“Hey, Show That Made Me Famous, YOU SUCK! Now give me my big fat check . . .”

“Hello everybody!  I’d like to introduce you to my High Horse!”

This week was a busy one for Outspoken TV Starlets.  It began with Katherine Heigl announcing that she was leaving Grey’s Anatomy, and that her formerly “temporary” hiatus from the show had just become a permanent one.  Thus making for a sort of unplanned, and awkward, ending for her character, Izzie Stevens. 

“Nice knowing ya, Emmy! Looks like I’ll never be seeing YOU again!”

 Then, later in the week, Entertainment Weekly released this “Sorry, I was such a bitch before,” interview from the absentee starlet.

Even LATER in the week, during an interview with the AV Club, Big Love star, Chloe Sevigny, had some not-so-nice things to say about her beloved HBO series’ rocky fourth season.

“The bad news is, I put my foot in my mouth.  The good news is, now a lot of people are going to start renting “The Brown Bunny” again to watch me put something ELSE in there . . .”

Here’s what she said . . .

AVC: This past season of Big Love has taken a lot of flak for being so over-the-top.

CS: It was awful this season, as far as I’m concerned. I’m not allowed to say that! [Gasps.] It was very telenovela. I feel like it kind of got away from itself. The whole political campaign seemed to me very farfetched. I mean, I love the show, I love my character, I love the writing, but I felt like they were really pushing it this last season. And with nine episodes, I think they were just squishing too much in. HBO only gave us nine Sundays, because they have so much other original programming—especially with The Pacific—and they only have a certain amount of Sundays per year, so we only got nine Sundays. I think that they had more story than episodes. I think that’s what happened.

AVC: It sort of became like Mormon Dynasty. 

CS: [Laughs.] I know, I know. I’ve heard a lot of other things like that.

AVC: What was it like when they first laid out what they wanted to accomplish this season? What was your reaction?

CS: They don’t. We only get it episode to episode. We never know what’s going to happen in the next episode until we’re almost finished shooting the one we’re shooting at present. Me and the girls [Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin] definitely were not very happy with where it was going—or more kind of, “We really hope it’s going to work. It seems like they’re really pushing it.” I think next season, they’re going to go back to more just the family. I think that the stuff with Ben and Lois and that stuff was really great in Mexico, but… [Laughs.]

You can find THAT interview in its entirety here.

Of course, one day later, Chloe made HER obligatory mea culpa  . . . sort of.

“Just kidding!  LOL!”

What happened? Why’d you say it?
SEVIGNY: [Long pause] I feel like what I said was taken out of context, and the [reporter] I was speaking to was provoking me. I was in Austin [at the SXSW festival] and really exhausted and doing a press junket and I think I just… I wasn’t thinking about what I was saying. You know, after a day of junkets sometimes things slip out that you don’t mean, and I obviously didn’t mean what I said in any way, shape, or form. I love being on the show. I have nothing but respect and admiration for our writers and everybody involved with the show . . .

(It looks like she’s playing a bit of a “blame game” with the interviewer in question, which makes her apology seem a bit less than sincere . . . ).

You can read the rest of this SECOND interview here.

*          *           *              *

I have to admit, I am a bit torn, regarding my views on this type of “talk” from actors and actresses regarding their shows.  On one hand, I was a journalism major in college, and I went to law school after that.  Plus, I am a blogger and sort-of novelist in my spare time.  So, the First Amendment and I?  We are pretty close . . .

And, yes, Katherine Heigl and Chloe Sevigny kind of have a point when it comes to certain decisions that their writers have made regarding the shows on which they star (or formerly starred, in the case of Katherine).

As far as television romances go, “Gizzie” was kind of lame (And, let’s be honest, the moniker is vaguely pornographic, but NOT in a sexy way . . .)

“Perhaps “Spermie” would be more appropriate?”

And, then there were those bizarro episodes where Izzie cheated on Karev, by having Hallucination Sex with Dead Denny . . .

“It was a tight economy!  I wanted to save money on condoms!”

Oh, and let’s not forget that episode where Izzie saved the DEER!

“What the f*ck is this?  They told me I would get to be on Lost!  Get my agent on the phone, NOW!”

And as far as Big Love is concerned?  There WERE some good storylines during Season 4.  But there were also a lot of not-so-good ones . . .

Sorry Sissy . . .

ON THE OTHER HAND . . .

Actresses like Katherine Heigl and Chloe Sevigny are extremely fortunate people.  In a world where everyone and their mother wants to work in Hollywood, they are actually doing it.  In an economy, where 10 plus %of the country is unemployed, Katherine and Chloe are regularly pulling in big pay checks, living in large homes, and taking very long HIATUSES a.k.a.  vacations, every year . . . 

When you are on a show that has been around as long as Grey’s Anatomy, or even Big Love, you are bound to run across some bad storylines, weak episodes, and character inconsistencies.  And, yes, an actor or actress is certainly entitled to his or her opinion about the direction in which their show is traveling.  However, to express one’s grievances so publicly and in such a harsh manner, just seems a bit tacky to me, and a tad ungrateful.  

There are millions of actors and actresses out there who would literally KILL for an opportunity to be part of a GIZZIE, or have tumor-induced hallucination sex, or get artificially inseminated with their television daughter’s egg . . . but they CAN’T, because those jobs are already taken by people who don’t seem to really appreciate them.

 If I  ran crying to the news media every time I had a work-related gripe, I’d be willing to bet my bosses wouldn’t be as “supportive and understanding” as the producers of Grey’s Anatomy  or Big Love have been.  In fact, I’d probably be on the unemployment line so fast, I wouldn’t even have time to steal a Red Swingline Stapler from my desk . . .

“MY PRECIOUS . . .”

By denigrating their shows in this way, Katherine and Chloe were not only sticking it to the producers (who, in both cases, took a chance on them when they were fledgling stars, and helped to build their careers), they were also sticking it to the hardworking writers of their shows, their costars, and US, the fans, who have stuck by these series through thick and thin, and may or may not have agreed with all of their assessments. 

I don’t know about you, but when I watch a television program, I LIKE to separate from reality, and pretend the characters on the screen are real.  I can’t do THAT, if everytime I see Nikki Grant on screen, I imagine her inwardly rolling her eyes, and thinking, “Ugghh, not this awful Senate storyline again . . .”

But, then again . . . maybe, that’s just ME . . .