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Grey's Anatomy Stars Ellen Pompeo and T.R. Knight Reunited After Justin Chambers' Controversial Exit


Warning: This post contains spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy.

Ellen Pompeo knows that Grey’s Anatomy fans have been going through it lately. For weeks, the show has teased the fate of Dr. Alex Karev, after it was announced that actor Justin Chambers was exiting the long-running ABC hit. During this past week’s episode, which aired on March 5, the powers that be finally revealed Karev’s absence: He left Seattle, his job, his friends, and his wife Jo to reunite with Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) and the twins she gave birth to from embryos the couple froze many, many seasons ago when she was battling cancer…

Some fans were so upset with the “out-of-character” exit for one of the last remaining original five surgical interns, they actually wished he’d been killed off, instead. You know, George O’Malley style, not McDreamy style.

Leave it to Pompeo, who has played the titular Meredith Grey since the show debuted in 2005, to provide her fanbase with a much-needed pick-me-up. The actress posted an Instagram on March 6 with T.R. Knight, who played the lovable O’Malley for five seasons. “Old friends are the BEST friends @t.r.knight…but like we aren’t old…we’ve just known each other for a very long time yes yes that’s it….,” she wrote in the caption, alongside a photo of the pair on a hike in Los Angeles.

George’s death (in the premiere episode of season six) is one of Grey’s most gut-wrenching—and that’s really saying something for this show. He was hit by a bus trying to save a woman and was unrecognizable at the hospital until he wrote “007” on Meredith’s palm with his finger. Alas, the doctors of Seattle Grace couldn’t save him and it was devastating. Honestly, we’re still not over it all these years later.

…Just like fans probably won’t get over Karev’s exit anytime soon. Pompeo also posted an Instagram defending the way the Grey’s Anatomy writers handled the controversial farewell. “For me personally for Karev to go back to the beginning…was the best possible storyline,” she captioned a video montage of Meredith and Karev’s greatest hits. “It pays homage to those incredible first years and the incredible cast…that created a foundation so strong that the show is still standing. So let’s not be sad. As our fearless leader DA always says let’s PULL UP and celebrate the actors the writers and the fantastic crew who make this show come to life every week.”

If this is the end of Karev’s time as Meredith’s “person,” at least we have the ‘Gram to remind us that George and Mer’s friendship never really died.





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Ellen Pompeo Defends Alex Karev's Controversial Goodbye on Grey’s Anatomy


Warning: Major Grey’s Anatomy spoilers ahead.

Attention, Grey’s Anatomy fans: Ellen Pompeo has weighed in on the show’s controversial farewell to Dr. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), and she says hard pass to fans who wish the writers would’ve killed him off instead of sending him to live with Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl).

In last night’s episode, Alex sent letters to Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), his new wife, Jo (Camilla Luddington), and Bailey (Chandra Wilson) explaining that his ex from over 10 years ago had his babies and that he’s going to make a life with them. Many fans were against it, but Pompeo called it the “the best possible storyline” in a new Instagram post.

“Hi here I go again … Thank YOU! You are truly the best most passionate most loyal fans anyone could ever ask for,” she wrote. “Because of you we got to make great tv… because of you we got to make television history!”

Pompeo goes on to thank the writers “for giving Alex Karev the best send off” and calls him “the most amazing character.”

“For me personally for Karev to go back to the beginning…was the best possible storyline,” she continues. “It pays homage to those incredible first years and the incredible cast…that created a foundation so strong that the show is still standing. So let’s not be sad. As our fearless leader DA always says let’s PULL UP and celebrate the actors the writers and the fantastic crew who make this show come to life every week. No matter what the challenge or how tired we all are in the end…you keep us going…That is worth dancing it out over! So much love and gratitude to you all. Xo E.”

In January, Chambers announced his exit from Grey’s Anatomy. “There’s no good time to say goodbye to a show and character that’s defined so much of my life for the past 15 years,” he said in a statement. “For some time now, however, I have hoped to diversify my acting roles and career choices. And, as I turn 50 and am blessed with my remarkable, supportive wife and five wonderful children, now is that time.”

He added, “As I move on from Grey’s Anatomy, I want to thank the ABC family, Shonda Rimes, original cast members Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson and James Pickens, and the rest of the amazing cast and crew, both past and present, and, of course, the fans for an extraordinary ride.”



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Barbie Is the Most Popular Doll in America—She's Also the Most Controversial, Diverse, and Ambitious


We stashed the bodies in the basement.

It was dark, windowless, and cold—almost morguelike. But the cousins and I didn’t care. The chill kept our grandparents upstairs, which meant no witnesses to interrupt our “crimes.” A few hours of euphoric destruction, and then we would pile the carcasses in a plastic weekender bag we shoved behind a rolled-up carpet until the next time, leaving errant limbs to roll around like loose pennies at the bottom.

Some of the happiest childhood memories I have were made in that basement. It was where we mounted drawn-out melodramas. Gave bad haircuts! Applied vulgar tattoos in Sharpie! And sure, it was home to the occasional decapitation.

What I mean is: God, we loved our Barbie dolls.

Like more than 90 percent of American women, I grew up with Barbies. Tons of them. I had a pilot Barbie and a waitress Barbie. I had a swimsuit Barbie, a disco Barbie, and several Barbies that I stripped naked to liberate them from their too-stiff organza gowns. (Truth: I wanted to see their boobs.) I also had a Barbie Dreamhouse—even in 2019, 30 are sold per hour—and a pink convertible that Ken “fell” out of when Barbie floored it. (Truth: He was pushed. I pushed him.)

I can’t remember “the first” Barbie or even the one I liked best. But somehow the collection just expanded, with new Barbies added to the group to make the others jealous like proto-contestants on Bachelor in Paradise. The Barbies in my grandparents’ basement were the most abused, but even the ones I had at home endured hideous bobs and occasional pratfalls.

It doesn’t take a therapist to explain what I understood at six: This world wasn’t built for me. With Barbies, I could act out.

The standard Barbie is 11 and a half inches tall, but her reach is enormous. She has more “brand awareness” than Kim Kardashian and the queen of England. (Mattel ranks it at 99 percent worldwide.) Over 58 million of her are purchased each year, and she’s available in 150 countries.

Six decades after her invention, she’s still the number-one fashion doll in the United States and, since Mattel introduced new skin tones and hair textures in 2015 in response to a 20 percent drop in sales between 2012 and 2014, the most diverse. In 2016 the brand also unveiled three new body types—petite, tall, and curvy. Last month it announced it’ll add to the collection: Barbie in a wheelchair, the first with a prosthetic limb, some with a new, braided hair texture, and an entire fourth shape, with a smaller bust, less defined waist, and more defined arms.

New Barbies in 2019 include a wheelchair-bound doll and doll in a fourth new shape, featured second from the left.

Mattel

For a doll who was once programmed to complain that “math class is tough” on command, it’s all quite impressive. But then she didn’t have to do a lot to exceed expectations. Like most women born in 1959, she was underestimated from the start.

Barbie made her first appearance at the New York Toy Fair that March. At the time, she was an unprecedented experiment. But Ruth Handler was sure she would sell. Handler was the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Poland. At 43, she was an executive vice president at Mattel, the behemoth brand she had founded with her husband Elliot Handler and his friend Harold Matson in 1944.

From the moment Mattel was established, Handler decided to be essential to the business, both because she had brilliant ideas and because she couldn’t bear to remain at home. In an interview, Handler said she loved motherhood. But the conventions of it? Well, those repelled her. Or as she put it: “Knowing how to cook and keeping a good house? Oh shit, it was awful.” For all Barbie’s foibles—and the Sleepover Barbie released in 1965 that came with a scale set to 110 pounds and a diet book plastered with the words “Don’t Eat!” is but one example—it’s no surprise that when Handler created Barbie, she made her an independent woman and a wage earner. Fine, she was a teen swimsuit model at first, but then a flight attendant, a teacher, and an astronaut. An afterthought, her husband Ken wasn’t introduced until 1961. And like all of her accessories, he was sold separately.



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Ashley Graham Had the Perfect Response to a Question About Kendall Jenner's Controversial Comments About Modeling


Even months after Love magazine published a now-famous quote from Kendall Jenner in which she said she’s “super selective” about what fashion jobs she does—all while being among the highest-paid models in the industry—her industry colleagues have been discussing and responding to her comments. Some called out Jenner’s privilege; Naomi Campbell had but two words on the matter. Now, Ashley Graham has joined the conversation, after being asked about it on Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live.

On Thursday night’s episode, Graham received a call about Jenner’s controversial comments, and she gave a powerful answer.

“Well, lucky for her,” she said, with a chuckle. “‘Cause I’ve never been—that’s so lucky. These t*ts and a** have just had to fight through and break down barriers everyday.” (Jenner has since clarified her statements.)

Check out the clip of Graham, below.

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Jenner’s experience in the modeling industry might not be relatable to Graham, but there doesn’t seem to be any bad blood between the two. (They’ve appeared on magazine covers together, and recently spoke on a panel about modeling during Vogue‘s Forces of Fashion conference.) Later in the episode, Graham played a game in which she had to spill “Positivi-Tea” about her friends and fellow models, during which she praised Jenner, saying: “She’s in demand, honey!”

Watch her share her love and thoughts on Jenner, Karlie Kloss, and more.

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Oh, and reminder: If you want some more real talk from Graham, you can check her out at Glamour‘s Woman of the Year summit this November, where she’ll be speaking.

Related Stories:

Naomi Campbell Responded to Kendall Jenner’s Comments on Working Fewer Fashion Shows

Ashley Graham on Her Second Marina Rinaldi Collaboration and Why Curve-Friendly Collections Are Still Worthy Headlines

Ashley Graham Had the Best Response to a Commenter Who Said She Looks Pregnant





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French Icon Catherine Deneuve Signs Controversial Open Letter Criticizing #MeToo Movement


Catherine Deneuve, the 74-year-old French actress known for her decades-long career, has joined 99 other women in signing an open letter that challenges the #MeToo movement and its French counterpart #Balancetonporc, claiming that the public campaigns infantilize women, limit sexual freedom, and contribute to “puritanical” and “totalitarian” thinking.

The letter was published Tuesday in French newspaper Le Monde, and its signatories are academics, entertainers, and writers, including author Catherine Millet, psychoanalyst Catherine Robbe-Grillet, and actress Christine Boisson.

“Rape is a crime. But insistent or clumsy flirting is not a crime, nor is gallantry a chauvinist aggression,” the women write, according to a translation printed in The New York Times. “As a result of the Weinstein affair, there has been a legitimate realization of the sexual violence women experience, particularly in the workplace, where some men abuse their power. It was necessary. But now this liberation of speech has been turned on its head.”

In the letter, the women also denounced #MeToo for punishing men too abruptly. Likening the public reckoning that’s ousted many high-profile men from positions of power to a “witch hunt,” they lamented that “expedited justice already has its victims, men prevented from practicing their profession as punishment, forced to resign, etc., while the only thing they did wrong was touching a knee, trying to steal a kiss, or speaking about ‘intimate’ things at a work dinner…”

The letter is likely an example of problematic generational divides that complicate the #MeToo conversation and fail to hold men accountable for their behavior: Last year, designer Donna Karan, 69, apologized after saying that women who were assaulted by film producer Harvey Weinstein were “asking for it.” Ninety-two-year-old actress Angela Lansbury also made the world cringe when she said women “must sometimes take blame” for harassment. And, in an interview with The Sunday Times Magazine back in 2015, rocker Chrissie Hynde, 66, said she took “full responsibility” for a sexual assault incident she experienced at age 21, in which she was raped by a motorcycle gang member who offered her a ride to a party.

Plus, as The Atlantic points out, there are also cultural differences at play here. While women in the U.S. may feel a strength in numbers and solidarity in speaking out French women may fear that “naming names will more likely win you accusations of being a ‘collabo,’ or turncoat, not to mention an affront to your own sex appeal.

Needless to say, Le Monde letter met with a wave of backlash that was swift and biting.

Italian actress Asia Argento—one of the first women to accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct—tweeted “Deneuve and other French women tell the world how their interiorized misogyny has lobotomized them to the point of no return,” while a group of about 30 activists, led by French feminist Caroline De Haas, responded by saying that Deneuve and the co-signers had conflated flirting and sexual violence.

“One means treating the other as your equal, respecting their desires, whatever they may be. The other is treating them as an object at your disposal, paying no attention to their own desires, or their consent,” they wrote.

Deneuve has spoken about women’s issues in the past, even admitting to having an illegal abortion in France in the 1970s. However, it’s not the first time she’s denounced #MeToo—she called the movement “excessive” last fall. She’s also been criticized for defending the director Roman Polanski, who pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.





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