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Interview: Chi McBride Talks Comedy and Knitting

BuzzSugar — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:30:00 -0700

In the whimsical world of Pushing Daisies, it's nice to have a straight-talking detective like Emerson Cod to cut everyone down to size. Emerson's real-life alter ego, Chi McBride, was hanging out on the show's set when I visited back in July, and I stole a few minutes with him to talk about Emerson's dry humor and love for yarn crafts. Here are highlights:

Does Emerson's function on the show shift at all this year?
He's on a mission to find his daughter, but he's going to go about it in a very unconventional way. He's also a huge fan of pop-up books, and he wants to create a pop-up book that will lead a little girl who reads it to find her father. He feels sure that some little girl is out there wondering, "Where's my daddy?" And so he writes this book to try to see if he can get her to find him since he can't find her, so that's his mission this year. And in the meantime, if he happens to make a couple bucks, well, good! It's not just about getting stacks and stacks of money. I think that him being a provider, or not being able to be one, probably has a lot to do with why he's so obsessed with money. He just takes on a completely different tone once you start peeling those layers and finding out what he's really after.

Do you feel like it's a problem to have been off the air for so long?
I hope not, I really do. That's one thing I really wish people would wake up and understand, is that . . . audiences do not like to be played with. Sometimes I think we're in this business and we take it for granted -"Aw, everybody wants to go to the movies! What are you worried about?" Look, the audience does not like to be fooled around with! When baseball went on strike, it took years and a juiced ball and steroids to get everybody back. . . . Television's the same way. People take this stuff really seriously. They want to get home, they want to kick their shoes off, they want to watch their television shows. You start messing around with that, especially when you can make reality shows for nothing and get any schmo off the street to open his train wreck of a life, and people are saying "Hey, what's that?"

Lots more on Emerson's witty one-liners and that knitting, so just read more.

How many of Emerson's one-liners come in the script, and how many come from you?
The writers and I have a really good relationship. Most of the stuff they write, I say - 99.9 percent of the stuff. Every now and then, I'll do something a little different, and nobody will come back to tell me not to do it, so I'll just keep doing it. They give me a little bit of rope, and I try not to string myself up with it.

When you were looking for your next role after The Nine, were you looking for something that would have a comedic element to it?
Yeah, I didn't want to do any more crying. I didn't want to do any more hand-wringing and holding my head in disgust - I just didn't want to do it. It's really hard work! Comedy's hard too. But, you know, comedy's something that I started with and got away from for a long time. You make choices in your career for different reasons. I got into drama so people would take me seriously as an actor. And then, you know, when you want to do comedy again, people go, "He's not funny." So I was really glad to come back to comedy, but it had to be something good. No "You gettin' on my last nerve! Pow!" I didn't want to do that.

How much did you know about Emerson coming in, and were there things that came up in the first season that surprised you?
I knew everything! I pitched the story about Emerson - I pitched a story to Bryan [Fuller] that Emerson became a PI to find his daughter; his ex ran away with his daughter, and he wants to find her, and that's why he's so obsessed with money, because he wasn't a good provider. Bryan loved it. He had a completely different story. I don't even think he remembers what it is now.

I love all the details of his character, like the knitting.
It's a pain in the ass, though. You know, I learned it, and I can stitch one stitch, which is great, so I can make a scarf that will reach from here to the moon. But that's the one thing about the strike - that knitting, man. It's not like riding a bike. It just doesn't come back.

Interview: Michael Urie on Amanda, Cliff, and Moving Mode

BuzzSugar — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 07:30:14 -0700

Ugly Betty had barely finished its move to New York when the cast was called back to LA for this Summer's TCA press tour. Luckily, Michael Urie, who plays the delightful and scheming Marc, was able to make the trip. At an ABC party, I pulled him aside to get some quick insights into Betty's third season, which airs its second episode tonight. Here are highlights:

How do you get along so well with Becki Newton? Did you know each other before?
We'd never met before. We must have known each other in another life - we just connected immediately.

The No. 1 thing I always hear about the show is, "I want more Marc and Amanda." So, are we going to get more Marc and Amanda?
There's a lot of Marc and Amanda. I don't think they'll go an episode without us being together anymore. That was hard - we had to go like three or four apart, and it was not easy.

Other than Amanda, do you have a favorite character to play off?
Other than Wilhelmina and Amanda and Betty, I love working with Christina. That's a great dichotomy, too. You can't put two characters on that show together and something interesting doesn't happen.

For lots more from Urie, just read more.

How's being back in New York?
It's like what we were always meant to be doing. I was working there [before Betty], I went to school there, and it was like seven years. I'm into the theater, the subway, the pizza . . . The authenticity is going to be really reborn. We shot the pilot there, and it was on the streets of New York - New York fashion, New York look. And then we went away!

Did you have to rebuild Mode?
Yes, and it didn't fit! They had to redesign.

Patricia Field is doing the costumes now. Have you been dressed by her yet?
She did the pilot as well, and it was so nice - she's great, she's amazing, she's so bizarre. The things that she chooses, you're really like, "That will never work." And then you put them on, and it works, for whatever reason. It's just bizarre and weird and odd and it works.

What's coming up for Marc and Cliff?
It's a great relationship. It's different from where you would expect Marc to go. I think there's lots of room for conflict in that relationship . . . It's definitely going to continue.

Do you have a dream for a potential Marc and Amanda adventure?
I want Amanda to audition for Xanadu on Broadway.

A Visit to the Scrumptious Set of Pushing Daisies

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:30:27 -0700

By far, my favorite moment of the TCA press tour this Summer was getting to wander around the set of Pushing Daisies, which returns tonight for its second season. As lovely and fanciful as the Daisies world looks on television, it's even more wonderful in person, filling up two full sound stages on the Warner Bros. lot. The entire set wasn't open, but I did get to slide into a Pie Hole booth, check out the aunts' stuffy living room, and see the confessional in the nunnery where Olive will be starting the new season. To hear what the insanely detailed rooms looked like up close, just read on:

The Pie Hole
It makes total sense that the Pie Hole set doesn't have a top; how else would they get the cameras in for those overhead shots? But it was still funny to see this huge, looming pie crust edge with nothing in the middle, like a Gorg had come along and scooped out a bite. Inside, it's a surprisingly roomy restaurant, with cushy booths, lights shaped like giant cherries, and a spacious kitchen with a walk-in fridge (no bodies this time; I checked).

In one corner, candy jars and waffle cones are piled high; in another, there's an antique mirror where diners can check their hair on the way out. If you want a slice of pie at the Pie Hole, it'll cost you $5.95, but there's a pretty wide range of choices (four berry, Dutch apple, strawberry rhubarb, lemon meringue, sweet potato, three plum, peach, and derby). And if for some reason pie's not your thing, their butter pecan ice cream is apparently also world-famous.

To read about Emerson's office, the nunnery, and the aunts' place, just read more.

Emerson Cod's Office
With its hardwood floors, big metal safe, and framed artwork, Emerson's office looks ornate at first . . . until you notice all the knitting. There's a basket stuffed with yarn and needles just to one side of his desk chair, and he's clearly put it to use - on his desk, there's a knit cozy for his tissue box and another for his coffee mug. The man does love his money: a frame on the wall holds several old bills. In another frame, there's a certificate of proficiency from the Small Arms Firing School.

The Aunts' House
Here's one rule for Lily and Vivian's house: If it can be covered with fabric, it is, and the more layers the better. This was the tiniest and most crowded set we visited, stuffed with furniture upholstered heavily in velvet and brocade. It's the sort of place that always feels dusty no matter how clean it is, and there's barely room for two people to move around, much less a full cast and camera crew (one production guy saw us emerge and said, "Now you know why every time we shoot in there, the characters are sitting down"). Outside, there's a garden hose and blooming flowers; inside, it's just as dingy as it looks on screen, but purposefully so. Knick-knacks and birdcages are stacked everywhere - or, rather, everywhere there's not already furniture, as they've somehow crammed three couches, six armchairs, and a daybed into the tiny space.

The Roof
I didn't actually get to climb up onto Chuck's beekeeping roof, but it was one of my favorite corners of the whole set, with a sweeping blue screen representing the sky taking up the better part of two walls. A dozen gold beehives take up most of the rooftop, interspersed with pink, purple, and orange flowers. A bunch of old TV antennas loom over the roof, artfully tangled.

The Nunnery
We haven't actually seen this set in action yet, but just know this: It's spectacular. It's the largest of all the rooms I saw on the set, with several components: a large, monk-like dining hall with spartan tables, wooden chairs, and religious paintings lining the walls; a cavernous sanctuary with huge banks of candles along the wall (and several melting at the altar); and a confessional booth draped with thick, red, velvet curtains. The whole thing is decorated in shades of orange, red, gold, and gray, with a fleur de lis theme. I can't wait to see how it pops on screen.

Interview: Paul Adelstein on Being Private Practice's "Big Kid"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:30:01 -0700

Private Practice had its ups and downs last year, but there was one consistent good thing about the show for me: Paul Adelstein as Oceanside Wellness's pediatrician and unlucky-in-love bachelor, Cooper. When I spotted Adelstein after the Private Practice session at the TCA press tour in July, I convinced him to stop for a quick chat. In person, he was quite charming (and even laughed off my good-natured ribbing about his bright-white sneakers), and he gave me some hints about what's coming up for Cooper, who's still involved with the uptight Charlotte (KaDee Strickland) when season two begins. Here are highlights from our chat:

I hear from a lot of people that Cooper is their favorite part of the show. Does that surprise you?
Yeah, that surprises me. I think that one of the things with Shonda [Rhimes]'s writing - being a longtime Grey's fan - is that people identify with different characters differently, and I think that everybody has a favorite Grey's character, and so on. But it's nice to hear! I'm a little surprised - I don't think I'm my favorite character.

What are some of the things you do like about Cooper?
As an actor, it's a great gift to have to show up to work as loose as possible because that's who your character is. It's a challenge as an actor to try to be really loose and present, and when the character is loose and present, it's easier to do that. It kind of demands that you come and have a good time, and so that's a nice way to go to work every day.

Is the whole idea that he is the comic relief? And does that come from you, or is it kind of built in there?
I really try not to think about it that way because you never want to be the schticky guy. But I think Cooper is a funny guy. I think he uses humor as a defense. You try not to think about how it's fitting into the show too much, 'cause I think you can drive yourself crazy and go down the wrong path, so I just try to do whatever he's doing and hope that it translates. You know, last year, I think that we were all struggling a little bit with the tone of the show because [Rhimes's] writing is so good, you can play things very differently. I think that we're better at figuring out where we all sit this year.

To hear about the real pediatricians he met while preparing to play Cooper and what might be coming down the pipeline romantically for his character, just read more.

Cooper's also a character where it makes total sense that he's the pediatrician.
When I first got it, I thought, "Well, is the big kid really the pediatrician?" And then I met with some pediatricians, and I found that the people who are drawn to that profession, to that specialty, really do, more times than not, have a certain personality, which is easygoing, fun, they're certainly not in it for the money because pediatricians don't really make money. It makes a lot of sense that he would be drawn to that, and we'll see this season there are some more specific explanations for that.

I was wondering what you did to get into that character, because I like that he's a pediatrician who's not all, "Talk to the puppet!"
Yeah, we were really careful - we tried to make it a Patch Adams-free zone. We didn't want that to happen. The best people that work with children are the people that don't talk down to them, and I think he has this ability to be empathetic with children, maybe even more so than he does with adults. And it's unfettered for him. When I was talking to the different pediatricians I met with, that was the kind of thing I tried to draw out. And you really saw - two of three pediatricians that I talked to cried when I talked to them, which, you know, I always think, "Well, doctors are going to have a certain distance," but they're just very empathetic, and that felt like permission in a lot of ways to let Cooper be Cooper.

I love that the sort of big-kid-ness carries over into his personal life, like "Can we be boyfriend and girlfriend?"
Yeah, he does have a little bit of an adolescent view of that thing.There were a few times last year, and I think this year too, where he's surprisingly mature. I think that he's sometimes more mature than his co-workers because he takes kind of a child's eye view of things. Sometimes things are black and white, it's not a gray area, and he can be the stickler for some of that stuff

Does he have to change at all to be with Charlotte?
Yeah, sure - we're [shooting] episode five now, and we're just starting to see ways in which he does, some of which I think are healthy for him and some of which aren't.

Do you have people you really enjoy playing off of? Shonda was saying she loves seeing all the guys together.
Well, I did most of my heavy lifting with Amy [Brenneman] last year, and that was a dream. She's a dream, she's an amazing actress, so that's just a blessing. It makes your job so much easier. This year so far my personal stuff has been with KaDee, and that has been equally as fun. There are some people I haven't had that much to do with - I don't think there's a scene I've had with just me and Audra [McDonald].

It doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of Cooper and Addison either.
There hasn't been - although [we're shooting] a thing where it's the first time we really get in each other's faces. I'm looking forward to that.

Silvio Horta Previews Ugly Betty's Coming Season

BuzzSugar — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:31:26 -0700

Ugly Betty didn't have its own session at this Summer's TCA press tour, but executive producer Silvio Horta did stop by ABC's showrunners panel (delivering one of the best lines of the press tour in the process).

Afterwards, a few other reporters and I huddled with Horta to find out what's on tap for season three of Betty. While he didn't, you know, reveal which guy Betty chooses, he still had a lot to say about Betty's growth, Lindsay Lohan's arc, and what will become of Hilda and the coach. Curious to see what he had to say? Just read more.

The season premiere is going to be a doozy. "There's so much that happens in the first episode that sets up the rest of the season," Horta said.
The theme of the third season is growing up. "[Betty's] lost some of the focus that she had when she started this job," Horta said. "She's going to make this commitment to do certain things and act as a grownup. There's going to be some big changes in her life."

As for Lindsay Lohan, she'll be there as a contrast to Betty, a mean girl from high school whose life has taken a turn for the worse (burger-flipping style). "Lindsay brings a reputation, but I've always loved her," Horta said. "From Parent Trap to Mean Girls to Freaky Friday, she delivers."
With Patricia Field now in charge of the show's wardrobe after its move to New York, Betty is going to get a little more fashionable. But just a little: "She's still going to have her braces and her glasses, but if she didn't at least try to change . . . she's worked at the magazine for two years!" Horta said. "But she doesn't necessarily have the best eye for fashion. She's going to screw up a bit."
New York also means more real players from the fashion world are likely to turn up on the show: Horta said Dolce and Gabbana already wants to be involved.
Will Amanda ever find her father? "Maybe," Horta said coyly. He still likes the idea of exploring the background of Amanda's character: "We just see the girl who's in the circular desk. What's she doing here? How did she get here?"
Marc will be getting some more meaty stuff with the return of his boyfriend, Cliff. Yay!
Things are going to get a little sticky with Hilda and the Coach. His wife will appear at some point, and Hilda's family won't be too thrilled about the relationship, either.

What do you most want to see in Betty's third season?

Victor Garber on Katie Holmes, George Michael, and Being a Spy Daddy

BuzzSugar — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:45:27 -0700

How fantastic is it that Eli Stone has brought Victor Garber back to our TV sets on a near-weekly basis? Garber's been a favorite of mine since his Daddy Warbucks days - though I loved him most as Sydney's dad on Alias - and his role on Eli combines the best of his Broadway background with another tough-as-nails personality. At the TCA press tour, I chatted with Garber for a bit about being back on TV, working with Katie Holmes, and acting alongside George Michael. Check out some highlights:

What inspired you to take the role on Eli Stone?
This came just after Justice was finished, and I wasn't intending to go back to television, but I really loved the script, and I love [Executive Producer] Greg Berlanti, who - I was told by at least three different people, 'You've got to work with him.' So I met with him, and I read the script and I thought, 'This is so great.' That's what inspires me to do anything, is what's on the page. So I was very happy to get involved. Then it turned out to be one of the best experiences I've had. I'm very lucky. I've had three [series] - Alias, and then Justice, which was short but I loved that, and then this. So I feel like I won the lotto, I really do.

Are there any sort of musical numbers that you're just aching to do? Do you ever go to the producers and say, please, let me do this?
I never ever think that, I honestly don't. I was stunned when they threw "Freedom" at me, and "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" - stunned. I really didn't expect anything, and - my background is Broadway, pretty much, and I used to be a folk singer, so this was very very different for me, and I was very nervous, frankly. I'm just thrilled that they threw them at me and I was able to pull them off on some level.

Did you talk to Katie Holmes at all about going to Broadway?
No, we actually didn't. We talked about, oddly enough, Annie, because she said she's seen it 60 times because of her daughter. I just loved that that is a part of their life because it is so special to me.

To hear Garber's take on the twists and turns of Alias, just read more.

JJ [Abrams] was here a few days ago, and he was talking about coming across an episode of Alias and saying that even he didn't understand what was going on in that episode. Can you relate to that?
Uh-huh. Jennifer [Garner] and I joke about that all the time. I texted her - I was in Morocco, shooting, and she said, "We were in Morocco all the time on Alias!" I said, "Were we?" Alias was such a challenge in terms of being able to follow it. We used to joke about it all the time, you know, [we'd be] delivering lines, and then I'd say, "I have no idea what I'm talking about right now. None." Fortunately, the fans could explain it all to me when they would run into me and say, "This is what this is about."

We heard your character is going to go in a bit of a different direction this season. Could you talk a little bit about that?
We saw a little bit at the end of last season about how he's obviously seen something in Eli that's awakened something in him. And that's such a wonderful thing to play. It's sort of a reminder of who he used to be, and I think that just continues in this season.

If you had your druthers, what musical guest would they land?
You know, I was so in awe of George Michael. I could not believe that they got him. When we read the pilot, I thought, "Oh, nice try, but you'll never get him." You know, it's like, this will never happen. And then, cut to, I'm acting with George Michael. It was fantastic. He was so willing and nervous and sweet. He didn't realize, you know, you have to sort of like stand in one spot? Like on my close-up, he'd be covering the camera. But he was so sweet. It was a great thrill to work with him.

Source

Sarah Chalke on Britney, the Bahamas, and Braff in a Speedo

BuzzSugar — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:30:15 -0700

As funny as the Scrubs panel was at the TCA press tour, it would have been even better if we'd gotten to hear more from Sarah Chalke. So after the panel, I was one of a few reporters who chatted with Chalke about the future of Elliot, the joys of being back at work, losing co-star Zach Braff after this season, and filming in the Bahamas. Here's how the conversation went:

What was it like working with Courteney Cox?
We had such a good time. Courteney - I was very excited, cause she's playing a chief of medicine, and she's in a little black skirt, four-inch heels - we actually took a tape measure and measured both of our heels and they were both four inches. I was like, "You see, Bill [Lawrence, the executive producer]? Doctors, this is how they have to dress!" She's hysterical. We are so lucky to get to have her for three episodes and I hope she comes back and does more.

How was your experience working on How I Met Your Mother?
It was kind of last-minute. They called, like, on a Monday night - they said "Do you watch How I Met Your Mother"? I said, "Yeah, I love that show, it's hysterical." They're like, "Can you be here tomorrow morning?" They were like, "You're going to be playing a doctor, again," and I was like, "Great, can I bring my lab coat as my blankie?" And then - it's the nicest group. What a fun cast. You can tell they all really genuinely love each other, get along and have a great time working together.

And working with Britney Spears?
She was great. I mean, she played such a fun, quirky character, and she came in there and did her job.

Do you want to be the mother?
Who could hope for that? That's crazy!

For a hint from Chalke about a possible "something-or-other" between Elliot and JD, read more.

What's it been like working on this season of Scrubs?
Because of the writers' strike, we started shooting in March, and we're going to be finished shooting Scrubs the last week of August. We've never done that before. We just had the most ridiculous week in the Bahamas. It's like, going with 100 people you've worked with for seven and a half years to this gorgeous, tiny, remote island where there's like, no phones, no roads, people drive around in little golf carts, spotty internet, and rolling blackouts, so you just try to make a TV show there.

What's Zach Braff look like in a Speedo?
A-plus.

What will it be like when the show does end?
I moved to Los Angeles two months before I got Scrubs. Really, my entire life living in Los Angeles has been Scrubs, my whole adult life has been on that show. We could not have asked for a better experience - I got so lucky. You talk to so many people who work on a show for a couple of years, and nobody talks anymore, they only talk during scenes, and I can't imagine, A, any worse way to spend the day, and B, especially comedy, I think you need to be able to feel comfortable in your environment so you can try something and make a complete fool of yourself and then get up and try something different.

We actually have thought for the last five years, "ohmigod [it's over]." Every year. So in that way I think it's kind of cool, cause you go, "OK, guys, this is it, let's have a good time." It keeps everybody grateful, and I think that's the most important thing.

What's up with Elliot this year?
Everyone sort of develops this relationship with the newbies. I grab the one that I think is just cute as a button, and I want her to be mine, and then I realize she's playing me a little. JD and Eliot form a relationship, a sort of comfortable, healthy something-or-other, which I will not elaborate on, but they kind of figure out their situation for good.

Can you imagine Elliot without JD?
No! It will be so interesting to see what happens over the next few months. That would be a huge loss.

Source

Five Minutes With Loretta Devine

BuzzSugar — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:32:13 -0700

The fabulous Loretta Devine stopped by the TCA press tour earlier this week to talk about the upcoming second season of Eli Stone, in which she plays the title character's sassy but loving secretary. Between that and her recurring role on Grey's Anatomy, playing the sometimes-estranged wife of Seattle Grace's chief of surgery, Devine is showcasing her acting chops (and, in the case of Eli, her lovely voice) all over the ABC schedule - so I feel lucky that I managed to snag a few minutes with her in the hallway! Here's what she had to say:

Can you compare your experience working on Grey's Anatomy and Eli Stone, whether there are any similarities or huge differences between them?
They're both very extremely wonderful writers, and my relationships - it's so funny, because in Grey's Anatomy, I have a love relationship with my husband who doesn't spend enough time [with me], and in Eli Stone, I have this young man that I love so much and that I influence from the outside. I feel like the two characters are totally different from each other, so that's a good thing, because it's easy to keep them separate.

What's it like working with James Pickens Jr. on Grey's?
He is such a handsome man and such a debonair man. I learned about him cheating on me watching TV like everybody else, and I was like, "Oh my God! My husband's cheating!"

Even though you're not on the Grey's set all the time, do they keep you in the loop?
No, I'm not in the loop at all. They just call and say, "What's your availability?" and then they use you when they use you.

To hear about some of Devine's dream singing partners on Eli, just read more.

You said you didn't know about the singing on Eli Stone when you auditioned. When did you find out?
When I got the script! I was so excited because I got to sing some on Boston Public, so I'm really happy about that. And I really hope I get a chance to do more of it. You never know till you get the script. I'm not singing in the first two [episodes of the new season] and I'm sad!

The first season was all George Michael songs. Do you have a dream musical guest for the upcoming season?
I don't, to be totally honest, but Beyonce would be great to come on the show. I think she would be so beautiful. Jennifer Hudson, any of the Dreamgirls!

Source

The Wisteria Lane Ladies Preview Season 5 of Housewives

BuzzSugar — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:30:06 -0700

Desperate Housewives made one of the TV season's bolder moves in its finale, rocketing five years into the future and finding the ladies of Wisteria Lane with all-new problems (and, in some cases, all-new relationships). On Thursday, show creator Marc Cherry and the show's main cast took the stage at the TCA press tour to tease a little of what we can expect to see in season five. To see what Cherry and the ladies had to say, just read more.

How the five-year time jump came to be: Series creator Marc Cherry was at a baseball game with ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson sometime after Lost's crazy flash-forward third-season finale. He told McPherson he wanted to create a similar "bold stroke" for his show - and he also wanted to pare down the soapy drama and have the housewives dealing with smaller, more relatable problems. That's where the idea came to simply jump the show ahead, restarting a few years down the line.
Where we'll find the ladies: Bree "is going to get out of the house with her muffins - but at least she's getting out of the house!" Marcia Cross said. She's basically Martha Stewart at the dawn of her career. Lynette has juvenile delinquent sons, and Gaby is now a decidedly unglamorous mother of two. But we saw all of that in the season finale. Most interesting to me is that Susan - who was once so open with her emotions - is now closed off to love for reasons we'll discover over the course of the season.
And what of Edie? "Edie will come back to Wisteria Lane in a very exciting way," Cherry said (but, of course, would offer no more).

Gaby without the glamour? Eva Longoria Parker said she's loving playing a dressed-down (and slightly fattened up) Gaby, with a new, shorter "mom haircut" and extra padding all over. It may be short-lived, though; Cherry said we're likely to see Gaby looking fancy again by midseason.
Who's Susan's new man? Cherry described him as "kind of an interesting, artsy guy" who will be very different from the other men in her life and will present her with all-new challenges - "including the fact that she kind of doesn't even really want to be in a relationship."
So, what happened anyway? The idea is that we'll find out what happened in the intervening five years in bits and pieces over the course of the season, with some flashbacks and some storylines built around revealing what happened.

No matter where the story goes, we should enjoy it while we can: Cherry wants to end his show after seven years, which means just three more trips down Wisteria Lane.

Source

Shonda Rhimes Says Heigl Asked for Lighter Material

BuzzSugar — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:33:04 -0700

Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes said she was surprised but not insulted when Katherine Heigl made her now-infamous comments about withdrawing from the Emmy race - and the reason is pretty intriguing.

"In the back half of the season, Katherine asked me personally to write her light so that she could do her movie," Rhimes told critics during a panel for ABC showrunners at the TCA press tour. She also noted that the way Heigl's storyline with TR Knight, who plays George, played out ended up being lighter than many of Izzie's previous stories.

Rhimes said she did find it "surprising" when that news hit the press. "I actually have a really wonderful working relationship with Katherine, and I love and respect her as an actress," she said. "Izzie is one of my favorite characters."

"It was surprising, but Katie is an outspoken person," Rhimes added. "I think we all know that already."

Oh, and no, she wouldn't say anything about killing Izzie.

Source