You gotta hand it to Katherine Heigl. In the last two years, thanks to plum roles in Knocked Up and on Grey's Anatomy, she's gone from the forgotten child star from My Father, The Hero (forgotten by everyone except pervs, that is) to an Emmy winning actress who's bumping her way onto the A-List. But along the way, thanks to a string of questionable PR snafus like publicly lambasting Judd Apatow and emasculating her husband Joshua at every conceivable turn, she's racked up more than her fair share of detractors. But being the determined ball buster that she is, she's not going to let a little thing like criticism get in her way of becoming her generation's Julia Roberts. Today, Variety reports that she is set to star in and co-produce Escape, based on the true story of Carolyn Jessop, whose memoir of escaping her polygamist husband became a best-seller. While it remains to be seen if this role will earn her a nod at the 2010 Oscars (if it walks like Oscar bait and talks like Oscar bait, it probably is), we can confirm that she won't be accepting any awards at this year's Emmys. As Tom O'Neil of the LAT's Gold Derby blog reports:

Remember Kristina Stewart Ward, the "No Sex and the City" editor—and Mormon!—who wrote about being a total contradiction in terms in Vogue last month? She's back in circulation, in her old position as editor of ritzy summer-only Hampton Style, nudging aside Portfolio contributor Deb Schoeneman. Are Mormons taking over the whole world? Not really, but it sounded dramatic.

There are Mormons in Manhattan! More than ever before, in fact! And they all make great workers because they're never hungover or pregnant, until they get married, at which point they are always pregnant. One of these Mormons, quoted in today's Observer expose by Doree Shafrir, is, in fact, popular Gawker Commenter Greg. Greg calls some of his fellow Mormon New Yorkers "a little Pollyannaish and a little OCD" and says that while the LDSers avoided Manhattan for many years, things changed "with Friends and Mad About You, all those happy New York TV shows that ruined New York by making it safe for everyone." Ha, we like a Mormon. Also Mormons are surely the only group of people in America who remember—let alone found inspiration from—Mad About You. [NYO]

Whether you're cruising in Flushing or hanging at the Jay Street F train stop, you're probably used to being besieged by hot culty evangelicals in clean white shirts. It's totally cool with us, then, if you confuse the 12 beefcake calendar pinups of Mormons Exposed with twink porn. But the project is actually a deep spiritual journey intended to raise money for charity! Allegedly! We'd love to find out just how "deeply spiritual" Kenneth, Shane, J.D. and the rest of the gang really are. And also: they are supposed to be straight?!

They might have a fancy new building on the Upper East Side, but that doesn't mean that the Mormons are having an easy time of converting their fancy neighbors! The Sun reports:

We're still kinda new at this, but we've already pretty much figured out that it's pointless to try to reason with haters, especially when your comeback is along the lines of: "No, you don't understand: THIS is why I'm funny!" David Cross, though? Not so much. The Arrested Development star made a surprise guest appearance in the comments section of a negative SFist review of his performance at Monday's Comedy Death-Ray show. SFist had called Cross a bigot, implying that he was crass to make intolerant comments about Mormons on Martin Luther King Jr. day ( btw, thanks, SFist — it's always nice to be reminded of why we don't live in San Francisco, especially when the windchill's like this). Worse, though, the reviewer implied that Cross's bit got only "paltry applause." OH NO YOU DIDN'T, SFIST. Here are a few of the 700+ words Cross wrote in rebuttal: