to her and where she went and what she’s doing now.’
If Rhimes doesn’t welcome Heigl back to the series, which is midway through its eighth season, she can at least hope that ‘One For the Money’ is a hit. It’s based on the first in a long, long series of books by mystery writer Janet Evanovich, meaning many, many sequels. If the fans show up, that is.
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-- Patrick Kevin Day
