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" &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve never really been America&amp;#039;s sweetheart, but for a minute I think that&amp;#039;s what they wanted me to be. And I had &amp;#039;em for a second thinking maybe I was. And then I opened my mouth and it was clear I wasn&amp;#039;t.&amp;quot; Katherine Heigl told Elle in 2011. In the last five years, she&amp;#039;s gone from big-budget romantic comedies to Nyquil commercials. Why? Heigl has what the industry calls a &amp;quot;likeability problem&amp;quot; \u2014 and that problem is being &amp;quot;ungrateful&amp;quot; in a studio system where only male actors are allowed to.   Heigl&amp;#039;s reputation for being &amp;quot;ungrateful&amp;quot; began when she said that Knocked Up, the 2007 comedy from much-beloved Judd Apatow, was &amp;quot;a little sexist. It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys \u2026 I had a hard time with it, on some days. I&amp;#039;m playing such a bitch; why is she being such a killjoy?&amp;quot; The backlash was immediate, message boards and blogs calling her uptight, bitchy, a traitor, and \u2014 overwhelmingly \u2014 &amp;quot;ungrateful.&amp;quot; However, Heigl&amp;#039;s hardly the only actor who&amp;#039;s pointed out flaws in her own movie. Earlier this summer, Jim Carrey slammed the violence in Kick-Ass 2, and there are copious other male examples: Shia LaBeouf, George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, David Cross. Their careers continue to flourish.   In 2008, Heigl turned down an Emmy nomination for Grey&amp;#039;s Anatomy because she felt that the quality of the writing hadn&amp;#039;t earned her one. Again, she was called ungrateful. And again, there&amp;#039;s an extensive list of male actors who have crapped on the same shows that propelled them to stardom: Kevin Bacon, Jaleel White, Jason Segel, Tate Donovan \u2014 even T.R. Knight, also about Grey&amp;#039;s. The word &amp;quot;ungrateful&amp;quot; is never applied to them \u2014 male actors aren&amp;#039;t expected to kotow to the showrunners who gave them their start. Or, for that matter, to anybody.   Case in point: Studio execs take issue with Heigl for her temper and requests for creative control. It goes without saying that there&amp;#039;s no shortage of big-budget male actors whose tantrums and pretensions are well-known to the industry and blogs alike. Russell Crowe, duh. Edward Norton, who demanded so much creative control on 2008&amp;#039;s Incredible Hulk that he was finally fired from the sequel. Christian Bale, whose infamous tirade at a crewmember on the set of The Dark Knight went viral. But these instances are attributed to their brilliance and talent. While their tantrums appear on gossip blogs for a few days, these fits have done nothing but further mythologize their star power.   And the final point: Yes, Heigl requests a big fat paycheck (example: $13 million for The Ugly Truth). But let&amp;#039;s put this into perspective: Adam Sandler got $25 million for Anger Management. Robert Downey Jr. got $75 million for Iron Man 3 \u2014 and, again, his bad reputation has only added to his net worth. Hugh Jackman tops out at $100 million for Wolverine. Heigl&amp;#039;s hard-nosed requests are for a fraction of their paychecks.   Follow Anna on Twitter.   Images via Getty "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/news/a4780/katherine-heigl-problem/>