Is 'Grey's Anatomy' feeling blue again?

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — According to Shonda Rhimes, everything is just hunky-dory over at "Grey's Anatomy."

Never mind that cast member Katherine Heigl dissed the executive producer and her writing staff. Never mind that, for the second year in a row, rumors and innuendo surround the show.

"We have a really great story worked out (for Heigl) that we're all very excited about," Rhimes said. "And things are going fine."

Heigl, who won a supporting-actress Emmy last year, did not enter this year's competition because, "I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination." No matter how you try to spin that, it's a direct attack on the show's writers.

As is her way — remember the whole Isaiah Washington-is-a-homophobe controversy? — Rhimes sort of dodged and weaved and pretended that all is fine on "Grey's." She wouldn't even agree that Heigl has dissed the writers.

"Did she?" Rhimes said, repeatedly insisting that she didn't think so.

Others disagreed.

"I would put her in a coma," said "Ugly Betty" executive producer Silvio Horta.

And yet Rhimes, who didn't address reports that Heigl's character, Izzie, is going to get a brain tumor, said she only found Heigl's statement "surprising."

"I actually have a really wonderful working relationship with Katherine, and I love and respect her as an actress. And as everyone knows, Izzie is one of my favorite characters, so for me it was surprising. But Katie is an outspoken person, and I think we all know that already."

Rhimes said she was surprised because, "In the first half of the season, she had a very strong storyline with George (T.R. Knight) that played out a lot more comedically than most of Katie's storylines have in the past. ... We had a lot of fun with it and she had a lot of fun doing it. And then in the back half of the season, Katherine asked me personally to write her light so that she could do her movie. So, I didn't feel insulted."

Um, really?

"I didn't feel insulted," Rhimes repeated.

It's not as if she hasn't been through this sort of thing before, what with Washington-vs.-Knight drama that erupted when Washington referred to his gay castmate with an offensive slur.