Yglesias seems to think Heigl's relieving his lingering discomfort with Knocked Up:
Like a lot of people, I found Knocked Up to be both funny, and
somewhat disquieting in its apparent message. These issues got
discussed a bit and then the whole thing was forgotten in our
fast-paced internet-age culture. But Jessica Valenti points out a really good new Meghan O'Rourke essay on the film inspired by Katherine Heigl's recent remark that the movie was "a little sexist."
And of course, in have-cake-eat-too land, the rank contradiction between being paid for a big break that makes you uncomfortable and revealing your intimate discomfort from the interview chair is to be celebrated on precisely those terms:
It's her unfiltered voice that makes her dynamic and edgy, so what if
she occasionally comes off as a raging she-beast? Embrace it! And just
because Heigl scored her big-screen breakthrough in Knocked Up doesn't mean she has to worship her character, or agree wholeheartedly
with the film's portrayal of women. What's more, who would really want
to read an interview where she did? -- Gretchen Hansen, Entertainment Weekly's Popwatch
Aha! Watching celebs squirm over the emotional costs of splitting their selves up for sexy perks and cash prizes creates frisson for entertainment consumers! It's all so obvious now. Surely part of being an artist calls for a certain kind of courage to strain yourself artistically. But Heigl's no tortured artiste. She's a professional player of parts that make her feel, like Yglesias himself, lingeringly guilty and kinda dirty. But at least Yglesias, like myself, is only a critic, who has to contend, like it or not, with things that register on the Attention Meter of popular public opinion. Heigl is a serial psychomasochist -- in addition to this, on the Grey's adultery...
"That was kind of a big change for Izzie, wasn't
it, after she was so up on her moral high ground," muses the actress.
"They really hurt [Callie], and they didn't seem to be taking a lot of
responsibility for it. I have a really hard time with that kind of
thing."
...there's this, on The Fall of the House of Usher (!):
"Ann is a young woman who had been encircled by this history (of her lineage) her entire life, so it's already kind of there, the mystery of that big old house she's living in. The odd relationship between her and her brother, that Poe vibe is already around her, I think she is used to and almost likes that creepy feeling that prevails throughout the film." [...] "Ann isn't twisted, but she has a complex sexuality," says Heigl. "She likes the macabre." And here Heigl draws a clear distinction between herself and Ann. "There are things that I was very uncomfortable with. The whole incestuous theme was very uncomfortable for me. Reading it I was trying to shake it off. But that is what Poe is so brilliant at doing. Those things happen, those are the darker sides of humanity that people won't talk about so much, but those are the real horror stories."
Yeah, okay, I get it, but that's one weird yet characteristic-of-the-age pattern to get yourself into and ritually confess. Fame and its side benefits would appear to be inadequate therapy, which of course makes us love our stars even more. They're anxiety-ridden about their 'complex' sexuality and about hurting people and not taking responsibility -- just like us! Now that's incestuous. And guess what: we're used to it and almost like that creepy feeling that prevails throughout our lives.
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