Cast News (Page 7)

"Good morning, my friends. How lucky we are to be here," Patrick Dempsey says.

Grey skies have cleared up on the set of ABC's hit drama.

The doc known as McDreamy practically sings this greeting to Grey's Anatomy crew members as he merrily arrives at ABC's Prospect Studios in a black leather jacket, the morning after the Emmys, to shoot the new season's sixth episode.

Sure, there's a little sarcasm.

Many in the room partied past midnight to celebrate the show's best drama nomination and co-star Katherine Heigl's win as best supporting actress.

This morning scene is a simple one, requiring Dempsey to pass by Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) in the corridor without saying much. So instead, he playfully sticks out his tongue during a rehearsal.

"It's hard being pretty and talking," Patrick Dempsey cracks over breakfast. "I had to starve myself for three days before the Emmys to fit into my tuxedo."

Dempsey jokes that series creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes, who is now devoting half of her time to the spin-off, Private Practice, is no longer around â€" "over on that other show... Boston Public."

And he teases that he has had sex with the whole crew.

"It's all about the love in Season 4," the actor chirps. "Sex with everybody. I had the entire writing staff in Season 3." This inspires crew members to pipe in with their own mock confessions of liaisons with Patrick Dempsey.

During a break, the handsome star acknowledges that the levity is intentional.

"I think it's really important to keep a light energy, more now than ever," he says. "It's my responsibility to come in here, have my work done, do it quickly, and get in and get out of here and make this a pleasurable experience. I decided after all that happened last year to just have fun."

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In an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the set of Grey's Anatomy, USA Today's William Keck lends his observations of what goes on that we don't see...

Sandra Oh looks sleepy, wrapped in a parka and heading to her chair. Hers is special compared with all the others' standard-issue director's chairs. Oh's has extra padding, a fancy curved foot rest and a canvas compartment under the seat. While the other actors have their full names silk-screened onto the backs of their chairs, Sandra Oh's is marked with two block letters: OH. She never talks to on-set journalists, but she offers a friendly late-in-the-day wink as she walks by.

Trailer mates

Justin Chambers (Alex Karev) shares his trailer, or "tin box," as he calls it, with Katherine Heigl (Izzie Stevens). "I hear her loud mouth all the time â€" girl's got a loud mouth," he kids. Heigl slams right back: She says she has to listen to "trailer buddy" Chambers' daily doses of Judge Judy or Montel Williams. "I think he falls asleep with the TV on," she playfully groans. Chambers has more expansive digs off-set. Over the summer he purchased a California home with his wife Keisha. Each of his five kids now has his or her own room!

Cute little cuss

Sandra Oh has a habit of playfully cussing in scenes when she's not on camera, at one point asking Ellen Pompeo, "What the (expletive) was that?" and calling Pompeo's Meredith "a whore." Says T.R. Knight (George), who shares his on-set trailer with Oh: "She has done that, always."

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Good thing Chyler Leigh has a sense of humor.

Talking about McDreamy and McSteamy with her on the set, Will Keck of USA Today complimented Chyler on her real-life McDreamy - a handsome actor.

Which was nice, until his name was mentioned (Jason Behr of Roswell), and Chyler looked as if the reporter were from another planet.

Jason Behr, it turns out, is actually the husband of Private Practice actress KaDee Strickland (and the ex-boyfriend of Katherine Heigl, incidentally).

Fortunately, Leigh just laughed and talked about her love for actor Nathan West, her actual husband. Unfortunately, she wouldn't fill us in on who her character is going to hook up with this season. Stay tuned on that.

New faces are checking in to Seattle Grace to help fill recent vacancies. Veteran actor Edward Herrmann, 64, signs up for a few episodes as Norman, the world's oldest intern; someone from the past may be returning (we're not telling who); as well as Diahann Carroll, as Dr. Preston Burke's mom.

But the biggest staffing change is Chyler Leigh, 25, who plays a character with a familiar last name: Grey. Meredith's half-sister, Dr. Lexie Grey.

While having another Grey around naturally complicates life for Ellen Pompeo's character, cast members rave about the addition of Leigh.

"She's the sweetest, coolest, funniest chick," says Katherine Heigl (Izzie).

"I think she is one of those girls who is quiet, because it's her first season on the show. I imagine it's awkward and difficult to come in to a cast that has been here for years. But you spend a little one-on-one time with her, and she's hysterical."

Chyler Leigh has much to celebrate beyond landing a role on one of the hottest dramas on TV in Grey's Anatomy. It comes after some very rocky times.

Born in Charlotte and raised in Virginia Beach, her folks divorced when she was 12. She moved with her mother to Miami, where the mother remarried her first husband. Like Lexie Grey, she, too, has distant half-siblings.

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Fresh off a surprise Emmy win that even her mother said didn't stand a chance in hell of happening, the loquacious Katherine Heigl is on cloud nine.

But this talented actress also has a lot on her plate going forward.

She's busy filming the fourth season of Grey's Anatomy as well as a new romantic comedy, and has just acquired the film rights to the bestselling novel "Lost & Found," according to Variety.

Through her production company, Heigl plans to produce an adaptation of the Jacqueline Sheehan book along with her mother and manager, Nancy Heigl.

"Lost & Found" is about a psychologist who moves to a secluded island off the coast of Maine after the death of her husband. It is unclear whether Heigl intends to appear in the film as well as serve as its producer.

Regardless, Heigl set up her company in the aftermath of the major critical and commercial success of Knocked Up, the comedy she starred in this summer.

Best know for his role as Izzie Stevens on Grey's Anatomy, and for her eagerness to have her surname pronounced correctly, Katherine Heigl's next major movie role will be in the romantic comedy 27 Dresses.

Patrick Dempsey. TV Guide. It speaks for itself as the amazing Dr. McDreamy looks terrific as ever on the cover of the magazine's Fall Preview issue.

For a preview of Patrick's interview with the publication, follow our link. Pick up the magazine for the rest of this fine actor's thoughts on the 4th season of Grey's Anatomy, which is set to begin in just one week!

In this public service announcement for GLAAD, Grey's Anatomy stars T.R. Knight and Sara Ramirez, along with former star Kate Walsh and some other familiar faces from ABC shows, deliver a powerful message about tolerance. Check it out:

Experts' predictions had Sandra Oh taking home the Best Supporting Actress honors, but when the dust settled, the Emmy went to Katherine Heigl!

Katherine, who was not only going up against the formidable Sandra Oh and a third Grey's Anatomy star, Chandra Wilson, but three of the best supporting actresses from all other drama series, was quite taken aback.

Katherine Heigl, who won in her first-ever Emmy nomination, joked that she did not prepare a speech for the occasion because "My own mother told me that I didn't have a shot in hell of winning tonight."

As cameras focused on her mother and manager, Nancy, in the crowd, Katherine Heigl laughed and added, "But she's a really big supporter. She does love me."

In closing, a tearful daughter addressed a tearful Nancy Heigl, "This is for you, this is because of you. I wouldn't want to be here without you."

Congratulations to Katherine, and to Sandra and Chandra on their nominations!

According to InStyle, Sandra Oh hosted an intimate evening at a private home in the Hollywood Hills to toast her fellow female Emmy nominees.

Sandra Oh's Grey's Anatomy co-star, Chandra Wilson, as well as guest such as Elizabeth Perkins of Weeds and Holland Taylor of Two and a Half Men all arrived at the exclusive event in hybrid cars to enjoy a laid-back dinner and plenty of Perrier-Jouet Fleur de Champagne.

"I'm hoping this event will continue as a yearly invitation to the female nominees to get together and get to know each other, because on the big day it's so crazy and you're not completely in your body," Sandra Oh said of her attempt to start a new Emmy tradition.

More pictures of Sandra Oh and friends after the jump ...

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After a turbulent year on screen and behind the scenes, Ellen Pompeo is ready to give the mood on the set of Grey's Anatomy a clean bill of health.

Although, she admits, things have certainly changed with the departure of cast members Kate Walsh and Isaiah Washington.

"It does feel different," Pompeo said at the pre-Emmy party for Los Angeles Confidential magazine, which she's hosting.

"I love change. I think when one door opens or closes, another one opens. The seasons change and everything changes and I think change is good."

"It's good to turn over the dirt," she continued. "It feels nice and there's new beginnings for everybody and it feels great."

Kate Walsh now has her own spin-off, Private Practice, and Washington will appear on the new NBC show, Bionic Woman, during the same Wednesday, 9 p.m. time slot. Isaiah is also in talks to star in his own series for the network beginning next fall.

"They're missed, of course," Ellen Pompeo said. "But I'm also very happy and very hopeful for their new beginnings. You know, they're both taking on whole new chapters in their careers, which I think is really exciting for them. So, to sort of think about how it affects us is rather selfish. We just have to hope that their new endeavors are as successful, and I just wish them the best."

Ellen Pompeo's feelings were seconded by her friend and Grey's Emmy-nominated co-star, T.R. Knight.

"It's been going really well," he said Sunday at a party celebrating the Emmy nominated TV producers, including Grey's creator Shonda Rhimes.

Though T.R. Knight said he's excited to be working new cast member Chyler Leigh, he is missing his pal Kate Walsh.

"I just went to her wedding this weekend, and so luckily, we'll still see her, but what she brought to the show and on the set with her sense of humor, we will miss her a lot," T.R. Knight said.

Ellen Pompeo was joined at the L.A. Confidential party by her fiancé, music producer Chris Ivery. The actress said she and Ivery aren't in the midst of any wedding plans, and don't expect to have a traditional ceremony.

"To me a wedding is a piece of paper," she said.

"I don't think it's going to change how we feel about each other. Every day is like a wedding when I wake up next to him. We just have something so special. I don't need a big dress or 400 there to declare my love. I think we declare it every day to each other. So that's just our way. Different for different people."

The patio dining room of the refined Hotel Bel-Air will never be the same for the two teen girls who just spotted Patrick Dempsey, one of the cover subjects of TV Guide's fall preview issue.

Dressed casually on an August morning in a striped shirt and jeans, the father of three (Talula, 5, and twins Darby and Sullivan, 7 months) has finished the morning newspaper and is digging into a plate of eggs Benedict.

"Excuse me," the braver of the two squeaks. "We are from Saudi Arabia and we love Grey's Anatomy so much that we want to become surgeons."

Dempsey, 41, flashes the famous smile that sends estrogen levels surging, rises from the banquette and happily poses for a picture with the young ladies.

"I didn't even know the show was on in Saudi Arabia," he says, delighted.

Although last season Grey's Anatomy suffered from surprising complications â€" hard-to-diagnose storylines and painful backstage drama â€" the rabid audience that fell in love with the surgeons of Seattle Grace kept the faith.

And Patrick Dempsey's Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd remains the show's most feverishly admired male character.

"What's great about Patrick is that he's both warm and funny," says Grey's Anatomy creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes. "He's just as dreamy as you'd think he'd be. And what I love about the way he plays this character is that he has ups and downs and always pulls them off."

Quick to return the compliment, Patrick Dempsey says of his boss:

"Shonda is very clear on where she wants to take the show, a real visionary. She is creating it as it goes along and you have to surrender to that. It took me a long time to come to terms with it, but that's why I go off and do other things like movies and racing to balance it out."