Cast News (Page 4)

Friends are no substitute for family for Patrick Dempsey.

The actor declined his invitation to Grey's Anatomy co-star Katherine Heigl's wedding in favor of spending the holidays quietly with his family.

Katherine Heigl, 29, is set to marry singer Josh Kelley, 27, on December 23. Patrick won't be on hand, but he's thrilled for his co-star.

"I am so happy for her," he tells Entertainment Tonight. "I've never seen her so happy. He's a great guy, too, and they are a great couple."

Patrick Dempsey is looking forward to the role of dad this holiday season.

Patrick Dempsey, 41, who in addition to Grey's Anatomy is lighting up the big screen in this holiday season with Enchanted, will be spending the holidays with wife Jillian, daughter Tallulah, and 10-month-old twins Darby and Sullivan.

"It's the first Christmas with the boys. They'll be walking by then, so we're all very excited," Patrick Dempsey said.

Dempsey might be a no-show, but Grey's Anatomy will be represented at the wedding by castmate T.R. Knight, who will be a Heigl "bridesman."

The ever-handsome Justin Chambers - regardless of how you feel about his new retro horn-rimmed glasses - was spotted at the 2007 GQ Men Of The Year Awards at Chateau Marmont on Wednesday night in Hollywood, Calif.

The ever-charming Justin Chambers: Seeing double?

In any event, Justin Chambers made the most of a free night as the Writers Guild of America's strike dragged on, mingling on the patio at the after-party with Grey's Anatomy co-star Eric Dane and Brothers & Sisters star Dave Annable.

It should be very interesting to see if his character, Dr. Alex Karev, is smiling after the events of tonight's all-new episode of Grey's Anatomy!

Since he was introduced as Seattle Grace's Chief of Surgery, Dr. Richard Webber, during the very first episode, James Pickens, Jr., has been one of the most steady and the most unheralded members of the dynamic Grey's Anatomy cast.

Our friends at BuddyTV recently sat down with James Pickens, Jr., for an exclusive interview in which he talks about his character and the show. We'll start off with the beginning of their chat before linking over to Buddy for the full interview ...

Q: My first question is about the WGA strike. Production has stopped on the set, and how many episodes of Grey's Anatomy are there going to be left?

James Pickens, Jr.: Well, we shot 11, and I think they bought 22 or 23, so do the math and I guess that's 11 or 12 left to shoot.

Q: Do you have any idea what might happen with this?

James Pickens, Jr.: At this point I don't think anybody knows. They went back to the bargaining table last Monday, and they talked until Thursday. The producers came back with a proposal that was rejected by the writers, but that's usually kind of par for the course when you're talking negotiations. They suspended talks but then they'll go back to the table after that, so I guess the positive note on this is just the fact that they are talking. A proposal has been presented, it wasn't what the writers wanted, and that's okay, so they can go back and forth now. We'll see what happens with it, but they are talking, so that's a good sign at this point.

Q: Let's talk about your character now, Dr. Richard Webber. You get to show a lot of depth in your portrayal of the Chief because you're kind of the father figure of the other doctors, but lately you're also starting to loosen up.

James Pickens, Jr., with his wife of 23 years, Gina Pickens.

James Pickens, Jr.: I'm so grateful to Shonda Rhimes, our creator and our head writer, and the rest of the writers as well. I think they've done a great job in terms of fleshing out this character. My character and characters like him are usually shown in just one light, that of an authoritative figure who pretty much doles out orders and you do them or else you suffer the consequences. But I think last season they really started to flesh this character out with his problems, obviously his deteriorating marriage, his thoughts of retiring and trying to fix that. We got a chance to see the human side of him ...

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They've always been best friends Grey's Anatomy, and in the real world, so it's only fitting that bride-to-be Katherine Heigl includes T.R. Knight in her wedding.

The actor was among the small group of friends and family who helped Katie celebrate her recent 29th birthday, and now T.R. Knight has revealed in the current issue of Us Weekly that he'll be a member of his BFF's wedding party.

T.R. Knight, 34, is going to be a "bridesman" when Katherine Heigl finally ties the knot with her fiance, singer-songwriter Josh Kelley, 27, on December 23.

T.R. Knight will be there when Katherine Heigl says "I do."

"I'm standing up there and all," Knight said at the L.A. benefit for the Trevor Project on December 2. "I have to go and get the tux, and I am still deciding on a gift!"

Regardless of how you feel about George and Izzie as a couple, it sure is nice that these two are so close. We're excited for Katherine Heigl's upcoming nuptials!

Stylishly dressed Sandra Oh may look the part of Hollywood star, but get her talking about the writers' strike and her Canadian sensibility comes blasting through.

"There are some Canadian crew members on Grey's Anatomy, and myself and the Canadian crew are talking about the strike in a way that is much more socialist based than the Americans," the 36-year-old actress tells The Canadian Press.

"We get the point. We're like: 'Absolutely, you have to strike.' This is the most important industry strike ever. It speaks tremendously to how the media is run globally now, and the rights of thousands and thousands of workers. I am really hoping that the producers come to the table and are fair to the writers."

Sandra Oh was in her native country Monday to be honored by the Women in Film and Television organization with this year's CTV International Achievement Award.

It was a good day for the Ottawa-based Oh family - Sandra's beaming parents were on hand to watch their actress daughter get feted by her Canadian peers while her brother, Raymond, was spending the day doing his final oral exam on his PhD thesis on medical genetics at the University of Toronto.

"I am extremely proud of him," Sandra Oh says, crediting her South Korean-born parents with their children's successes. Her sister, Grace, is a B.C. Crown attorney.

"They were extremely loving parents but they were also really disciplined. They were tough on us. Their expectations were high; they're still high."

It's family, in fact, that has kept Sandra Oh so grounded.

"People are crazy. Actors are notoriously crazy. And when you go down to L.A., people are even crazier. And fortunately I had an extremely stable, loving upbringing. My siblings and I are very close, and that means something."

Oh's acting career began in the early 1990s when she beat out hundreds of other actresses for the coveted title role in the CBC movie The Diary of Evelyn Lau.

Since then, she's been pretty much unstoppable, starring in films like Sideways and Under the Tuscan Sun before landing the part of the ferociously ambitious Dr. Cristina Yang on the ABC powerhouse hit, Grey's Anatomy.

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It wouldn't be a Katherine Heigl interview if it didn't involve some level of controversy, now would it? In a lengthy conversation with Vanity Fair, the Emmy-winning actress, who just turned 29, is as outspoken and honest as ever, even when it comes to deriding her own smash hit comedy from 2007 as "a little sexist."

Katherine Heigl says that Knocked Up "paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it, some days. I'm playing such a bitch; why is she such a killjoy? Why is this how you're portraying women? Ninety-eight percent of the time it was amazing, but it was hard for me to love the movie."

Katherine Heigl: Beautiful, and speaking her mind, as always.

As for Heigl's Grey's Anatomy character, Dr. Izzie Stevens, who began an affair with her married best friend, Dr. George O'Malley, last season, Katherine became concerned about her character's seemingly uncharacteristic actions:

"That was kind of a big change for Izzie, wasn't it, after she was so up on her moral high ground. They really hurt somebody, and they didn't seem to be taking a lot of responsibility for it. I have a really hard time with that kind of thing. I'm maybe a little too black-and-white about it. I don't really know Izzie very well right now. She's changed a lot. I'm trying to figure her out and keep her real."

Katherine Heigl is well aware of the commercial considerations that often drive such decisions, calling Gizzie (George and Izzie) "a ratings ploy... It was absolutely something that shocked people; it wasn't predictable, and people didn't see it coming. It's our fourth season; there's not a lot of spontaneity left. And business is business; I understand that, but I want there to be some cooperation between the business end and the creative end, so there's some way of keeping it real."

The January Vanity Fair hits newsstands nationally December 11. Follow the jump for more great Katherine Heigl photos and excerpts from this interview ....

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To celebrate her 29th birthday last Saturday, Grey's Anatomy star Katherine Heigl opted for a low-key dinner with eight of her closest friends.

The group included Katherine's fiance, singer-songwriter Josh Kelley, and her Grey's Anatomy co-star, T.R. Knight, and met up at Nobu in Malibu, Calif.

Dressed down in a tweed blazer, with her hair pulled in a bun, Heigl sat between Josh Kelley â€" whom she will wed in a small ceremony December 23 â€" and T.R. Knight.

When the cake came, the entire restaurant joined in and sang "Happy Birthday, Dear Katie," a witness reports, adding that the cake even had sparklers on it.

Happy belated birthday to Katherine Heigl!

This Patrick Dempsey article appears in the new issue of Best Life Magazine. This is the beginning of the article. Follow the link to continue reading ...

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Patrick Dempsey cut me off on La Cienega Boulevard.

His 3-series BMW convertible was in my rearview mirror long enough for me to recognize the actor's face from his just-released film Coupe de Ville.

At the intersection of La Cienega and San Vicente â€" a tangle of competing traffic lanes well known to Los Angeles body shops â€" he hit the gas and nipped in ahead of my bumper, forcing me to tap the brakes and watch his taillights speed north.

Now, 17 years after the fact, Patrick Dempsey sits under the cold fluorescent lights in the cafeteria of the Petersen Automotive Museum, about half a mile from the scene of the infraction, pleading guilty with an explanation.

Patrick Dempsey always feels the need for speed.

"Oh, that's funny," he says sheepishly. "I did have a BMW convertible." He then gives a slow spin to his cup of coffee and looks up.

"Well," he says, "if I drive aggressively, I try to signal, so people know. It's irritating when people drive aggressively and they don't signal."

Patrick Dempsey is no stranger to aggression.

As a teenager growing up in Maine, Patrick was a state champion downhill skier who once trained for a place on the Olympic team.

Today, his favorite method of relaxation, when he's not watching the Speed Channel, is driving pumped-up Mustangs and Mazdas up to 160 miles an hour.

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Yes, it's true. Grey's Anatomy's leading man, Patrick Dempsey, has officially been immortalized as a 12-inch action figure - and not as Dr. Derek Shepherd, but as his character, Robert, from the new Disney romantic comedy Enchanted.

The doll is a toy tie-in with Dempsey's Enchanted character and finds him dressed in a black suit and trench coat - with the trademark McDreamy hair of course.

Rachael Ray played with the Robert doll on her talk show last week, with Patrick Dempsey's Enchanted co-star, Amy Adams, appearing on the program and confirming that the actor is a great kisser. Who here is surprised?

ABOVE: The real Patrick Dempsey and a doll of his character, Robert, from the new animated / live-action film Enchanted. One of which you can take home!

Patrick Dempsey, 41, may be Dr. McDreamy on ABC's Grey's Anatomy, but in the future, he fashions himself more like an Old MacDonald.

"I can be perfectly happy living in the country, having a little farm and working occasionally," the actor tells the December issue of Best Life.

"If someone calls, I'll go to work. But I am a little tired of putting myself through hell just to get into the room to be prepared, to be professional and to let go of any kind of anger or frustration, and then not getting the part."

Last May, Dempsey bought a farm in Maine where he grew up. The purchase was a turning point, he says: "It was like, you know what? I'm done. I now know what I want."

Patrick Dempsey, who portrays Dr. Derek Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy, says coming to terms with fame â€" and 14-hour days â€" has been challenging.

"The show is like running a marathon. It feels like it never stops. The obligations you have for the show â€" it's relentless," he says. "The amount of exposure and the visibility ... it was certainly a big change for me."

Dempsey co-stars with Amy Adams in Disney's Enchanted, which opens this week. He'll next be seen in the romantic comedy Made of Honor in May.

"There's an audience who's watching Grey's Anatomy who expects something from you when they go to the box office, so you want to deliver that," he says. "I'm going to wait to see what happens with these movies, and then we'll make choices after that. You can't get too far ahead of yourself."

Dempsey, who has three small children with his wife, Jillian Dempsey, says his "family â€" and all of its joys and heartaches â€" is the grounding force."

"It's why you do everything," he says. "It's why you go to work, and why you put up with what you have to put up with, why you do what you have to do. Because you want to make a better life for them."