Katherine Heigl has hit another stumbling block on her way to movie stardom. Sources say the actress, whose just-concluded season on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” might have been her last, was dropped from a top-tier ensemble cast in the upcoming romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day” because she demanded an astronomical salary.

The flick, which is scheduled to be released in February 2011, is directed by Garry Marshall and has signed such big names as Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Shirley MacLaine and Bradley Cooper.

An insider told Page Six, “Producers at New Line originally had Katherine on their casting list. They wanted her for the project, but during the talks, she came back demanding $3 million for the role.”

Our source calls that number “ridiculous” because the movie has “an ensemble cast where there is really no one lead role. Actors are only filming between three and 14 days, and no other actors asked for nearly that amount.”

A rep for Heigl told Page Six, “The story is ludicrous. Early negotiations are a daily occurrence in this business, and just for clarification, Katherine walked away from this project for multiple reasons.” A spokeswoman for New Line had “no comment.”

It’s not the first time Heigl has come across as a diva. In 2007, after “Knocked Up,” she told Vanity Fair the Judd Apatow-directed movie “paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. I had a hard time with it on some days.”

She also caused a commotion when she withdrew her name from consideration for last year’s Emmy race, slighting the “Grey’s Anatomy” writers by saying, “I do not feel I was given the material this season to warrant a nomination.” Heigl, whose character was dying of brain cancer, did enter herself in this year’s awards nominations.

(source)

Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl

Katherine Heigl and Designer Peter Alexander

Mandy Moore and Designer Peter Alexander

Alicia Silverstone

Is Katherine Heigl’s nic fit finally over?

The Grey’s star who’s seldom seen in public without a cigarette between her lips is quitting smoking, at least according to costar T.R. Knight.

A former smoker himself, T.R. told In Touch he’s supporting her efforts without nagging his pal about it. “You have to be ready and find it in yourself.”

It’s apparently taken seven years for Katherine to come around and see the smoke-free light—here’s hoping her resolution sticks.

America Ferrera

Jaime Pressley

Katherine Heigl

Tila Tequila

Katherine Heigl could be killed off Grey’s Anatomy next season, a well-placed source tells Us Weekly in its latest issue.

The idea came after Heigl, 29, withdrew herself from Emmy contention, saying that she didn’t feel she was “given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination.”

In response to Heigl’s griping, staffers are considering giving her character, Dr. Izzie Stevens, a brain tumor.

“[Producer] Shonda [Rhimes] and the writers are pissed at her,” the source tells Us. “It’s their way of screwing with her. She won’t know whether she’s going to live or die.”

Still, there’s good news for fans sad to see Izzie suffer: newly single Jeffrey Dean Morgan will reprise his role as hunky patient Denny Duquette, whom Izzie will see in visions brought on by the tumor.

And a second source thinks the story arc, ironically, may not be a bad thing for Heigl: “If her character does get a brain tumor, she’ll probably get an Emmy!”

A rep for ABC tells Us, “We can confirm that [Morgan] will be back, but we are not releasing any further details.”

At Wednesday’s Television Critics Association’s annual fall preview, ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson insisted Heigl is “absolutely staying with the show. There’s an unbelievable storyline this season.”

The show returns September 25 with a two-hour premiere.

(source)

Katherine Heigl will star in and produce the feature film adaptation of “Escape,” the bestselling memoir of Carolyn Jessop, whose testimony helped convict polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs.

Relevant Entertainment and Como Court Prods. acquired the book. Michael Menchel and Cat Williams will produce with Heigl and her Abishag partner Nancy Heigl.

Jessop was born into the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints sect. At 18 she married a man 32 years her senior; at 35, she fled with her eight children.

Equity financier Como Court Prods. will pay to develop the script.

Relevant was started by Menchel, the former longtime CAA agent who became a manager at Artists Management Group before shifting to producer. The shingle has set up several projects at studios including a Paramount film Menchel is producing with Simon Cowell about tenor Paul Potts and the family film “The Tortoise & The Hippo” at Walden Media.

Heigl is shooting the Robert Luketic-directed Sony/Lakeshore comedy “The Ugly Truth.” Abishag projects include “Alpha Moms,” a Ryan Shiraki-scripted comedy for Warner Bros., which the Heigls are producing with Code Entertainment’s Larry Kennar and Rick Berg, and the Fox 2000/Spyglass action comedy “Drawn Together.”

(source)

Just weeks after “Grey’s Anatomy” returned with new episodes, sources are saying Katherine Heigl is itching to hang up her scrubs. “She’s working really long hours and is ready to move on,” a source close to the actress told Us Weekly.

Fifteen months ago, Heigl renegotiated her “Grey’s” contract. The net result from that: Because the negotiations went public and she got the raise she wanted from the show, Heigl proved she wasn’t about to become an of-the-moment primetime star. Additionally, Heigl has had tremendous big-screen success with her leading roles in “Knocked Up” and “27 Dresses.”

“She’s a smart one. She saw what can happen with someone like Jennifer Aniston, who was crazy successful on TV, but can’t seem to carry a film, and she tested the waters early,” said a movie industry source.

Even so, Heigl might be locked into “Grey’s” a bit longer. “I don’t think she’ll be able to get out of it,” the US source said of Heigl’s contract.

(source)

It’s been three months since her Christmas-themed wedding in Park City, Utah, and Katherine Heigl can’t stop singing the praises of her new husband, musician Josh Kelley.

“He was everything I was looking for, or needed or wanted in my life,” the 27 Dresses star told Britain’s Sunday Times. “He’s just so easy to be around. He lightens up the room and lightens my load.”

In fact, the 29-year-old Grey’s Anatomy star already has babies on the brain. “I think he’d prefer to wait a little more time, but I kind of wouldn’t,” she told the paper, adding that it would be “foolish” to waste their current career opportunities. “I think we’ll meet somewhere in the middle.”

When it comes to maintaining her famous figure, Heigl relies on that same spirit of compromise. “I’ve just discovered if I don’t eat bread or pasta, my stomach doesn’t feel so bloated all the time,” she said. “I try to eat healthy, but I think if you cut out every wonderful thing you love, what’s the point? I’d rather feel sick.”

Overcoming Family Tragedy
Heigl may seem to have it all these days – a rock-star hubby, a hit TV series and comparisons to America’s Sweetheart Julia Roberts. (“I can’t help but feel that’s a little insulting to Julia Roberts,” she joked to the Times.) But her life wasn’t always so picture perfect.

When she was only 7, her older brother Jason died from injuries he sustained when he was thrown from the back of a pickup truck.

“For a long time, [Jason's death] made me afraid of being too happy because things happen so unexpectedly,” she said. “Your world can change and every aspect of your life is different.”

In fact, Heigl said, she’s still learning to let down her defenses. “[His death] made me afraid when good things happen. It made me brace against it that little bit,” she explained. “I’m trying hard not to do that any more. It doesn’t make something terrible easier – and I don’t want to waste my happiness.”

(source)