Cast News (Page 3)

With two days to go until their wedding, Katherine Heigl and fiance Josh Kelley share a high-five over lunch in West Hollywood. Congratulating themselves on a job well done planning their wedding, perhaps? That, or they're just clowning around!

Cute couple: Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley will marry Sunday, December 23.

With her Golden Globe nomination and her new movie coming out next month in 27 Dresses, Katherine Heigl's wedding is sure to ignite a frenzy among celebrity gossip publications and websites. We'll share with you whatever photos we can find!

Once Katherine ties the knot, T.R. Knight, Sandra Oh and Sara Ramirez will be the last remaining unmarried members of the Grey's Anatomy cast. Both Ellen Pompeo and former star Kate Walsh came off the market in the past few months.

For all the sleeping around that goes on at Seattle Grace, this is a remarkably stable group of men and women when it comes to real-life relationships!

Just a quick note to inform fans of Ellen Pompeo that the Grey's Anatomy star won the International Press Academy Golden Satellite Award for best actress in a drama series in Los Angeles last night! Go Ellen! See the list of winners here.

Ellen Pompeo was honored for her work on Grey's Anatomy.

While other Grey's Anatomy cast members may dominate headlines, it's nice to see Ellen Pompeo recognized for her continuous great work as Meredith Grey. We're enormous fans of this Boston-bred actress on a personal level, as well.

It's certainly been an eventful year for the star. Pompeo celebrated her 38th birthday last month by getting married privately to longtime boyfriend / fiance Chris Ivery.

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. That's the story for Katherine Heigl, who in real life will be walking down the aisle with Josh Kelley in less than a week, but who plays a girl who has been a bridesmaid no fewer than (guess) 27 times in her new film, 27 Dresses, which opens nationwide on January 11, 2008. Here's the poster ...

Katherine Heigl in the movie poster for 27 Dresses.

We're guessing it will be another big success! Follow the jump for a brief plot synopsis as well as some still photos of Katie in the upcoming movie ...

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Shonda Rhimes created and has been writing for ABC's Grey's Anatomy since it began in 2005, but due to the WGA strike, she, along with the rest of the writing staff, has found herself out of the office and out marching in the streets.

However, this doesn't necessarily mean that her absence immediately put a stop to production, which is why one upcoming Grey's Anatomy episode - Episode 11 - was completed after the strike and without the acclaimed creator's input.

Shonda Rhimes, seen here with Sara Ramirez and Kate Walsh, said that she has "never not been in the editing room," and that "it's been a very weird transition."

Since the strike began on November 5, Rhimes has not written anything for Grey's Anatomy, although she is constantly thinking of its great characters.

Rhimes hasn't been the only one on the picket lines in recent weeks, as much of the Grey's Anatomy cast has also shown support for the writers.

They too have started to feel the effects of being out of work.

Katherine Heigl, who plays Izzie Stevens, is in the middle of wedding planning, but with no guarantee of a paycheck, has grown more conscious of her finances.

"It's starting to get stressful. I'm just try to be as smart [financially] as I can," she said. "I'm just trying to save as much as I can."

Sara Ramirez, who portrays Callie on Grey's Anatomy, told the New York Post about how she relocated to Los Angeles after living in New York for 14 years in order to appear on the smash hit show. Now it's a struggle for her.

"I moved out here to play this role and now I'm not playing her," Ramirez said. "[The strike] kind of forces you to take matters into your own hands."

Babies on board! Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey and his wife, Jillian Dempsey, toted their 10-month-old twins, Darby Galen and Sullivan Patrick, in California's Pacific Palisades December 15. Here's a very sweet photo of the Dempsey family...

Patrick and Jillian Dempsey stroll as Darby and Sullivan snooze.

During Season 3 of Grey's Anatomy, Dr. Preston Burke, played by Isaiah Washington, suffered a gun shot wound that left him bedridden and out of commission.

In came Brooke Smith's Dr. Erica Hahn, an old rival and cardiothoracic surgeon at neighboring Mercy West, who substituted for Burke at Seattle Grace. While Smith loved the role as Hahn, she was never expecting it to become a permanent gig.

"I didn't really think it was going to work out," Smith said.

However, things took a different turn when ABC decided not to renew Washington's contract. With the actor off the show and his character out of Seattle Grace, Brooke Smith was called back to not only to reprise her role as Erica Hahn, but to act as the hospital's new head of cardiothoracic surgery.

Apart from it being a full-time job, Brooke Smith decided to give Grey's Anatomy a go because it gives her the chance to explore a character for a longer period of time.

"When I work on something that has a beginning, middle and end, I can create an arc. With Dr. Hahn, I need to figure out who she is," Smith said.

Brooke Smith, the newest full-time Grey's Anatomy cast member.

That said, the 40-year-old has been busy doing research for her role, including watching heart surgery at a Los Angeles hospital and enlisting the help of the real surgical nurses who are assigned to the operating room on the show.

"It really stressed me out a lot," she said. "I didn't go to medical school. I have no idea what it really is to be a surgeon and yet I have to act like I'm really good at it."

Fans, however, will have to wait a little longer before seeing Brooke Smith and the rest of the Grey's Anatomy cast at work, as the WGA strike has caused production to shut down on the show for an indefinite period of time.

"I am sort of out of work," Smith said, noting her ironic situation. "I thought for the first time, I am going to have stability. That lasted for almost two months."

On the upside, Smith believes the strike will end soon.

"I am ready to go back, already," she said.

The nominations for the 65th annual Golden Globe Awards, which will be presented on January 13, have officially been announced, and Grey's Anatomy is up for Best TV Drama against Big Love, Damages, House, Mad Men and The Tudors!

Also nominated in the Best Supporting Actress (Drama) category is Katherine Heigl, who continues to earn accolades for her portrayal of Dr. Izzie Stevens.

The talented Katherine Heigl is in the running for a Golden Globe Award.

Katherine Heigl has already said she will not be on hand at the ceremony if the writers' strike persists, telling Entertainment Tonight: "I'm not crossing the picket line unless I'm contractually obliged to do so. And I'm not with the Golden Globes."

Follow the jump for the complete list of Golden Globe nominees in the TV field. The link above will take you a Variety list that also includes the film categories...

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Even without a script to guide, the Grey's Anatomy cast generated plenty of drama Wednesday when they showed up once again to support striking writers picketing outside the fabled Paramount Studios lot in Los Angeles.

Stars Katherine Heigl, who plays Dr. Izzie Stevens, T.R. Knight, who plays her on-screen love interest Dr. George O'Malley, and Sara Ramirez, who plays George's estranged wife Dr. Callie Torres, posed for pictures and gave interviews.

Sara Ramirez, T.R. Knight and Katherine Heigl on the picket line.

Even former cast member Isaiah Washington showed up. Washington, who played Dr. Preston Burke, was not asked back to the show in June amid tension that began and quickly escalated when he allegedly used a slur in reference to T.R. Knight and then used the word again during a Golden Globes appearance.

Isaiah Washington has since apologized, met with gay leaders and checked into rehab, and the actor appeared on NBC's Bionic Woman earlier this fall.

His presence underscored the symbolism of "Diversity Day" in which writers and actors who are gay or minorities were specifically asked to appear on the picket line.

Grey's Anatomy creator and writer Shonda Rhimes, considered one of the most powerful black women in Hollywood, was among those picketing at Paramount.

Isaiah Washington denied there were problems with his former co-workers. He later posed for a photo with another Grey's Anatomy star, Justin Chambers.

"They're former castmates. I've been in over 25 movies, I have lots of former castmates," the actor said.

Justin Chambers and Isaiah Washington on the picket line.

The Grey's Anatomy cast members joined fellow actors Rex Lee from Entourage, Amy Brenneman of Private Practice, Motorcycle Diaries screenwriter Jose Rivera, and other cast and crew from CSI Miami, Cold Case, The Shield and Bionic Woman to support the television and screenwriters in their six-week strike.

The writers are negotiating their payments for work shown on the Internet. Talks broke off last week when the writers walked away from the bargaining table.

It surely will be tempting for Sara (pronounced Sah-rah) Ramirez to break into song this weekend while she's narrating Prokofiev's "Peter & the Wolf" in performances by the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.

"I can see myself turning around and saying, 'Can I get a Frank Sinatra tune?'" says the Grey's Anatomy star with a contagious laugh.

"You're on the stage with (an orchestra), and it just blows you away. It's like you've got this powerhouse sound coming from behind you, and it's so cool," she continues. "So to be involved with it again in any way, shape or form is really exciting to me."

Sara Ramirez will be returning to her stage actress roots.

The idea of the TV series lead singing "I've Got the World on a String" with strings really isn't as strange as it may sound. Though most folks know her as the spirited (non-singing) Dr. Callie Torres on the ABC prime time medical drama, others know the Juilliard School graduate primarily for her stage work.

Ramirez's Tony Award-winning performance as the Lady of the Lake in "Spamalot" was her calling card. Theater devotees may also recall her debut in Paul Simon's "The Capeman," with a cast that included Marc Anthony and Rubén Blades.

She's particularly looking forward to working with the youth orchestra. Though she has sung challenging work by Stephen Sondheim opposite Patti LuPone in a 2002 Chicago concert, this will be the first time she has both narrated the Prokofiev family favorite and worked with a youth orchestra.

A former child performer herself, Sara Ramirez looks forward to collaborating with the youngsters. The 32-year-old actress moved from her native Mexico to San Diego after her parents' divorced while she was in grade school.

Her mother enrolled her in that city's School of Creative and Performing Arts, which she attended from fourth through 12th grades.

Continue reading in the San Jose Mercury News ...

This is cute and different. Grey's Anatomy co-stars Ellen Pompeo and Eric Dane went on a double date with their spouses, Rebecca Gayheart and Chris Ivery, Monday at the famous Madeos Italian restaurant on Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles.

Here are a few photos of Ellen and Chris, and Ellen with Rebecca ...

Ellen Pompeo and Rebecca Gayheart (Mrs. Eric Dane) are totally BFFs!

Ellen Pompeo (who married Ivery last month) and Eric Dane certainly have time off from the set due to the ongoing writers' strike. Looks as if Ellen and Rebecca Gayheart are having a good time, too - and in pretty similar outfits to boot!