June 2009 News Archive (Page 3)

While fans of Grey’s Anatomy have been left to speculate on the future of original cast members Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight, some of their co-stars are no better off.

Access Hollywood caught up with Jessica Capshaw, who plays Dr. Arizona Robbins on Grey's, to as if she had any insight on the respective futures of Izzie and George.

“I will absolutely be quoted as saying [series creator and executive producer] Shonda Rhimes is an absolute genius because she doesn’t tell anyone anything,” Jessica said.

Not knowing what lies ahead is just fine with Jessica.

“That’s actually very generous of her because she doesn’t want to burden us with knowing and not being able to tell you – or telling you!” the actress added.

The beautiful, talented Jessica Capshaw.

However, Jessica’s own future with the show also remains up in the air – she revealed she has yet to receive her renewal letter (although ABC has until June 20 to send it).

“Knock on wood,” she said.

The 32-year-old actress, who joined the show in its fifth season, was hopeful she would be returning to Seattle Grace, along with the rest of the Grey's Anatomy cast.

“It’s fantastic. It’s funny that there’s so much drama surrounding the show, because you’ve never met a group of more decent people,” she said. “It’s as normal as it gets.”

Dominic Monaghan is appearing in ABC's new promo campaign, but according to EW, it has nothing whatsoever to do with Charlie Pace being resurrected on Lost.

But that's what the network wants folks to think.

Why? Because they're trying to keep under wraps the real reason he was playing table soccer with Patrick Dempsey, Courteney Cox, and Ed O'Neill in that clip.

Monaghan is featured in that spot because rather than coming back to Lost, where he starred for three seasons, he's actually joining the cast of another hour-long ABC drama series as a full-time regular. And ABC wants it to be a surprise.

A big surprise.

Our question: Why on earth wouldn't ABC want people to know which of its shows' casts would be augmented by Dominic Monaghan, a popular actor from Lost, and also the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the summer blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine?

• Could it be because the show Monaghan is joining is none other than Grey's Anatomy, and making the announcement could spoil the show's summer cliffhanger?
• Could Monaghan be taking over the role of George O'Malley from T.R. Knight, or playing a new character altogether that ABC nonetheless wants to keep secret?

We have no evidence to suggest this is actually happening other than what you just read above. It's just a rumor, and we are just throwing that out there. Thoughts?

If Patrick Dempsey has his way, he'll add bus driver to his résumé.

"I'd love to have a nice bus so I could bring my kids racing with me," the Grey's Anatomy star, 43, told People magazine after a qualifying run in his Mazda RX-8 for Friday's Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series in Watkins Glen, N.Y., where he spent a weekend behind the wheel.

For the actor – who qualified for Saturday's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen at position No. 9, the best in his racing career – balancing his passions with his family duties.

Patrick Dempsey has a daughter Talula, 7, and 2-year-old twin sons Darby and Sullivan with makeup-artist wife Jillian, who he wed in 1999. He calls it a delicate balancing act.

"I would be so happy if they were with me when I race," says Dempsey. "The kids are young so I need to find a great furnished vehicle for all of us so they can be with me on the track."

Dempsey, who's traveling around the world to race – including next week's 24 Hours of Le Mans in France – on his summer break from filming Grey's Anatomy, likens racing to acting.

"I am very focused," he says. "I sit and wait for a race the same way I wait for a scene to be shot on TV or in film. I pace myself emotionally and calm down so when I am on, I am on."

When Grey's Anatomy is on break, Dempsey' life is totally devoted to his racing career, which often coincides with fund-raising for favorite charities like breast cancer.

"When I am not with the kids, I spend all of my off time from the show working toward improving my racing skills," he says. "I love it. I love the healthy competition."

Though his wife and children weren't with him at Saturday's race, the Maine native's mother, sister and other family members were on hand to cheer him on.

"I grew up ski-racing with my family and to them being here feels like I've come home," he says. "I am looking forward to the day my own kids can be at my side."

Welcom to the 161st edition of the Grey's Anatomy Insider Caption Contest.

It was a difficult call, as it always is, but this week's winner is mcanna, with an honorable mention to katiegr. The winning entry appears beneath the picture below.

Thanks to all for playing and best of luck again in this week's contest ...

Meredith: Oh, Izzy. I just wanna tell you. I am pregnant. This is my first ultrasound image. It has Dereks hair.

As Grey's Anatomy anxiously await the fates of cast members T.R. Knight and Katherine Heigl and whether their characters, George O'Malley and Izzie Stevens, will be back season, another original star of the show is nervous about her own status.

Well, probably not really. But Chandra Wilson, who plays Dr. Miranda Bailey on the hit ABC show, is still waiting to re-sign her contract to come back for a sixth season.

"You know, I don't have the slightest idea!" the actress, who is starring in Chicago this summer, told The View when asked if she knew who was leaving. "I know nothing!"

In fact, she said that she still hasn't received word on whether she'll be back on the show: "I'm waiting for my Disney letter saying, 'You have the option to come back.'"

The company has until June 20 to send it, she added.

We can confidently say that hell would freeze over before the series would let Wilson go, but her coyness indicates that even fellow cast members likely have no clue what's going to happen with Knight and Heigl. Whether Knight and Heigl even know is a mystery!

Reports of George's demise vary - and have lingered for months, culminating in a gripping season finale in which he and Izzie were literally in between life and death.

Grey's Anatomy creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes hasn't divulged any information on next season's cast or story lines. All we can do is hope for the best.

Is he staying? Is he going?

The debate goes on (and on, and on). But you can count Justin Chambers among those who don't want T.R. Knight to leave the cast of Grey's Anatomy.

"T.R. is an amazing actor and I want him to be there as long as I'm on there," said Chambers, who plays Dr. Alex Karev on Grey's Anatomy, to E! Online the other night at the Salvatore Ferragamo benefit for L'Aquila Earthquake victims. "He's wonderful to work with."

Besides, T.R.'s character, Dr. George O'Malley, has so much growing to do.

"That's one of the great things about the show," Justin Chambers said.

"All the characters have so much left to explore. From the beginning of the series, the audience followed these young interns coming into this hospital and now they're residents ... but they still have much more to learn as far as surgery, social skills and manners."

For her part, former Grey's Anatomy guest star Melissa George said she's not convinced that Knight is leaving the show he's been on since its 2005 premiere.

No matter what happens, she said, "He'll go on to bigger and better things."

Below is a list of the Grey's Anatomy stars and guest stars who have submitted their names for consideration in the 2009 Prime Time Emmy Awards this fall, as well as the two episodes the series itself used in its official drama category submission.

Note that Ellen Pompeo is the only star submitting herself in a "lead" category. Who do you think stands the best chance of being nominated in each of these categories?

Follow this link for the full list of nominees, and share your thoughts below.

DRAMA SERIES

• Grey's Anatomy: "Stairway to Heaven" & "Sympathy for the Devil"

LEAD ACTRESS (DRAMA)

• Grey's Anatomy (Ellen Pompeo)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS (DRAMA)

• Grey's Anatomy (Jessica Capshaw)
• Grey's Anatomy (Katherine Heigl)
• Grey's Anatomy (Chyler Leigh)
• Grey's Anatomy (Sandra Oh)
• Grey's Anatomy (Sara Ramirez)
• Grey's Anatomy (Brooke Smith)
• Grey's Anatomy (Chandra Wilson)

SUPPORTING ACTOR (DRAMA)

• Grey's Anatomy (Justin Chambers)
• Grey's Anatomy (Eric Dane)
• Grey's Anatomy (Patrick Dempsey)
• Grey's Anatomy (Kevin McKidd)
• Grey's Anatomy (T.R. Knight)
• Grey's Anatomy (James Pickens, Jr.)

Follow the jump for the list of guest stars and their characters who are have submitted their names to the panel who will determine the Emmy nominees ...

Continue Reading...

Ellen Pompeo makes an adorable pregnant person. But will Meredith Grey be expecting as well, come fall? Here's what TV Guide's Matt Webb Mitovich says there ...

Q: Any scoop to get us Mer-Der fans through the dog days of summer? Perhaps some "baby talk" about Grey's Anatomy writing in Ellen Pompeo's pregnancy?

A: Both Chyler Leigh (Lexie) and I are of the mind that Grey's Anatomy would be hard-pressed to accommodate Pompeo's pregnancy, if only because of the timing.

"As far as I know they are not [writing it in]," Leigh said, pointing out that by the time the ABC serial resumes production, "Ellen will be, like, seven months [along]."

The only way I see it happening - and at least one source allows, "It could go either way" - is if Season Six picks up five or six months after the recent finale.

Such a jump would also allow poor George time to heal and look like recast Eddie Cibrian. Just kidding. Though a rumor of a new actor playing George did surface.

Ellen Pompeo is ready to be a mom!

"She is so on top of it, and she is so excited and she is very sweet about it," Grey's Anatomy co-star Jessica Capshaw (Arizona) told Us Weekly at an event at the Byron & Tracey Salon in Beverly Hills on Thursday. "She is doing all her research."

Capshaw - who had her first child, Luke, in September 2007 - says she hasn't had to give any parenting advice to her pregnant co-star.

"She doesn't need any," the actress tells Us. "She is exactly the way that she should be about it, which is really excited and hopeful but at the same time really pragmatic and planning."

"I think that is the best way for her to be."

Ellen Pompeo, 39, announced in April that she and her music producer husband of a year and a half, Chris Ivery, are expecting their first child.

Capshaw - who stars as Dr. Arizona Robbins in the hit ABC series - doesn't know if her pregnancy will be written into next season's show, and she's equally unaware if T.R. Knight and Katherine Heigl will return (rhe two appeared to have died in the season finale).

"No one knows!" Capshaw says.

She adds: "[Show creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes] is keeping it under wraps, and I think the best thing about that is she is the guardian of the gate. It's better that way. She doesn't even run the risk of it coming out because nobody knows."

Reports of George O'Malley's demise have circulated since the season finale of Grey's Anatomy May 14, and seemed all but official after a report that circulated last week. However, nothing is official just yet ... we think. This from E!'s spoiler Q&A today ...

Q: What will happen on Grey's Anatomy next season? Are George and Izzie goners?

A: E! Online's Marc Malkin has an inside source who says that T.R. Knight will not be returning to Grey's Anatomy due to issues with executive producer Shonda Rhimes. Sources tell TVGuide.com, "That story is utterly false. Nothing at all has changed in T.R.'s status."

Shonda Rhimes has also gone on record debunking new rumors that an entirely different actor would play George thanks to plastic surgery. However, we all know how Shonda toed the lines of truth last season and stops at nothing to keep the audience guessing.

Guess we'll have to keep on ... guessing.

Original cast member T.R. Knight has been a Grey's Anatomy fixture since George's early, longer-haired days. His future has been the subject of great speculation for months now.