What happens to outspoken women in Hollywood? Ask Katherine Heigl.

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Katherine Heigl was the queen of Romantic Comedy in the late noughties: 27 Dresses. Knocked Up. This is Life. The Ugly Truth…

She was everywhere you looked and magazines covers bearing her face flew off the shelves. She was the break-out star of Grey’s Anatomy, and we wanted to know everything about her wedding, her babies, her wardrobe.

And then suddenly… Heigl vanished.

Until last week, when she popped up on our TV screens. In an ad for cat litter.

Now, kitty litter is very important, and cats rule the internet, but isn’t it weird to see a woman who once pulled in massive box-office dollars doing an ad for a pet product?

It’s all for an animal charity that she started, that’s named after her late brother.  Heigl plays a cat psychiatrist who tells a human patient to switch to the kitty litter, Cat’s Pride.  The commercial doesn’t say anything about a piece of the profits going to the charity that she started, but in other promotions for the product, she talks about how a portion of every sale of Fresh And Light Ultimate Care, a kitty litter, goes towards supporting the down-n-out animals of the world.

It was an ad discussed on the latest episode of The Binge. Where Rosie Waterland has a compelling theory about what caused Heigl’s career to splutter.

Listen to Rosie and Laura discuss it here

“The thing with Katherine Heigl is, I feel she is similar to my personal hero Laurina Fleure because she is an incredibly outspoken, subversive woman. And the problem with her is that she has spoken out when she has not been happy with things.” says Rosie.

Basically, she does not play the part of the ‘Aw shucks, I’m just happy to be here,’ ingenue that young women in Hollywood are meant to embrace.

“So when she felt she had a bad season on Grey’s Anatomy she said I’m not going to apply for an Emmy because I don’t think my acting was good enough, which is practically saying the writing was bad, which is kind of offensive,” says Rosie. “She also spoke out against Judd Apatow and Knocked Up… and also, she got up in her Emmy speech, and said that she deserved the award.”

What did Heigl say about Knocked Up? She told Vanity Fair: “It paints the women as shrews, as humourless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it.”

Speaks the truth? Not afraid to blow her own trumpet? Willing to criticise the material she’s been offered? Unafraid to to make enemies of the people who make the big decisions?

Is Katherine Heigl the bravest woman in Hollywood? Or one who refuses to play the game?

Maybe she’s decided the lights and red carpets aren’t her thing anymore, and she want’s to put her energies into something she can hold up with pride.

Like Cats Pride kitty litter.

What do you think?  Is Heigl too honest for Hollywood? 

Check out the full episode of The Binge here on iTunes Or listen below:

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