It's obvious that Isaiah Washington dug a big enough hole for himself when, backstage at the Golden Globe Awards, he repeated the gay slur he had called T.R. Knight on the set of "Grey's Anatomy" months earlier. But who knows if the backlash against Washington, and his basically being forced to apologize and go to gayhab to keep his job, would have been as strong if not for Katherine Heigl? She is the only cast member (there are a dozen of them) to openly call Washington on the carpet and she did so that very night in a televisised interview saying "He needs to not talk in public. Period."
Heigl, who plays Dr. Izzie Stevens on the ABC series, appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" and continued to speak candidly about the situation: "If it were ignored or just brushed under the rug, I would be angrier about it. But [Washington] is trying very hard. We're all trying very hard."
Heigl said that the cast usually got along well and that the set felt "like work as usual" now that Washington had returned.
"I, obviously, have been very verbal about all of this, but there isn't a lot going on right now," she said. "We're all hopeful. … It's a great group of people, and we work really well together. We work really hard, and it's unusual that we do get along as well as we do."
Ratings remain huge: last week's episode of "Grey's Anatomy" was its most watched since the season premiere back in September.