This year’s inductee to the
Hall of Shame is perhaps a bit left of field, but hear me out. In 2007, the
first year of my blog, Katherine Heigl’s star was on the rise. She had an Emmy
award winning role in a hit television show (Grey’s Antatomy) and was one of
the two leads in Knocked Up, Judd Apatow’s hilarious hit comedy. Heck, I nominated her for Best Leading
Role by a Female Actor for that very part. Talented, funny and beautiful (tall, full-figured blonde completely fits Hollywood's star profile), it seemed
like Heigl was about to break through and join Hollywood’s elite. And then
things started coming out. First off, her public comments about Knocked Up
being “a little sexist” didn’t help matters, then she withdrew her name from
the 2008 Emmys list of TV contenders, not happy enough with the quality of the
material she was given to justify a potential nod and from there one thing
after another. Despite building up an unsavory reputation (“She can cost you
time every single day of shooting… Wardrobe issues, not getting out of the
trailer, questioning the script every single day. Even getting her deal closed
at Warners was hard. She hit that point of ‘no.’” – Hollywood Reporter), there are
reports of her making extreme salary demands. Allegedly, she asked to be paid
$3 million for a minor part in the ensemble comedy Valentine’s Day, which also had
higher-profile stars Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx
working on smaller salaries. This is a shame especially, not only because I think
she is legitimately talented and has reduced herself to taking mediocre lead roles in crap rom-coms and minor parts in ensemble films. With the recent debate on women not getting good enough parts in Hollywood, and
in her mid-thirties, Heigl, by burying herself, may have lost the best years of
her career in doing so.
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