I have a confession to make.
I like Katherine Heigl. Not enough to join her fan club, mind you, but enough to acknowledge that this opinionated Hollywood "diva" has brought some good laughs to the screen in recent years.
Critics might like to forget that fact. For them, Heigl is destined to become Jennifer Aniston but worse – a rom-com star with mixed success and little promise for ever distinguishing herself in some great way.
Money certainly talks at the Hollywood box office. That's as true now as it was when Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn were making movies eight decades ago.
Ever since Heigl grabbed Hollywood's attention in 2007 with Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up," star vehicles such as "27 Dresses" and "The Ugly Truth" have banked a combined worldwide total of $365.6 million.
That's nothing compared to the $464 million that Julia Roberts' "Pretty Woman" earned in 1990. But it is also nothing to sneeze at, especially in today's economy.
Heigl definitely has Hollywood's attention. Whether she can keep it, however, is a whole other story.
Heigl's diva ways still a big draw?
Some like to call Heigl the modern-day Grace Kelly. Others have described her as a holy terror to work with, on or off a movie set.
Whatever your pick, what I don't get is how someone who prides herself on being so intelligent can make continue to make such unvarying film choices?
This weekend "Life as We Know It," another predictable Heigl flick, rolls into theatres.
This dramedy centres on two single people who become the parents of a little girl when their mutual best friends die in an accident.
Heigl laughs. She cries. She coos at the baby. She also connects well with her new love interest, played by Josh Duhamel. Fans will watch Holly, the controlling café owner Heigl plays here, and see that big-hearted charm she once brought to Dr. "Izzie" Stevens on "Grey's Anatomy." But she isn't pushing herself much with this role.
The world is filled with all kinds of moving, talent-stretching roles to play. Shouldn't the hottest blonde bombshell since Carole Lombard (as some studio execs have dubbed Heigl) be out there taking risks on screen instead of beating moviegoers over the head with the same old story?
Shouldn't she be out there pounding on the doors of great directors like Jason Reitman, the genre-crossing Danny Boyle and Apatow for the chance to show her range as an actress?
Given Heigl's unbridled honesty, of course, a reunion with Apatow will likely never happen.
As the world well knows by now, in 2007 Heigl told Vanity Fair that "Knocked Up" was "a little bit sexist." The remark prompted Seth Rogen, her "Knocked Up" co-star, to trash Heigl on Howard Stern's XM Sirius radio show.
Apatow, reportedly, has not spoken to the actress since she made the remark.
Heigl, like many actresses out there -- among them Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Lopez and Aniston -- might aspire to take Hollywood's rom-com queen mantle away from Julia Roberts.
And who among them would not love to receive the praises that went to Meg Ryan in the 1990s, when "Time" critic Richard Corliss called her "the current soul of romantic comedy?"
Heigl's "Life as We Know It" might be good enough to keep studio execs happy. It may even put her closer to Hollywood's rom-com queen title and that regal paycheque.
But if "Life as We Know It" only leads to more predictable movies like this, then listen up Katherine Heigl. We like you. Get out there and surprise us.
Tomorrow on CTV.ca: Full review of "Life as We Know It."
