Heiglectomy

Katherine Heigl on the cover of Entertainment Weekly

Call it the worst case of déja vu we’ve had this year, or the most unsurprising story, but Katherine Heigl, the notoriously outspoken Grey’s Anatomy actress who hasn’t actually appeared on the show since mid-October of last year, will now officially no longer appear on the show.

Katherine Heigl in Grey’s Anatomy

If there’s anything surprising about this bit of news, it’s that

Katherine now offers as her reason for leaving Grey’s Anatomy early none of the well-publicized conflicts she’s had with the show, but that time-honored standby most often used by public officials to dodge impeachment: she wants to spend more time with her family.
The fact that Grey’s Anatomy is still on the air after having jumped the shark so long ago might raise brow or two.

On the upside of this, Katherine is now free to appear more often on the big screen than the small one. On the downside, she has two problems that could still sink her:

Her preference for lobotomized romantic comedies, something that will eventually cost her the public’s goodwill in much the same way it seems to have Kate Hudson (who was briefly the darling of Hollywood after Almost Famous);
Her apparent inability to not make public war with her employers, which may cost her the industry’s goodwill in much the same way it did Janeane Garofalo (who was briefly the darling of Hollywood after The Truth about Cats and Dogs).

I like Katherine, and would like to see her again in something that isn’t patently awful. Since that doesn’t look likely, to judge from the trailer of her upcoming Killers, I think she might best be served by some emergency surgery that duplicates what happened to Keanu Reeves in The Matrix.

It won’t stave off the inevitable forever, but it might help.