'Grey's Anatomy' cast visits picket line

The cast of the top-rated medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" joined striking Hollywood writers on a picket line Wednesday and said they were shooting scenes for their last scripted episode.

Stars Patrick Dempsey, Ellen Pompeo, Sandra Oh and T.R. Knight, who plays Dr. George O'Malley, spent their lunch breaks outside the Prospect Studios, where "Grey's" is filmed.

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"If the fans want to support the actors and the writers, do not download shows on the Internet," Ellen suggested. "Don’t watch them, because the writers aren't paid for them."

As for how much longer we'll get our Grey's fix, she explained: "Episode seven airs this week. So, we just have a few more left, and then there will be no new episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. I think everybody’s really worried. You know, the actors don’t have as much to worry about obviously, we’re very well compensated for what we do. It’s the crew that has a lot to worry about. This affects everybody, and they can’t afford to have four or five months off. It’s Christmas, they have mortgages."

"We're fighting the same fight," Sandra said, just before the cast's lunch hour came to an end and she was called back to set.

The Grey's stars will continue shooting until they complete episode 11 on Tuesday, then production is expected to shut down. The writers and show runners have been picketing and not working since Monday.

2007 Writers Guild of America strike

Source: eonline

National Italian American Foundation

• 
  
  Actress Ellen Pompeo is applauded for her award in achievement in entertainment at a National Italian American Foundation gala dinner in Washington October 13, 2007

• Grey's Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo is a big hit here and abroad, but what she and her fiancé adore most about their travels to Italy is the food.
  
  "I go several times a year. Christopher [Ivery], my fiancé, has family there and we go spend time with them whenever we get a chance," she tells PEOPLE, adding they're planning another visit "very soon."
  
  So what's her favorite thing about Italy? "The food. I love the area of Bologna for food. I think it's really special," she said.
  
  Her top-rated ABC series Grey's Anatomy is also a big hit and Italian fans are taken aback when they see Pompeo in real life.
  
  "They're quite surprised to see me there," Pompeo, who turns 38 next month, said at the National Italian American Foundation's 32nd Annual Gala in Washington, D.C. "They just can't believe I'm in Italy. It's sort of out of context for them. They say 'Meredith! Meredith! It's you, Meredith! Oh my God, could it be Meredith?' "
  
  Less surprising is that she's no slouch when it comes to cooking Italian. Her fiancé loves her Bolognese sauce, she says of the dish that pays tribute to her favorite region.
  
  Pompeo doesn't seem to be in a rush to get married despite having been engaged nearly a year. She still hasn't started on the plans, but has thought about the kind of wedding she wants – "a quiet, simple, private one."
  
  Other honorees at Saturday's NIAF gala, where Pompeo received group's Special Award in Entertainment, were director Martin Scorsese, actress Connie Stevens, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Rudy Giuliani, and AARP chief William Novelli.
  People
  

• That Everett homegal and “Grey’s Anatomy” star Ellen Pompeo told CN8’s Sara Edwards that she thinks it’s inevitable her alter ego, Meredith Grey, will get married to Dr. McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) on the show. “They just can’t keep us apart,” she said when Edwards caught up with her over the weekend in Washington, D.C., where the actress received the National Italian American Foundation’s Special Achievement Award in Entertainment. The proud Italian also gets put to the test when she reveals she grew up watching Edwards on“Evening Magazine.” Tune in to “Backstage” tonight at 8 p.m. on CN8 for the full interview and coverage of the NIAF Gala.
  BostonHerald

F! magazine - October 2007 issue

So long the underdog, Ellen Pompeo has finally hit the big time as the star of the award-winning drama ‘Grey’s Anatomy’. The product of a desperately tough childhood - and now the ‘12th most powerful’ celebrity in the world - she tells Sean Carter how it all came good

Americanway - October 1, 2007

Boston Uncommon

Grey's Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo is at home among th trees and gardens in one of America's most historic cities

A lighter shade of 'Grey's' on the set

"I don't know that Meredith Grey is capable of fun," Pompeo says with a giggle that turns into a slow groan. "All of our scenes are the same — we're either breaking up or having sex."

Pompeo herself, however, is clearly capable of having a good time. She returned home on Emmy night after midnight, puzzled by the number of children at the post-ceremony parties who approached her for photos and autographs. She obliged. "They're kids — you can't say no."

And she has big dreams: homes in several places, including the East Coast, Europe and Los Angeles, where she realizes all the work is.

"The great thing about when the show ends is that I'll have more freedom to travel," she says.

Her show connections already opened up some overseas opportunities. Over the summer, Pompeo and her fiancé, Christopher Ivery, visited Dempsey and wife Jill in London while he was shooting a film in Scotland.

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ET on the Grey's Anatomy set

LA Confidential Magazine - Emmy/Fall 2007 issue

Just what the doctor ordered: a candid conversation with Ellen Pompeo, who’s every bit as outspoken as she is stylish.

If Ellen Pompeo had to write an essay along the lines of “What I Did on My Summer Vacation,” it would probably be about the globe-trotting she’s done—New York, Paris, Japan—in the weeks leading up to the filming of the fourth season of her hit ABC show, Grey’s Anatomy.

It’s been a wild ride for the 37-year-old Boston native, who got engaged in November to fellow Bostonian Chris Ivery. Pompeo first made a blip on the entertainment radar in 2002 as Jake Gyllenhaal’s love interest in Moonlight Mile, alongside Hollywood heavyweights Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon. She popped up again here and there in mostly forgettable roles (usually cast as the stereotypical wife or girlfriend) in memorable movies like Old School and Catch Me If You Can. But in 2005, Grey’s Anatomy suddenly thrust her fully into the spotlight and onto small screens across America. Pompeo shines as the romantically challenged Meredith Grey, whose sexual exploits and professional struggles are chronicled in excruciating detail each week, much to the delight of the show’s 25 million-plus loyal viewers who keep tuning in to ogle Grey’s McLoveInterest du jour.

Unlike her character, however, Pompeo is anything but indecisive. Full of opinions on everything from young Hollywood to the media’s choice of topics, Pompeo calls it like she sees it, refreshing in a town where honesty is rarely the best policy. “I just think the media should take this country in a different direction. We’re so focused on the wrong things,” she says. “We’re teaching young girls that this is what they should be focusing on: rich and famous girls who are rich and famous for nothing. What are we doing to this younger generation? It’s not very responsible.”

Los Angeles Confidential: You’ve been traveling a lot during your hiatus. Is that how you typically spend your time off?
Ellen Pompeo: I think it’s important as an actor to get away and experience different cultures. It enriches you. I’m fortunate that the show’s in so many different countries and that they’re nice enough to invite us [to visit]. They treat us so wonderfully. You know, I spend 10 months of the year in Los Angeles, acting. So I think it’s really important to travel and have rich real-life experiences to bring to my acting when I come back to the show. Your whole life can’t be about work or Hollywood.

LAC: And planning your wedding? When will you fit that in?
EP: Oh my goodness. I swear we’re going to get married at some time. We’re just trying to fit it all in. It won’t be a big ceremony—we want one thing to ourselves.

LAC: A lot of TV actors make movies while they’re on hiatus. You started out in film; do you still have an interest in that?
EP: Certainly, and I get a lot of very interesting offers from some pretty remarkable people, but I can’t take advantage of them because the show doesn’t let me. I’m lucky the show is so successful: I never have to do another movie I’m not proud of. I can be super, super picky. So unless it’s an A-list director and an A-list script, and an A-list cast, I don’t really have the desire to be in movies just to prove that I can. I know I can, because I came from movies.

LAC: You’re contracted for six seasons, right?
EP: Yes, although I just signed on for a seventh. The show could end tomorrow, but if they want me for seven seasons, I have to oblige. I’ve committed to them. They can let us go anytime they want, but we can’t leave anytime we want.

LAC: On that topic, during the Isaiah Washington controversy you seemed to steer clear of making any substantive comment on his being fired from the show. Is that because you feel there’s not much for you to say?
EP: I think so. It’s better to not exacerbate it. I think everybody’s tired of it. For me, what’s important is to move forward, do whatever I can personally to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.

LAC: Another thing that’s been done to death in your past interviews is this obsession with your weight. Why do you think people care so much?
EP: I guess it’s a normal question from the media because I’m really thin. The dangerous thing about it is that I get a ton of fan mail from little girls—from seven years old to 16—about how they love me and I’m a role model for them. And I think the media is really irresponsible in portraying me as having an eating disorder. I just worry about the girls who look up to me—I don’t want them to think I starve myself or don’t eat, and that to be like me that’s what they have to do.

LAC: Why is it so hard for people to wrap their heads around the fact that some women are naturally thin?
EP: You know what’s funny? I understand if you see a picture of someone who was 40 pounds heavier three years before; then the weight loss is very dramatic and obvious. But you’ll never find a picture of me where I’m a lot heavier than I am now. I’ve only ever fluctuated two to three pounds in my whole [adult] life.

LAC: Do you have any interest in having children of your own someday?
EP: I do. I do. With the show, I just don’t know if it’s entirely fair to myself and to everybody else right now. We’ll see what happens.

LAC: So after your travels you immediately start work on season four. What would you like to see happen to Meredith this year? Last season was kind of bananas…
EP: [Laughs] Yeah, it was! I’m much better off not having any expectations. The reality is that I have to be very Zen about it because I have absolutely no control over what they do. I’m just happy to have a job and I love my job, and I love the people I work with. Whatever happens, it’s OK. It’s not a bad way to make a living.

LAC: When did you realize Grey’s was a hit? Was it clear to you from the minute you got the script?
EP: It was two years in, when I got invited to do the Oprah Winfrey Show. I thought, OK, well, this has clearly gone to another level now.

LAC: You’ve been nominated for a Golden Globe before. What’s your take on awards shows?
EP: Of course it’s nice to be nominated. I don’t live or die by it, but it’s very flattering. To be nominated would be a nice compliment. There are fantastic actresses in this category every year. But at end of the day, we’re not saving lives. We’re just actors.

LAC: Speaking of saving lives, now that you’ve been doing the show for a while, do you think you could perform a real-life medical procedure if you had to?
EP: [Laughs] Absolutely not! But I could call 911 very well.

LAC: Have you given any thought as to who you’ll be wearing to the Emmys?
EP: No, I haven’t, but I know I’ll be wearing something a lot lighter than last year. I’d just gotten back from the Dior couture show in Paris and I wore this beautiful velvet dress that John [Galliano] gave me. And it was gorgeous, but it was so hot.

LAC: Well, it’s always better to be comfortable at these things.
EP: [Laughs] Yeah, it is, but it’s kind of impossible. There’s no such thing as a comfortable gown. H

LA Confidential outtakes

Source: la-confidential, larafan21

Stella - The Telegraph UK interview

UP POMPEO
So long the underdog, Ellen Pompeo has finally hit the big time as the star of the award-winning drama 'Grey's Anatomy'. The product of a desperately tough childhood - and now the '12th most powerful' celebrity in the world - she tells Marianne Macdonald how it all came good

The dark back office of a Georgian house in Bloomsbury is an incongruous place to be interviewing Ellen Pompeo. But that's where we've retreated after her photo-shoot is over. It's a far cry from the sun-baked Los Angeles lot where Pompeo is usually to be found, in scrubs, as the title character in Grey's Anatomy. Dr Meredith Grey - brisk, vulnerable, self-destructive, talented - is a lead unlike any other on American television, and her gripping screen presence and romantic 'car crashes' hook 20 million viewers a week.
In its annual 'Celebrity 100' power list the business magazine Forbes ranked Pompeo and her co-stars at number 12 this year, while the Desperate Housewives cast languished at number 47. Yet here in Britain, where the drama is the main draw on the digital channel Living with reruns on Five, Pompeo is hardly a household name.

Male critics have sniffed at the 'vapid' scripts and 'mawkish' acting in the drama about five trainee surgeons at a Seattle hospital. But Pompeo's portrayal of a woman totally competent in her work and an utter disaster in her relationships has forced even veteran Hollywood producers to examine how a lead who is such a mess - prone to getting drunk in bars and picking up strangers - can prove so compelling.

The tabloids, for their part, have focused on Pompeo's weight (supposedly anorexic), behaviour on set (supposedly a diva) and, since her November engagement, the colourful past of her fiancé Chris Ivery, a record producer, and the size of the ring he has given her. This, a dazzling oblong diamond, has caused Pompeo so much angst that she is even now twisting it off her tiny hand. 'Completely garish, isn't it?' she asks in her little, clear voice. 'He got it in Beverly Hills and spent his entire life savings, which I could kill him for. I was very mad about it. Some days I really love it, and some days I just want to sell it and give the money to charity. All the magazines care about is the size. I think, "Oh, it's absolute rubbish and I'd like to throw the ring in the sewer."' She looks at me wryly. 'I know! How fortunate of me to sit here with this giant rock when there are babies in Africa fighting for their lives.' She has gone from making no money to making great money. How does that feel? 'I feel guilty.' She gives a high, truthful laugh of embarrassment. 'I feel guilty!'

Like so many Hollywood stars Pompeo is small and fragile. Her hand, when I shake it, is like a bunch of twigs and her muscled arms are as tiny as a child's. She is wearing a black sleeveless cotton dress over thin black leggings and Lanvin ballet flats, and in person looks completely different from on screen - younger and more innocent, a cross between Michelle Pfeiffer and Calista Flockhart. Her long hair is healthy and red, her blue eyes have a tinge of green and she keeps almost constant eye contact in a way that is not at all uncomfortable. Here on her an eight-week hiatus from Grey's, she and Ivery are looking for a London flat to buy, before zipping on to Paris and Tokyo.

She had a sad, difficult childhood as the last of six - she was eight years younger than her nearest sibling - in the blue-collar town of Everett, near Boston, and was four when her mother, Kathleen, died of an overdose of painkillers. Her first memory is of her siblings attempting to revive her. The trauma in this vignette is hair-raising, and she admits, putting her hand to her throat, 'I had a tragedy as a child, obviously, my mother dying, and it sort of… I suppose I describe it as… it sort of left me with a broken heart.' But can you mend a broken heart? 'No, never completely.' Her voice lifts, childishly. 'But that's OK, because it makes me appreciate my life.' Had she found therapy useful with that? 'No, I think my job is therapeutic.

It was quite a tragic thing, all these children having no mother; it was quite difficult on my father,' she continues. 'And then he remarried shortly after my mother died, and, ah, much too soon. It was… quite a bad situation for all the children.' Why, what was her stepmother like? 'Oh, I'd rather not discuss that. So I would go off and stay with various people. I was always being shuffled around. Who could baby-sit me this time? So I would go for the summers and the weekends to my aunt Ellen, who I'm named after, and my uncle Jimmy on the Upper East Side of New York. My uncle Jimmy took me to the theatre. And another of my mother's sisters, Sister Maureen, was a nun and lived in a convent in the Bronx, and I would go stay there often, as well.'

Pompeo says, batting away sympathy, that those 'different experiences' gave her a lot to draw on in her acting. But she also concedes that, 'I was just completely confused. I knew I had a lot of people who loved me. There were a lot of different types of people in my life, and I had all these brothers and sisters who were crazy hippy teenagers, smoking pot in the wild 1970s - rock 'n' roll - and I had my dear, dear grandparents…' Everyone, but no one? She pauses. 'I did… well, you know, I had everybody but the one person I really wanted.'

Her father, Joseph, a tobacco salesman, was a strong character. 'He intimidated everybody. He'd wait at the window and when they dropped me off in front of the house he'd fly out of the door and rip them out of the car by the neck,' she has said, alarmingly, of her teenage dates, but he also told her she could do anything she wanted in life. What she wanted was to act. So the moment she turned 19 she made for Miami, where she got a job as a cocktail waitress. Despite her fragile, feminine appearance, she was no pushover. 'I'd abuse the customers, yell and scream at them and make them wait. If they put money down on the bar and it wasn't enough, I'd go wait on someone else. Pretty soon there would be $20 on the bar,' she once told Playboy. I love that image of you at the bar, I tell her. 'Right!' She laughs with real amusement. 'Well, I don't know if you've seen The Departed, but Boston, my home town, is a corrupt place. I grew up in an Italian-Irish neighbourhood, and there were Irish gangsters and Italian gangsters. It's very much like a modern-day Gangs of New York.'

After two years in Miami she went to New York. But her dream of becoming an actress still seemed 'such a grand thing. I felt so overwhelmed, you know, "How do I figure out how to go about this?"' She was also suffering profoundly from her childhood. 'It's as if the floor beneath you is… as if a board is always going to fall through.'

She was 25 when she got her first break; an acting agent approached her as she was working the bar at the SoHo Kitchen. The agent put Pompeo up for three adverts; she got all three. Then Pompeo landed a part opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in the 2002 film Moonlight Mile. He, by chance, had come up to her in a car park three weeks previously and told her she was 'the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my entire life'. For her the coincidence was life-changing. 'It sort of hit me that I was being guided,' she says. 'I had sort of spent my twenties up until then looking for some sign of my mother, you know, "Make the chandelier swing and show me that you're with me." And at that point I put my faith in the idea that life gives you signs and, whether it's my mother's spirit or not, I've had too many coincidences in my life for it to be normal.'

Another was the way she met Ivery. They had grown up two miles apart but met only in 2003 when a mutual friend introduced them at a Whole Foods shop in Los Angeles. 'I knew his background and I knew the circle in which he ran and I didn't want anything to do with it,' she admits. 'You think you want to get away from your past and be this completely different person. And then I run into him again two days later and by this time in my life I know that's no accident. I knew he was supposed to be in my life.' He had gone to jail briefly? 'Oh, yes, a couple of times. But most people I knew in Boston did. It was very common, which is why I had to get out.'

Something of Pompeo's childhood vulnerability comes off the pages of her previous interviews and you hope, before you meet her, that Ivery is good news. He drives her to work and visits the set most days; she says they do everything together. 'To know someone - the real them, not the reinvented Hollywood them, with all of their flaws and all of their past - that's a true relationship,' she says. 'I feel very lucky. It's very solid.'

ask what she makes of her character's romantic travails in Grey's Anatomy. 'She has a complete lack of emotional intelligence,' she exclaims. 'I just want to smack some sense into her.' What would she advise her? 'Don't ever beg a man.' (She is referring to the scene where Meredith pleads with her married lover Derek to choose her.) 'He should be begging you!'

What next for Pompeo? Halfway through a six-year lock-in for Grey's, she and Ivery are now trying for children. Does their forthcoming wedding excite her? 'No, I'm not someone to stand on ceremony. That's why I have such a problem with the ring. It is a symbol. Just rather an extravagant one.' She gives another high laugh of embarrassment.

I say it must feel like it's all coming right. She smiles. 'I think so. A friend who I moved to Miami with when I was 16 or 17, he was photographing me back then and said, "You're going to make a great 40-year-old." I didn't know how to take that at 16 or 17, but I never forgot it. Now I feel like the older I get the more I am able to take on.'

Her publicist is mouthing that we have to finish. 'I love the architecture round here,' Pompeo says, getting up. 'It reminds me of my home town.' I catch sight of her in the next room as I leave. She looks different now, 17 again, a sprite, a slip of a thing, in her teenage black wardrobe. 'I took a sleeping pill last night, which I don't usually do, because my body is too little to take it, and this morning I was all over the place,' she exclaims, seeing me looking at her outfit. 'I could hardly manage to dress!'

Source: telegraph

Living TV - Ellen answers

ELLEN ANSWERS

Tell us about the state of Meredith's love-life in Series Two. Does she ever get herself sorted?
It hasn't been sorted out yet and I'm about to start filming Series Three in four weeks and it's still pretty messy. I don't know what will happen so, I'm afraid, I can't be of much help to you. In Season Two it gets worse so I guess it needs to get worse before it can get better.

You've starred alongside Patrick Dempsey, Jake Gyllenhaal, Leonardo di Caprio, Vince Vaughan and Ben Affleck. Not a bad selection of hot men! Who's the sexiest and why?
Yeah, I'm pretty lucky. And I have him too (indicating her rather yummy boyfriend in the next room)! That's such a difficult question as they all have great qualities. (She's - perhaps predictably - diplomatic and dodges choosing a favourite from the list.) What's really attractive about Patrick - and I know women don't want to hear this - is that he's the most fantastic husband and the most fantastic father. To hear him on the phone to his wife, or hear how devoted and how in love he is with his children really, really makes your heart sing.

That's a teeny bit sickening but, still, a good answer! Tell us a secret about each of your male co-stars.
Well, Justin has five children and has been married for ten years. People don't expect that because he looks so very much the young bachelor. They're all gorgeous , as you'd imagine.
T.R. Knight's hair is bright blue right now. He dyed it as soon as filming Series Two finished, probably as some release from playing conventional George.
Patrick is fanatical about racing cars.

To the point of being a bore?
No, it's actually fascinating to watch someone so enthusiastic. He absolutely dies to race cars and the show doesn't like it one bit! They put a limit on how many races he can do which drives him crazy. It really upsets him! This wild streak balances out the clean-living homebody I was telling you about

What's in your handbag?
(She pulls out a gorgeous Alexander McQueen black and gold pouch and starts furrowing around in it.) Hmm. There's a pen, passport, money, lip balm, some Jing Jang cream - now this was given to me by Patrick's wife who has a fantastic cosmetics company called Delux Beauty. This cream can be used absolutely anywhere: eyes, lips, cracked heels. It's great for travel. Some hair bands and, finally, the name of a restaurant I'll visit in San Remo (the next stop on the press junket).

Source: Livingtv

New Zealand TV Guide - July 7 to 13 issue

TV GUIDE
by Jenny Cooney Carrillo.

TV GUIDE: How did you feel when it was suggested that Meredith almost drowned because she didn't want to save herself?

EP: One episode I could be completely happy and the next episode I'm trying to commit suicide. Of course it was a surprise and then I just had to figure out how Meredith got to that place and hope the audience would stay with me. I think what was frustrating was after that near-death experience when she had this revelation that Derek was a great guy and she wanted to live for him, then she comes back and everything goes back to normal. It didn't seem to have taken me anywhere significantly, which is why I think the whole three-part ferry episode was just a distraction from what was going on with Isaiah and everything behind the scenes on our show at the time.

TV GUIDE: Do you think she and Derek will stay together?

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EP: I have no idea what will happen. I'm extremely sick of talking about Meredith and Derek - although I'd rather talk about them than have no job!(laughs). If you break up with people that much, you will never have someone. The reality is that nobody is perfect and relationships are a lot of work. You get out of them what you put in. So you have to have faith in people and it's not a great human characteristic to just walk away from someone who does one thing that bothers you. I don't understand how they can be so attracted to each other yet they keep walking away from each other. I would love to sit here and justify Meredith's actions but none of it makes any sense to me.

TV GUIDE:Was it as tumultuous year as it looked from the outside for all of you? (Isaiah had a highly publicized run-in with T.R. Knight, who plays George O'Malley, about him being Gay)

EP: In anybody's workplace, whether it's a bank or a grocery store, there will be problems and people won't get along. But in our job it's exacerbated because we spend 17 or 18 hours a day working with each other. So we're bound to get on each other's nerves. Our lives are completely public so it heightens the situation. But it's really just a part of life.

TV GUIDE: What do you think of Meredith's friendship with Cristina?

EP: I love Sandra. She takes her craft very seriously but we have a great time together. I think it's interesting that Meredith can accept flaws in her friends but can't accept any flaws in Derek. I don't understand why their friendship isn't stronger because she clearly understands the elements of friendship when you look at how close she and Cristina have become.

TV GUIDE: Do you think Meredith and Derek will get married?

EP: We've had enough weddings for a while with George and Callie and our season finale. I don't think marriage will fix things for Derek and Meredith but if we do it, we'll have to save the wedding for the next finale because every year we end up in big, puffy dresses!

TV GUIDE: How is your own relationship with record producer Chris Ivery different to that of Meredith & Derek?

EP: Chris is incredibly patient and he is an amazing support system for me. Maybe that's why I am so confused by Meredith & Derek because I seem to have such a somewhat healthy relationship. That's not to say everyday is rosy but you wake up in a relationship sometimes knowing some days are going to be great, some days are going to be terrible and you are just going to be there for each other anyway. We have a lot in common because we grew up in the same town and have the same sense of humour and a very strong bond.

TV GUIDE: Are you planning to marry soon, perhaps this summer?

EP: We were planning to get married in Italy but decided to wait, because we are travelling to five countries so I can promote the show. It seemed like too much work to try to squeeze another country in, as well as trying to plan a wedding in the midst of all that.

TV GUIDE: What do you think of the new spin-off show featuring your co-star Kate Walsh?

EP: I'm really happy for Kate and I think it's really what she wanted. She's hilarious and I think it's going to be great. I think it's going to be more comedic than Greys because I know Kate has strong comedic skills so they would be crazy not to write to her strengths.

Source: TV Guide NZ, transcript by merderforever

Sky tf24 interview

Source: Sky tf24

Richard & Judy UK Talkshow - June 20

Ellen also revealed that the chemistry between the Grey's Anatomy cast is the secret to its success. Speaking on the TV show Richard and Judy she said: "The chemistry of the cast is just lightening in a bottle. You can't sort of plan it, you can't predict it. (read more)

"We just all have tremendous chemistry and we got very, very lucky and we all get on very well and I think the audience feels that.

"They all are very, very skilled actors and really make you feel the stories."

Ellen also revealed how she and her co-star Patrick Dempsey are neighbours.

She said: "Patrick Dempsey and I were neighbours. We hadn't met but of course I had known that he lived on the street because all the girls would say 'oh Patrick Dempsey lives in that house up there'.

"And so when I tested for the role and I had to test with the would-be love interests I saw his name on the sheet and I said 'oh it's going to be him'. I had a feeling because things kind of work like that don't they."

Ellen, who loves the traditional British dish bangers and mash, had to perform a fake operation on a plastic model to win her meal on the chat show. She won three sausages.

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Ellen Pompeo radio interview with Ryan Seacrest

Ellen Pompeo from "Grey's Anatomy" called in to chat about the show and the latest on the firing of Isaiah Washington.

To download click here and select "Save As" from the menu

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Ellen Pompeo Reacts to Isaiah Washington News

Though Ellen Pompeo was on Ryan Seacrest’s morning radio show on Friday to discuss her charity work, there was no escaping talk of her Isaiah Washington’s shocking dismissal from Grey’s Anatomy.

Pompeo also touched on Katherine Heigl’s summer movie success and Grey’s storylines for next year, but the good stuff came when Seacrest asked her about Washington and T.R. Knight’s fates. Here are those highlights:

Damage Control On Isaiah Washington’s departure:
“I got a call late last night from my lawyer…and I woke up this morning and saw it…that’s really all I know. I really can’t comment on my reaction.”

On whether she knew anything in advance:
“No. They’re very secretive about things, for obvious reasons. I guess actors have big mouths. So I didn’t really know what would happen, if anything. It’s not really my business…You just have to roll with the punches.”

On word that T.R. Knight has signed a contract to return:
“I certainly hope so. It’s such an ensemble. The show works, I think, because all of us have such great chemistry together.”

Source: 102.7 KISS-FOM, Usmagazine

Who's Returning Next Season On 'Grey's'?

All Access

The stars of "Grey's Anatomy" comment on whether or not they will be returning for the next season of the show.

In recent weeks, T.R. Knight made headlines after saying he had not received a letter confirming he was back on the show, but Ellen Pompeo, who plays “Grey’s” title character Meredith, said such letters aren’t standard.

“I don’t know what all this talk is about – a letter? I’ve never had a letter,” she said. “In the beginning you have to sign [one] of course, but not sort of year-to-year. No one’s told me if I haven’t [been invited back].”

A Three-Way (Conversation) with Grey’s

Ellen Pompeo, James Pickens (AKA Grey’s Chief,) and I had a little shmoozefest at the 6th Annual Butterfly Ball. We touched on clothes, vacations, engagements… you name it!

What are your summer plans with your fiancé?
EP: We’re traveling. Far. We’re going to London. And Paris, and Japan. Well, London and Japan are work, and Paris is fun for us.

(read more)

What’s the dynamic on the set like with so many of the women engaged? Do you guys have bridal magazines everywhere.
EP: You know. I don’t know. No. They might look at bridal books but I haven’t. I’m not gonna have a big wedding. It’s not even gonna be necessarily a big event or anything like that. Very private. Just something between Chris and I. We want to have one thing for ourselves. You know. We want to have fun. We have a goal of trying to keep our marriage a secret for 24 hours. We’re gonna try to keep that. That’s our goal.

Who makes your dress?
EP: It’s Lanvin.

Where’d you get it, and what made you choose it?
EP: At Maxfields in LA… Because my YSL dresses from New York didn’t arrive in time, so I had to run out two hours ago and find something.

Who makes those shoes?
EP: Lanvin.

What are your beauty secrets?
EP: Water and sleep. And to be happy.

How do you feel about the future cast of Grey’s being up in the air?
EP: Oh, I think it’s hysterical. I think it’s very effective. They want everybody to ask questions and wonder. And they’re trying to stir up the press by doing it. And everybody falls head first into it. I guess they’re geniuses. You know, it’s working brilliantly because all of you are falling for it. They love all of you not knowing and wondering.

(James Pickens approaches and says hello to Ellen Pompeo.)

EP: Last summer we had a big vacation all of us.

JP: Yeah, we were in Europe.

EP: We went to Europe.

JP: That’s right. That’s right.

EP: We’re not gonna do that this year. Once was enough. (Laughing.)

JP: it was really great. It was beautiful. The cities were fabulous. That’s one of the kind of things you’ll never do it that way again. It was all dispersed and five star.

EP It was nice to all go together too. It was a fun experience.

JP: It was like being on a family vacation without being in the station wagon.

Who all went?
EP: James and I; our spouses; Kate Walsh; Chandra Wilson and her children; T.R. Knight; Justin and Keisha and his children. We had like eight kids.

JP: Yeah we had a lot of kids. Which made it really fun. We got to watch them experience it and that was what was really fun.

How do you feel about Kate Walsh’s sudden engagement?
EP: Very excited.

JP: Very happy for her.

What’s he like?
EP: I don’t know. I’ve only met him once very briefly. I’m sure he’s great.

JP: Yeah. I haven’t met him. But he better treat her right.

Or what?
JP: You don’t want to know. (Laughing.)

Source: Glamscene

Ellen Pompeo Dishes on Her Wedding Plans

Ellen Pompeo Dishes on Her Wedding Plans
MONDAY JUNE 04, 2007 07:30 AM EDT

Ellen Pompeo's upcoming wedding won't be a lavish production – but her co-stars might need to make some travel plans if they want to attend, she says.

(read more)

"There will be no 'big' anything," the Grey's Anatomy star, 37, told PEOPLE Saturday at the Chrysalis Butterfly Ball, a benefit for the homeless in Brentwood, Calif. "It's going to be very small."

Beyond that, she and record producer Chris Ivery, who got engaged in November, are keeping mum on the details, but Pompeo hinted that the ceremony won't take place in Los Angeles: "We were thinking about going away and getting married."

The actress was reunited Saturday night with some of her co-stars for the first time since production on Grey's wrapped several weeks ago. Also at the gala, hosted by Eric "Dr. McSteamy" Dane's wife Rebecca Gayheart: Patrick Dempsey, Kate Walsh, T.R. Knight, Justin Chambers, Sara Ramirez and James Pickens, Jr.

Pompeo said that when Ivery proposed on her 37th birthday, she was only slightly caught off guard. "Chris and I have been together for four and a half years, so I was completely surprised, but not that surprised. We've been together a while."

Ivery – like her, a Boston-area native – has changed her life because "I just have somebody to share everything with," she said, "all of these moments. The bad ones and the good ones. We have a very strong bond, and we just understand each other. He's just a real companion."

She added that she knew Ivery was "the one" early on: "I guess you fall in love and you think he's the guy right away. Right when you fall in love, you think he's the guy. You don't sort of fall into a relationship thinking it's only going to be temporary."

The couple met in a Los Angeles grocery store in 2003 and began dating about six months later after "one night she just looked different to me," Ivery, 38, told PEOPLE late last year. They quickly discovered that they had grown up about 10 miles away from each other in Massachusetts and that Ivery had met Pompeo's father there.

"We have a lot in common," Pompeo said Saturday. "We're from the same hometown, almost.

"Love is in the air for the cast of “Grey’s Anatomy!"

Ellen Pompeo and fiancé Chris Ivery are revealing they won’t be hitting the local beaches this summer – their vacation plans are a little more global! The adorable couple will head to Europe and Japan this summer. But the twosome are still keeping mum on when exactly they’ll get married.

“We’re not telling you,” said Ellen!

Added Chris, “We’re trying to work it out.”

Even a little prodding from McDreamy Patrick Dempsey can’t get them to unseal their lips.

“They’ll probably elope and nobody will know about it,” Patrick revealed.

The only thing Ellen has revealed about the wedding is that it will be far from extravagant.

“There will be no ‘big’ anything,” she told us, adding that the ceremony won’t take place in L.A.

Source: Extra, People

'Grey's Anatomy' stars gather for homeless charity

'Grey's Anatomy' stars gather for homeless charity
By William Keck, USA TODAY

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — The dreamy, steamy docs of Grey's Anatomy, on hiatus for the summer, reunited Saturday night at a private mansion for charity. After a season with as much drama off screen as on, there was much to discuss.

"This is the first we're all seeing each other again," said Justin Chambers (Alex), who came with wife Keisha.

Excited to see co-star T.R. Knight (George), Ellen Pompeo (Meredith) embraced him and asked, "What happened to your blue hair?"

(read more)

"It was red," corrected Knight, who recently dyed his hair.

"He's so fun, such a crazy personality," said Pompeo, escorted by fiancé Christopher Ivery.

With Pompeo, Katherine Heigl (Izzie) and now Kate Walsh (Addison) all engaged, might they have a triple ceremony?

"No!" said Pompeo. "There will not be a Big Three anything. My wedding will be very small."

On screen, Dempsey and Pompeo are also hoping for harmony for their on-again, off-again characters.

"I would love for Derek and Meredith to have a healthy relationship," said Dempsey. "It got a little too depressing last year, and I think the writers need to lighten up and get back to the first season. That's what people want to see, and we really need to listen to the fans."

Pompeo agreed, noting, "My boyfriend and I are very happy and we still manage to be dramatic every day. There's never a shortage of things to talk about. I don't think you need sadness to have drama."

Source: USA Today

ZMTV interview

ZMTV: Ellen Pompeo She is the star of the show... Dr. Meredith Grey from Greys Anatomy...

Exclusive Five Interview

Click to watch an exclusive interview with Ellen Pompeo, plays Meredith Grey.

Interview - The doctor is in

The doctor is in
February 18, 2007 12:15am

Will Grey's Anatomy's beautiful intern return to McDreamy or opt to stay with McVet? Ellen Pompeo knows the answer, but she's not telling LAWRIE MASTERSON

WHEN you’re Ellen Pompeo and Grey’s Anatomy is as popular as it is, drama can follow you around even when you’re buying groceries.

Pompeo, who plays Seattle Grace Hospital surgical intern Meredith Grey, was in a Los Angeles supermarket recently when a young acting hopeful – and there are a few of them around the town! – approached her and announced she had been doing a scene from Grey’s Anatomy as part of a drama class.

The problem was, it occurred to Pompeo, the scene hadn’t even screened in the US at the time.

“What was happening was that actors who came in to audition (for guest roles) were taking the scripts and selling them,” Pompeo says, her tone indicating mild disbelief.

“Now they don’t get a real script. They get a fake script when they audition. The really big things in each episode are kept secret.”

Which explains the reticence of Pompeo and other Grey’s Anatomy stars to give much away about future storylines, especially with the creator of the award-winning series, the formidable Shonda Rhimes, looking over their shoulders.

And so Pompeo is being cagey about which way the beautiful Dr. Grey might turn at the start of season three, faced as she is with a romantic choice between Grace’s neurosurgeon Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and the handsome veterinarian Dr. Finn “McVet” Dandridge (Chris O’Donnell), who she has been dating.

The smart money is on McDreamy, who she enjoyed a steamy reunion with in the final episode of season two, catapulting the Snow Patrol song Chasing Cars to global chart domination.

“I have to say I was really anxious about starting the third season because you just want to know what’s going to happen,” 37-year-old Pompeo says.

“I don’t usually ask because I like the element of surprise, but even I wanted to know.

“I was pretty curious about my character and I had a sense of the relationship she would pick, but they leave it so sort of open, you know?

“There’s always something tricky coming.

“I know Shonda and I’m not going to fall for it.

“Just when you think you know what’s going to happen she does something that’s kind of unexpected.”

Grey’s Anatomy, which made its debut as a mid-season replacement in the US in 2005, is just about the hottest thing on TV at the moment, being named Best Dramas Series as January’s Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Producers Guild Awards.

Pompeo, whose promising movie career had seen her star opposite Jake Gyllenhaal (Moonlight Mile), Leonardo DiCaprio (Catch Me If You Can) and Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell (Old School) in quick succession, says she approached the pilot of Grey’s Anatomy as “just one job”.

“It’s a risk, like anything,” she says. “You don’t know where it will go and so few pilots get off the ground. I just thought, ‘If nothing else it’s one fun job’ and just tried to appreciate what I had right there.

“Who knew it would turn into this?”

The secret, she believes, is the on-screen chemistry between the cast, the recent antics of Isaiah Washington (Dr. Preston Burke) notwithstanding.

“All these actors are so interesting to watch and compelling,” Pompeo says. “And clearly the writing is fantastic.

“There are a lot of elements that make the show successful but I think if you put this writing with different actors you wouldn’t get the same result.”

Unlike her Dr. Grey, Pompeo does not have to spend her time away from work obsessing over her problems with men. She has been in a relationship with music producer – and fiancé - Chris Ivery for the past four years.

“We have a great relationship and I focus on that,” she says. “I focus on, ‘Am I being a good girlfriend?’”

She mentions the book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, written by a rabbi named Harold Kushner.

“It’s a fantastic book about how to be okay with making all this money and getting all this attention and the way to deal with it is to know what really matters in life.

“What matters to me is my work and the people in my life and that I’m a good person to them and a good friend to my friends.

“So I’m not one of those girls who is out in the nightclubs and falling all over the ground in mini-skirts. I’m not soaking up the fame, trying to get photographed.

“I go home every night.”

Source: www.news.com.au