shondarhimes

Because I'm writing the Spoilers Anonymous column every week, I'm pretty much up-to-date with what is going to happen in our favorite TV series. However, I never saw the latest news from Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello coming. Reading comments left in response to Ausiello's announcement and a post on the same subject written by E!'s Kristin Dos Santos, it looks like I'm not the only one extremely surprised by the news.

Usually, we get a few weeks warning before a major character leaves a series. But this time, we get about four days to prepare. As reported by Ausiello and many other entertainment media today, actress Brooke Smith is leaving the ABC hit series this Thursday. To learn more about her departure and what other tweaks the network asked the show to make, continue reading.

Spoilers ahead!

Mainly because I watch Pushing Daisies at 8, but also because I can't find much else to watch at 9, I've tuned into the first two episodes of Private Practice's second season. During last year's aborted first season, I tuned in and out, curious to see how the Grey's Anatomy spin-off was progressing. What I found was a) a show that was too busy making its thirty- and forty-something doctors act as immaturely as the twenty-something residents at Seattle Grace and b) that Kate Walsh's character of Addison Montgomery went from strong and funny to whimpering and lovelorn.

The second development was especially disheartening, since Addison had become my favorite Grey's character by far, mainly because through sheer force of her acting ability, Walsh was able to turn Addison from a one-dimensional enemy of the Meredith-Derek relationship to the surgeon we rooted for the hardest.

But in the first two episodes, most of what I liked about Addison has returned. And what isn't there is on the way to coming back.

As a fan of Grey's Anatomy from the beginning, I was disappointed with last season. The characters were wandering around with seemingly no direction, Meredith and Derek were getting on my last nerve, and there was a storyline that revolved around resuscitating a deer. It was not exactly the finest example of television I had ever seen.

Regardless, I'm excited about the fifth season, premiering on September 25. Shonda Rhimes has always struck me as the type of producer and writer who listens to fans and can remove herself from her product enough to realize that something isn't working.

It seems as though my faith is already being rewarded. In a new promo for season 5, Rose, the nurse that Derek had been dating while trying to get over Meredith, drops a bombshell: she's pregnant! Now that's a way to get me interested in this storyline again.

Video of the promo and spoilers about Rose's revelation follow after the jump.

So I've been back from LA for a couple of days, watching Rich and Keith file frantic reports from Comic-Con. It just makes me shake my head in sympathy. Though CC is a different animal from the TCAs, in both structure and in sheer volume of people and activities, I still know exactly how they feel. It all starts to feel like a blur after awhile -- panels, reporter scrums, parties, meeting your favorite (and not-so-favorite) TV stars... When you get back to "normal life," it almost feels like it never happened.

Anyway, now that I have a day or two to reflect, I took a cue from our friends at AOL and came up with a list of things I learned on this press tour. But this list will involve both the network-related things I learned with what I learned about celebrities, my fellow critics, and myself.

I wanted to wait a bit before I posted about the ABC showrunner panel, because a) I already posted about the "news" from Shonda Rhimes about Katherine Heigl's statements, and b) I wanted to think about why these panels seem to be so much more informative than the individual show panels?

We'll get to that more later. On the panel were Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice), Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives), Silvio Horta (Ugly Betty), Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (Lost), and Greg Berlanti (seemingly the rest of ABC's schedule). As you'd expect, Rhimes got the Heigl questions, Lindelof and Cuse got the most esoteric questions, and Chery made the most jokes. The funniest line, though, came from Horta.

After Jimmy Kimmel left the room, ABC Entertainment Steve McPherson got on with the business of facing the press at his executive session. I kicked it off with a question about Scrubs, following up on what Bill Lawrence told me in May about a possible "next generation" ninth season.

"We do think there's an opportunity after (this eighth season)," said McPherson. "If any or all the cast is a part of that, I think there's a growth (opportunity) there. It's a show that, despite being moved around into like 17 time periods and really never being given the marketing support, has really performed unbelievably well on NBC." He went on to say that they hope "it won't be a one-season situation."

Other than that, most of the conversation revolved around the network's returning shows, which makes sense, since the network is only debuting a few new shows (none of which had pilots that the network thought were suitable for preview) this fall.

Yes, this is yet another post about behind-the-scenes drama on the Grey's Anatomy set. We have written so many posts on Isaiah Washington, T.R. Knight and Katherine Heigl here at TV Squad that I'm starting to believe there is a clause in the actors' contracts stating that they must make the headlines one way or another every month! This month's Grey's Anatomy drama is once again sponsored by actress Katherine Heigl.

In June, Heigl bowed out of the Emmy race because she was not happy with the storylines given to her character last season. Fans and the press speculated that this also meant she wanted out of the ABC show. However, the actress confirmed she wanted to stay on the show. But what if the producers want her out? According to the latest rumor, that's exactly what they want.

Reports of Katherine Heigl's exit from Grey's Anatomy have been greatly exaggerated, and that comes straight from the actress's mouth. Heigl's staying on Grey's Anatomy for the foreseeable future.

In recent weeks, since choosing not to submit her name for Emmy consideration because she was critical of the material she had this past season, speculation has been that the star wants out of the show. Fueling the fire is the fact that in the past year, thanks to Knocked Up (and a lot less to 27 Dresses), Ms. Heigl's getting many, many offers to jump to the big screen full time.

Life & Style caught up with her last week at L.A.'s Hotel Cafe, where she was watching her husband Josh Kelly, performing. When asked if she would be on Grey's this season, she said, "Of course, absolutely. Those people are like my family." She described the set as a happy, joyful place where there's lots of laughter despite the serious storylines they're playing.

"The pager is sacred. Sacred sparkle." -- Izzie

A sparkly pager, some quick-drying cement, and a field of candles all play into tonight's 2-hour episode -- the Season Four finale of Grey's Anatomy. Has it really been only four seasons? Because it seems like so much more.

Anyway, tonight we learn a little more about some of the interns' history. For one thing, via a therapy session (and why can't I have Amy Madigan as my therapist?), we learn that young Meredith saw her mom slit her wrists, then had to wait for her to pass out before calling 911.

Meredith says her mom wanted to die, but by the end of the episode, she figures out that she really didn't want to die. Being a brilliant surgeon, her mom would have known the faster road to death entailed slitting her carotid artery.

A familiar face will be popping up at Seattle Grace before Grey's Anatomy goes on hiatus at the end of the season. Kate Walsh, a.k.a. Addison Montgomery, M.D., will return to the medical drama when her character makes a visit to the Emerald City. It'll be for just one episode, though. ABC has already picked up Kate's spin-off series, Private Practice, for the fall.

Executive producer/writer Shonda Rhimes confirmed that Kate Walsh will return to Grey's Anatomy for a guest bit this spring, but a definite date has not been pinned down. Five new episodes of GA are set to air starting April 24.

When you hear the name "Shonda Rhimes" what words come to mind? I'm pretty sure those words are "Grey's" and "Anatomy." But what you may not know is that before writing gripping TV series such as Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, Rhimes also put pen to paper for The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and -- you'd better be sitting properly on your chair before reading this -- Britney Spears's Crossroads! Can you believe that the Emmy award winner wrote that terrible and rightfully Razzie-nominated Crossroads?!?

What would you say if Meredith's half-sister and new Seatlle Grace intern were to become a regular character on Grey's Anatomy? That is what TV Guide's Michael Ausiello is reporting in his latest "Ask Ausiello" feature.

Chyler Leigh, who plays Meredith's half-sister Lexie Grey, was first introduced at the very end of last season. Many fans already don't like her character much as she is already getting in the way of the Meredith and Derek relationship.

Leigh's original contract stipulated that she would appear in 13 episodes. But it seems that as writers and the show's creator, Shonda Rhimes, are mapping the upcoming season, they are thinking to have her stick around as a permanent fixture.

There probably comes a time in every controversy where the person involved should just...stop...talking.

Fired Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington is now comparing himself to Malcolm X and Paul Robeson. He isn't happy about getting canned from the show after he apologized, went to "rehab" and did everything the network asked him to do, and now he wonders if it's because of who he is and not what he did.

Here we go with another chapter in our daily soap "As Grey's Anatomy Turns." A few hours after telling the world he was "really angry" after being fired from ABC's hit show Grey's Anatomy, Isaiah Washington is now pondering suing the series.

TV Guide reports that during an interview, Howard Bragman, Washington's spokesperson, claimed that the actor is really angry. Yesterday, the actor issued a statement in which he said "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore." The actor is now ready to take matter in his own hands and let the Network and show how mad he is.

If you've ever read Grey Matter, the blog written by Shonda Rhimes and her Grey's Anatomy writing staff, you know that Rhimes likes to reveal quite a bit of her inner geek. When she talks about her characters, she does so with the zeal of a teenager, albeit a teenager who works in the A/V club and wishes she were one of the cheerleaders who was dating the football captain.

So it's refreshing to see Rhimes gushing over something other than Meredith Grey's romantic choices or Derek Shepherd's McDreaminess. Over on the funny pop culture blog A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago, she live-blogs the National Spelling Bee, which aired its final round last night.