· Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington considerately spares the TV Academy the trouble of ignoring him come Emmy nomination time by withdrawing his name from awards consideration. His time in gayhab obviously taught him an important lesson about transparent expressions of publicist-encouraged humility. [Variety]
· More Speed Racer casting news we can't really get excited about: Matthew Fox is close to signing on to join the project as nemesis Racer X. [THR ]
· The lineup for the Cannes Film Festival is jam-packed with U.S. movies both in competition (with entries by Tarantino, David Fincher, and the Coen Brothers) and on the premiere schedule (Ocean's 13), giving the French ample opportunity to alternately boo American cultural imperialism and offer standing ovations inspired by the sight of George Clooney in a tuxedo. [Variety]
· Hitch and I Now Pronounce You Fake Gay Husbands, Now Punch Out That Guy Before Someone Thinks You're Really A Homo star Kevin James embraces his typecasting as a lovable schlub, entering negotiations to play an "average guy" who inherits some land that turns out to be its own country in One Nation Under Bob. [THR]
· Rumors are circulating that NBC might not renew the original Law & Order unless creator Dick Wolf figures out a way to fire his entire cast and produce each episode on a budget of $100 or less. [Variety]

In a disturbing career development that will require Grey's Anatomy set menace Isaiah Washington to tap into deep pockets of rage not already neutralized by a stint in gayhab, the actor has been cast in an independent film as a priest haunted by childhood sexual abuse. It's a role he won, ironically, when the filmmaker heard he was having trouble finding parts since the T.R. Knight controversy:

The L.A. edition of GLAAD's annual media awards were held Saturday night, when the anti-defamation organization with the poorly camouflaged hard-on for Hollywood can finally indulge a year's worth of celebrity reacharound fantasies, honoring the wonderful visibility-related work being done by famous Gays and Gay-Friendlies of every letter-designated caste. A round-up:
· Recovering slur victim T.R. Knight opened the ceremonies, telling the gathered crowd, "I am angry at the inequality we face every day. I hope to turn my anger into action." He then encouraged the audience to "imagine that eclair in front of you is Isaiah Washington," and instructed them to attack the pastry accordingly with their dessert forks. [AfterElton]
· Knight later responded to reporters' questions about how things have been between him and gayhabbed co-star Isaiah Washington behind the scenes at Grey's Anatomy (which, ironically, took the outstanding individual episode award), Knight evasively replied, "I just focus on doing the work. That's my job; that's what I'm paid for; and I think that's enough." [AccessHollywood] [CBSNews.com]

· Miami Heat center and Kazaam star Shaquille O'Neal will star in a six episode ABC reality series this summer in which he will help fat kids in Florida lose weight, explaining to them that it's only acceptable to carry around extra pounds if you're a multimillionaire basketball player who needs a protective layer of fat to protect oneself from the violent, uncalled fouls of undersized opponents. [Variety]
· Foreigners prove that awkward dubs or subtitles don't interfere with one's appreciation of Nic Cage's fiery-headed High Art, delivering Ghost Rider to a third consecutive weekend atop the international box office. [THR]
· The NAACP recognizes Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington with an Image Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series Whose Well-Publicized Episodes Of Troubling Homophobia We Will Happily Ignore. [Variety]
· Sony thumbs its nose at American moviegoers, announcing that Spider-Man 3 will premiere in Tokyo three days before its U.S. bow. On the bright side, jilted Stateside Spidey fans will probably be able to download pirated, camcorded copies of the movie a couple of days earlier than usual. [Variety]
· Fox's The Winner debuts in third-place in the 18-49 demographic, but scores first with its target audience of 32-year-old men who might eventually wind up molesting their 14-year-old best friends. [THR]

No sooner had some semblance of normalcy finally returned to the Grey's Anatomy set, with a fully rehabilitated Isaiah Washington using his newly acquired anger-management tools to temper his castigations of line-flubbing co-star T.R. Knight with the far less incendiary, "Nice job, ffffforgetful!" comes news of further dissension among the horny-physician ranks. The recent announcement by ABC of a possible spinoff for Kate Walsh's character, Dr. Addison Montgomery-Shepherd (aka Dr. Ex-Mrs. Dr. McDreamy) has, notes Star magazine, received a chilly reception from the rest of the cast:

Katherine Heigl's on-camera admonition of rage-prone Grey's Anatomy co-star Isaiah Washington backstage at the Golden Globes was the scold her 'round the world, and led directly to the actor checking himself into a career-salvaging stint in gayhab. The actress appeared on Good Morning America this morning, where she described a cautious optimism among her fellow cast members that things seem to be returning back to normal since Dr. McPlays-Well-With-Othersy returned:

With his elective stint at gayhab nearly complete, it looks as if rageoholic Isaiah Washington's Dark Night of the Gay-Bullying Soul will finally see dawn, as People is reporting the actor is scheduled to return to set Thursday with a sound body, clear mind, and taking his newfound slur-sobriety one day at a time:

While his Grey's Anatomy co-star Isaiah Washington is currently excising his bullying demons in a 28-day gay-rage detoxification program, an unnamed "source" tells The Scoop that Ellen-tattling slur-victim T.R. Knight is still so incensed over the way the events were handled, he's plotting to depart the hit series:

Perhaps the ceremony's only true highlight was Grey's Anatomy's star Chandra Wilson's acceptance speech for her Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series win (above, also presented with Spanish voiceover here), in which the actress, moments after a clip played featuring her admonishing co-star T.R. Knight for looking at her "vajayjay", thanked "those 10 cast members sitting over there, and the other one in rehab." Apparently, the requirements of Isaiah Washington's recovery program prevented him from attending the event with his colleagues, allowing him to avoid an uncomfortable moment backstage after the Grey's cast's TV ensemble award, when he might have attempted to demonstrate his speedy progress through Gayhab by repeatedly inviting Knight to join in an open-mouth display of healing.

· If companies like Time Warner are serious about a commitment to new media, then why can't Peter Bart get someone from TW on the phone who knows how to work his fucking TiVo? [Variety]
· In signing a new overall deal with CBS Paramount Network Television, CSI executive producer Ann Donahue reveals the softer side of CBS Corp.'s future galactic despot Les Moonves: "'Over the summer I had a family member (hospitalized) in grave condition,' Donahue said. 'Leslie, Nancy and Nina called me and not only offered their help, but they cut through a lot of red tape and saved a life. I will be at CBS for as long as they want me.'" [THR]
· NewsCorp is finalizing a deal to bring MySpace to China, but will have to make concessions to the government to bring the site in compliance with local regulations, like limiting each user to a single person in their friendspace (female friend requests must be immediately deleted) and requiring all profile comment to be approved by the Glorious Chinese Emoticon And LOL Censorship Board. [THR]
· Grey's Anatomy, which will finish the week as the number one non-Idol program on television, shows no ill Nielsen effects from the post-Globes Isaiah Washington fiasco, meaning that the slur-happy actor will probably still have a job once he completes his stint in network-ordered GayHab. [Variety]

Just two days after meeting with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network to begin the long, arduous process of personally apologizing to every advocacy group listed in his publicist's "What To Do When A Client Outs A Popular Co-Star In A Fit Of Rage, Then Runs Around Repeating Anti-Gay Slurs Backstage At A Globally Covered Awards Show" crisis management file, Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington is already moving on to the next step in the rehabilitation process that may allow him to keep his job: the obligatory trip to a treatment facility where he can hide out until some of the career-hampering controversy dies down. Reports Life & Style (exclusively!):

As ABC lawyers continue to pore through the "Legitimate Grounds for Shitcanning" paragraph in Isaiah Washington's contract, the disgraced Grey's Anatomy actor with the well-documented prejudice against Hollywood's hard-working sodomites has been taking every possible measure to save his job reach across sexual preference lines to make amends. Washington fired his longtime publicist Cynthia Snyder, presumably for her failure to stuff a cocktail napkin into his mouth before the fatal slur could re-emerge; in her place he hired Kelly "I managed to get the world to stop talking about R. Kelly peeing on a 14-year-old and start talking about 'Trapped in a Closet!'" Mullens and her partner in damage control crime, Allen Mayer. First order of business: Getting Washington into a roomful of Gays. Reports the AP:

According to E! Online's "Watch With" Kristin Veitch, ABC may be following through on its pledge to take the Isaiah Washington situation "very seriously" by prejudicially shitcanning the slur-repeating actor from Grey's Anatomy without the benefit of a tear-soaked farewell episode dramatizing his sudden departure from the hospital:

· Neil Patrick "other out gay actor on a network TV series" Harris, who recently stood alongside noted pink F-bomb detonator Isaiah Washington while announcing the People's Choice Award nominations sans gay-slur incident, weighed in with his thoughts on the matter: "I was just sort of stunned that anyone would want to rehash any of that again. But I think the people, the classier people, handled it as they always do." In case you're still in the dark, "classy" is the new code for famous gays and their best friend co-stars who offer to beat up their homophobic tormentors on their behalf. [People]
· Ellen DeGeneres focused on the word itself, telling Extra: "This particular word is thrown around all the time at the workplace, at the playground, on the sports field and no one gets outraged. Hopefully this incident will put an end to this and people will stop using this word and other hateful words once and for all." Let's hope the insanity stops here, and that Jorja Fox isn't forced to drop by Ellen to tearfully recount the time Gil Grissom called her a "greedy rugmuncher" upon discovering she ate the last craft service banana. [Extra]
· John Mayer addresses the controversy on his blog today, suggesting the most poetically just penance would be for Washington's Grey's Anatomy character Dr. Preston Burke to "come out to his friends and colleagues as a gay man!!!" (Extra-squealy triple exclamation marks his.) He then proceeds to script how that scene might play out, for what feels like an uncomfortably long, not particularly funny, length of time. [JohnMayer via Towleroad]

With his dream gig on the line, Isaiah Washington appears to have reassessed his position on not hiring a "great shiny publicist" to help him rehabilitate his now tarnished, no-longer-welcome-on- Atlantis-Cruise-Lines image. He released this mea culpa just moments ago:

Despite appeals from gay rights groups to apologize, Isaiah "I love gay" Washington remains stubbornly tight-lipped regarding his use of the word "faggot" to disparage Grey's Anatomy co-star T.R. Knight, a wound reopened when he shouted it again in a denial of the incident to a roomful of reporters at Monday's Golden Globes. ABC brass, realizing they have to say something, has released this preliminary statement on the matter:

• T R Knight [YouTube via Towleroad]

Perhaps not wanting the last word in Grey's Anatomy FaggotGate (née ChokeGate, but no one cares about the Patrick Dempsey component anymore) to be Isaiah Washington's Golden Globes denial that he ever angrily uttered the slur that drove T.R. Knight from the closet or castmate Katherine Heigl's defiant offer to "throw down" on her offended best friend's behalf, Knight will make a stop on Ellen DeGeneres' couch today to officially call bullshit on Washington's version of the story. In the preview clip on the show's website, Knight unambiguously says, "He referred to me as a faggot...it's such an awesome word, isn't it?" Unfortunately for Knight, even this clarification of the controversy will probably provide Washington, so proud of not hiring a "great shiny publicist" to manage the controversy (that's right, "I love gay. I wanted to be gay. Please let me be gay." was all his), another ill-advised opportunity to explain himself; expect a statement from the actor later today finally admitting that he used the word, but that he meant it "only in the most awesome possible way."