Heigl Leaving “Grey's”. HOORAY! NO MORE IZZIE!

Straight from the “I thought this happened two years ago” department: actress Katherine Heigl is finally being released from her “Grey’s Anatomy” contract.

According to Michael Ausiello of EW:

Sources confirm to me exclusively that series creator Shonda Rhimes has agreed to release the fast-rising movie star from her contract. It’s now up to ABC Studios and Heigl’s reps to hash out a final exit agreement…

Heigl is not expected to return to the Grey’s set, which means her final episode as Izzie has already aired.

Well, let’s all send Shonda Rhimes a big fat thank you card for that. I have encountered many insufferable TV characters in my lifetime. Janice Soprano. Scrappy Doo. The entire cast of “Til Death.” But few have irritated me quite the way Katherine Heigl’s Izzie has. I say this as someone who has, over the years, been routinely forced to watch “Grey’s” out of marital obligation, and Izzie made me want to put a hockey stick through my screen every time she popped up.

And that’s saying something, given that EVERY CHARACTER on that show is insufferable. Somehow, Heigl’s character was even MORE irritating, more wildly self-absorbed in her own do-gooder way. She cried all the time. She baked things when she was sad, which is about the lamest female stereotype ever. She fell in love with a patient (stupid), then killed him (stupider), then had sex with that patient’s ghost (stupidest). She broke up a colleague’s marriage by being a bitch to George’s wife and sleeping with George. She was, inarguably, a horrible doctor who never would have made it through pre-med classes at Lower Guatemala Community College, given her constant breakdowns.

And yet, she was welcomed back by Seattle Grace roughly 500 times. Seriously, would you ever visit that hospital if it was a real place and you needed urgent medical care? I’d rather get treatment at a Popeye’s Chicken. At least there would be chicken.

So let us all bid Katherine Heigl a fond farewell as she goes on to long a fruitful career of making romantic comedies you will never watch. Izzie is officially gone forever. And no dopey storyline wrap-up required. It’s almost enough to make me want to start watching “Grey’s” again.

Almost.

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