Did Katherine Heigl Have this Hollywood Reporter Story Edited?
Between slamming her Grey's Anatomy writers, being fired by her publicists, and recent unsurprising reports of insane behavior towards cast and crew on her films, it's no secret that Katherine Heigl is hard to work with. But did she bully The Hollywood Reporter into dropping a mention of her in an interview with Shonda Rhimes, released today?
As of 8:30 AM PST, the Rhimes interview headline read "'Grey's Anatomy's' Shonda Rhimes on Possible Spinoff, Creative PTSD, and Katherine Heigl Aftermath (Q&A)."
But as of 10:00 AM, the lede of the article was changed to denote the article had been updated, and the new headline read: "'Grey's Anatomy's Shonda Rhimes on Possible Spinoff, Creative PTSD, Cast Departures," with no mention of Heigl in the article.
So what did THR trim from Lesley Goldberg's piece? Yahoo! Movies Canada posted the original article (full screengrab below), and the now-redacted Heigl portion previously read:
Was there ever a time when you felt like Grey's wasn't a family? How did you handle that?
Absolutely. Creatively, that was a really difficult time, and it was hard for me to write the show. Seasons four and five were difficult because I was in a dark place [after Katherine Heigl said she had insufficient material and declined to submit herself for the Emmys]. In the beginning, it felt like such a magical place, and to discover that everyone isn't who you thought they were is very unfortunate.
However, the edited article currently on THR shifts the blame to Isaiah Washington, who was fired after using multiple homosexual slurs:
Was there ever a time when you felt like Grey's wasn't a family? How did you handle that?
Absolutely. Creatively, that was a really difficult time, and it was hard for me to write the show. Seasons four and five were difficult because I was in a dark place after the press frenzy that descended on us because of the [Isaiah Washington and T.R. Knight situation and critical backlash to the stories.]. In the beginning, it felt like such a magical place, and to discover that everyone isn't who you thought they were is very unfortunate.
Emphasis mine. Interesting that not only did Goldberg's clarification for Rhimes quote change, but the word for word quote was amended itself.
Given THR's recent takedown of Heigl, it seems odd the publication would edit a story mentioning her, without pressure from Heigl's camp. I've reached out to both THR and Heigl's publicist, Jill Fritzo at PMK*BNC, and have not heard back.
UPDATE: I heard back from Heigl's publicist, who tells me that neither she nor Heigl had anything to do with the THR story and didn't know it was running.
2ND UPDATE: Per THR's executive editor, Matthew Belloni: "No Katherine Heigl pressure, just a misunderstanding. Our writer thought Rhimes was referencing the Heigl situation but when the Q&A published, ABC let us know that she was talking about the TR Knight/Isaiah Washington controversy, not Heigl. So we changed the parenthetical and noted that the story had been updated."
Editors' note: The headline of this post was changed to reflect the fact that the story was edited after publication, not killed.