Defending Katherine Heigl...Again

What is it about beautiful, opinionated women that makes all of Hollywood (especially the media) want to scream? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, it's not like berating women for speaking up is a new practice. If memory serves me correctly, both Jane Fonda and Barbra Streisand got handed a very large can of whooping ass for expressing their personal and political opinions. In Hollywood, you can be a do good political persona ala Angelina Jolie, but having an opinion that might call Hollywood on the carpet, that's a no no.

The person in the center of the current "everyone in Hollywood hates me" storm is Katherine Heigl star of Grey's Anatomy and 27 Dresses. You might recall that earlier this year she had the gaul to say that Knocked Up was sexist (which it was), and for that honesty she was labeled as ungrateful and her film career was declared dead. It's a good thing her fans didn't get that message because the gross of 27 Dresses was $76 million in the US and almost $160 million worldwide.

Recently, she had the nerve to decline to submit herself for Emmy consideration and publicly mentioned that she felt her storyline this past season was unworthy of recognition (another truth.)

Everyone pounced calling her ungrateful (again) and adding that she wants out of her TV contract to make movies. Rumors surfaced (everywhere) that the writers and producers were upset and that the set was full of tension. Many a site began the Izzie death watch. The venom that was displayed was way over the top. People didn't just want her to get fired (for giving an opinion no less), but they wanted her character to die. That's the lesson a woman gets for speaking out about something that honestly is not really important at all -- an Emmy award nomination -- yet people want to punish her in such a profound way. Extrapolating this into real life, if a woman gets punished for speaking out about something as trivial as an award nomination, imagine the message the rest of us get about speaking out about issues like equal pay, choice, rape...you get the picture. The message is to shut up and take what you got and don't make waves cause you will be punished. Sound familiar?

It took a while but finally one of her co-stars Chandra Wilson (Dr. Bailey) found her voice and explained to us lay people about the Emmy nomination process. You really need have had a spectacular episode to submit. Some years you have one, some you don't, and if you don't you shouldn't bother submitting.

I didn't find another person in print defending Heigl until I read Mark Harris' column in EW. Harris is the author of the critically acclaimed Pictures at a Revolution. I meant to give him some props for his earlier column that took it to the Hollywood suits for their pathetic realization that women do go to the movies after the success of Sex and the City. Please check out the story: Hollywood 'Shocker': Women Go To Movies.

But his defense of Heigl and women in Hollywood is fantastic. I'm still shocked that there are so few people willing to stand up for this woman? Where are the other Hollywood actresses?

Could there be a worse career move for an actress than telling the truth?

Little has changed, except the coarseness with which celebrities can now be discussed — and the rules actresses must obey. Among them: Have a ''positive body image,'' but also a killer body. Stay within the two-pound weight range that will not reveal you as either anorexic or a pig. Age gracefully, but never get older. Don't have wrinkles, but don't use Botox. Be modest, but when you win an award, weep as if a gold statuette is a personalized gift from heaven. If you get pregnant, be prepared to let a dozen news outlets act as your ob-gyn. Express concern about your carbon footprint, but don't be ''political.'' Talk about how living a normal life is important to you, but smile while every aspect of it is scrutinized.

I like Heigl because there seems to be a person in there, one who occasionally says things that people can't stand. (And really, if she'd said, ''Actually, I do think my material should get me an Emmy nomination,'' would that sound better?) I like the fact that she busted Isaiah Washington for homophobia when everyone behind the scenes at Grey's Anatomy was busy staring into space. I like the fact that she gently tweaked Judd Apatow for the slight gender imbalance in Knocked Up. I like the fact that her first thought after winning an Emmy wasn't ''How can I get another one?'' And I like the fact that her mouth — which is not even slightly ugly — is connected to her brain. Katherine Heigl's 'Grey' Matter: What's the Problem? (EW)

The treatment of Katherine Heigl should be a lesson to all women, and not just in Hollywood. We need to stand up and support each other.

Update: Found this story written about the situation AFTER I posted my piece. Interesting.
What’s wrong with Heigl speaking out? (AP via MSNBC)

Sexist Blog Comment of the Day

Katherine Heigl created a bit of a storm the other day by pulling her name out of Emmy contention for her role on Grey's Anatomy (she won the Emmy last year). She basically publicly said that she felt her part on the show this year was crap. Immediately, Heigl was skewered as she was last year for saying that Knocked Up was "a little sexist." Why is it when a woman speaks out she is tared and feathered. Check out this great piece examining whether the treatment Heigl is receiving is sexist from Rope of Silicon Is Sexism the Overlooked -Ism?

This comment from David Poland of Movie City News (who now joins Jeff Wells in the Hollywood blogger Hall of Shame) is just vile.

And then, in a few years, the almost-40 topless work, hoping to remind Hollywood that they really wanted to bang this blonde just a few years before. And who knows, maybe she will become a real actress as she hits movie-parental age and can play the lonely wife opposite a 60something Jim Carrey.

Shame on you.

Katherine Heigl, Hollywood Feminist

I gotta admit that this woman has guts. Most people who have been hit with the backlash for comments made about women's place in Hollywood would probably keep their mouths, but as her film 27 Dresses is about to open in England, Heigl again goes on the record about the whole Knocked Up is sexist controversy. (By the way, Judd Apatow has count it four films he's produced opening this year.) Here's some of what she said to the Guardian.

Those comments provoked quite a backlash, and Heigl was described as ungrateful and a traitor. Some people even suggested she would never work again. Was she surprised at that? "I was. Maybe it was naive of me," she says. "I think that the reality of starting to become successful is that [some people] want to slate you for something - put you in a box and put a label on what sort of a person you are. I'm not wild, I haven't been to rehab, I don't do anything eccentric - I'm really boring. So that's where they have to go." She stands by her comment, but says the sexism element "didn't lessen my enjoyment of the movie. That's where the comedy lies, between these polar opposites and stereotypes of female-male behaviour. I don't know a lot of guys that act like Ben, but we know that some exist. I don't know a lot of women who act like Alison, but again we know that some women do. Those are the stereotypes, and they're exaggerated. But it seemed to me that she was such a stiff, she had such a stick up her ass. I wish she had been a little more fun."

"I would never want to be malicious or ignorant," she continues, "but I didn't think that comment was any of those things. It was my opinion and I'm allowed to have one. Isn't it the land of the free?"

I'm sure some people are thinking, yes, Katherine you are allowed to have an opinion, just as long as you don't say anything that matters. Clearly, this woman has a rational brain and is not afraid to stand up for herself and others. (She was one of the first to speak up last year during the Grey's Anatomy homophobic incident that got Isiah Washington fired.)

Full story: Katherine Heigl (The Guardian)
(photo credit: Wire Image)

Leslie Mann Takes the Bait

Leslie Mann is Judd Apatow's wife. She's been in his last several movies and this week opens as the female foil to the Apatow produced Drillbit Taylor starring Owen Wilson (film looks really, really bad.) She had some success early in her career and then after she co-starred with Jim Carrey in The Cable Guy she couldn't get a job. (Funny though that Jim Carrey the actual star of the film still got work.) Lucky for her she hooked up with Apatow and for a while she focused on her family.

This week EW gives her their "spotlight" and she really gives it to Katherine Heigl about her comments regarding Knocked Up.

Having emerged in the last couple of years as a compelling female voice in what's often perceived as the Apatowian boys' club, Mann strongly defends her turf. She says she was surprised when Knocked Up costar Katherine Heigl publicly critiqued the film as being 'a little sexist,' saying it paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight. Mann retorts, I didn't think I was a humorless shrew in Knocked Up. I think the women are just as funny as the men in that movie. 'Humorless shrews'- who even says that? I just think its an odd choice of words.

Here's what I think Leslie, you took the bait. Katherine Heigl told the truth. Knocked Up was more than a little bit sexist. It was very sexist, but it was also funny, that's why we're (OK, me) are so uncomfortable with it.

If Judd Apatow is as close to god as Hollywood thinks he is, he should be able to make films that are less demeaning to women.

I'm standing up for Katherine Heigl all the way.