Creator of "Grey's Anatomy" and "How to Get Away With Murder" Shonda Rhimes created a bit of a scandal when she described how her set of the "Scandal" runs smoothly, according to CBS News. "There are no Heigls in this situation," Rhimes is quoted as saying. "I don't put up with b-lls--t or nasty people. I don't have time for it."
Actress Katherine Heigl left the show "Grey's Anatomy" in 2010, but bad blood may have started boiling in 2007 when Heigl, according to CBS News, withdrew her name from Emmy consideration because she felt she wasn't given material "to warrant an Emmy nomination."
Heigl now stars on "State of Affairs," and rumors have swirled about her behavior on set there. According to HuffPostTV, Heigl responded, "I can only say that I certainly don't see myself as being difficult. I would never intend to be difficult. I think it's important to everybody to conduct themselves professionally and respectfully and kindly. If I have ever disappointed somebody, it was not intentional."
According to an article by The Hollywood Reporter, "In early August, Shonda Rhimes read a draft announcement for an event where she was set to appear. It called her 'the most powerful black female showrunner in Hollywood.' She crossed out 'female' and 'black' and sent it back."
"They wouldn't say that someone is 'the most powerful white male showrunner in Hollywood,'" she told THR. "I find race and gender to be terribly important; they're terribly important to who I am. But there's something about the need for everybody else to spend time talking about it ... that pisses me off."
Following a September New York Times essay that called Rhimes "an angry, black woman," and called her female lead in "How to Get Away With Murder" "less classically beautiful" than other better-known, perhaps lighter-skinned actresses. "Some really amazing articles were written that had the conversation that I've been trying to have for a very long time, which, coming from me, makes me sound like I'm just, 'Rrrraw!'" Rhimes told The Hollywood Reporter. "In this world in which we all feel we're so full of gender equality and we're a postracial [society] and Obama is president, it's a very good reminder to see the casual racial bias and odd misogyny from a woman written in a paper that we all think of as being so liberal."