Made to address rumors that
Grey's Anatomy writers' room dartboard pinup-girl
Katherine Heigl might not survive the coming season, ABC head Steve McPherson had this to say: ""She won an Emmy last year, she's a fantastically talented actress,' McPherson says. 'I think it's unfortunate when there's any kind of turmoil on that show. There's so many people who work so incredibly hard to make that show the No. 1 show in the country. I never like to see when any of them take it lightly. She's absolutely staying with the show. There's an unbelievable story line for her next season. Shonda Rhimes is excited about that, she actually crafted it.'" That's good news for Izzie Stevens fans, but doesn't entirely rule out the possibility that this personally crafted storyline won't involve the character being mauled beyond recognition by a freak deer attack while sleeping quietly at home. [
James Hibberd's The Live Feed, Photo Credit: INF]
trade roundup
· We're not really sure how studios divvy up video game titles, deciding a Postal or Bloodrayne needs to land on the pile with flies buzzing around it marked "For Uwe," while saving a property like Bioshock for a crowd-pleasing effects wizard like Gore Verbinski, but there you have it: Verbinksi will direct Universal's big-screen adaptation. (We know, we know: It's a classic. Release it from its Microsoft shackles, so we can at least all be on the same page.) [Variety]
· Alexander Payne has been attached to direct the buzzed-about pilot Hung—featuring a well-endowed protagonist who "figures out a way to use his best asset"—for HBO. His agents are currently awaiting their package fee. Rimshot! [Variety]
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executions
As
Isaiah Washington processes the complex feelings about his high-profile axing from
Grey's Anatomy, downgrading himself from "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore," to the far more reasonable, "saddened, but will gladly work with the powers that be to see if there isn't some third solution out there that better suits everyone's interests," questions still linger as to who ordered the whacking and when. According to an AP report, it was not the decision of
Grey's showrunner Shonda Rhimes—who "wept" when she made the call on Thursday—but rather a troika of
high-ranking ABC studio and network execs:
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upfronts
ABC's deliberate strategy of slowing feeding bored, disenchanted
Desperate Housewives viewers to the infant
Grey's Anatomy monster has finally come to fruition, as the Nielsen beast is now fully grown and ready to be sent out to wreak havoc on the network's competition. At a press conference this morning, ABC announced that it's moving
Grey's to 9 p.m. on Thursday, where it will compete with CBS's
CSI and, in a realization of NBC president
Kevin Reilly's
most career-chilling fears, the fledgling Aaron Sorkin drama
Studio 60.
Reports Var:
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les moonves
Broadcasting & Cable previews some of
NY Times reporter Bill Carter's behind-the-scenes book on the last five years in the TV business,
Desperate Networks, which we're hoping will bear the somewhat unwieldy subtitle
The Amazing Adventures of Scratchy Les, Purple Steve, and Zippy the Golden Boy:
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networks
At yesterday's Television Critics Association press event, ABC honcho Steven McPherson
kept his head down, refusing to publicly wallow in the recent success that hit dramas
Lost and
Desperate Housewives have brought to his network.
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Defamer
When NBC's 