As you all know, the casts and crews of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice are putting together a benefit for all of the crew members that suffered hard times during the writer's strike, entitled "Good Medicine." This event takes place tomorrow night at Royce Hall at UCLA.
I will be attending this event, and you can trust a complete and total report on what went down at Good Medicine right here on Grey Gossip. There will be pictures (if they are allowed...no one is certain if they are), quotes, and a recap of everything that happened. You can expect this recap sometime Saturday or Sunday. If you want to make sure you know the minute this recap is live, then subscribe to our feed! I hope you'll all make Grey Gossip your number one stop for information on Good Medicine! I promise to deliver!

This just in from TVGuide.com:

At times during the past three months, we never thought we'd say it, but ... the WGA strike is officially over. According to the WGA websites, members voted by 92.5 percent to lift the strike order that was enacted November 5.

Following WGA leadership's approval of a tentative deal on Sunday, the guild members on Tuesday voted to lift the strike order, which has been in effect (and playing serious havoc with our TV viewing) for three months. Members on both coasts voted in person or by proxy, and the "polls" closed just an hour ago, at 6 pm/PT. Yes, the vote to end the strike was expected, given the positive feedback after meetings on the deal over the weekend, but still, it feels so good. The writers will be revving up their typing fingers and plot points to get back to work on Wednesday.

Grey's Anatomy is expected to return with four to seven new episodes to air in April & May. How its timeslot will be affected, however, (due to Lost) has yet to be determined.

Hallelujah! The WGA has approved the agreement reached to end the strike, and while it still must be ratified by the members, showrunners and writers can return to work tomorrow (February 11). This means that Shonda can begin to start cranking out new episodes of Grey's and Private Practice. This is AWESOME news and means that the strike is OFFICIALLY OVER! From TVGuide.com:

The boards for both branches of the Writers Guild of America on Sunday unanimously approved the tentative deal reached on a new contract. The boards are also taking the final decision on liftng the strike to membership in a vote on Tuesday.

In the meantime, showrunners will get going even sooner, heading back to work Monday to get crews set up and production facilities going again, as will writers who have producing duties on their shows. Ballots to ratify the three-year deal are also going out to members, and will be returned within a 10-12 day period.

According to the numerous reports all over the web, despite the fact that the WGA has reached a tentative agreement to end the strike (and by tentative, it means that the contract would expire in 2011), the agreement must still be ratified by the hundreds of WGA members, of which a vote is to be held either tonight (2/9/08) or tomorrow (2/10/08). According to the reports, most of the writers are thrilled at the fact that there has been an agreement made, and they want to get back to work as soon as they can. But, as always, there are still some members who are unhappy with the terms of the agreement, as they feel the WGA has compromised too much. However, if the strike were to end tonight or tomorrow, the writers could return to work as early as Monday, and we could get new episodes of Grey's Anatomy in April/May. So, keep your fingers, toes, and eyes crossed in the hopes that everything goes great from here on out...
We'll keep you updated.

From TVGuide.com:

Now , casting would appear to be rather complete on J.J. Abrams' Fringe pilot for Fox. Dawson's Creek alum Joshua Jackson — who when last heard from was to visit Grey's Anatomy's Seattle Grace, but... strike happens — will play Peter Bishop, the son of the institutionalized scientist teamed with a female fed (Aussie actress Anna Torv) to investigate unexplained phenomena. Oh, Peter is also a high-school dropout/gambling addict with an IQ of 190. Filming is now under way in Toronto.

How this will affect the future of what could have been his character on Grey's still remains unknown, obviously.

OK, so, it looks as if the numerous rumors are coming true!

The WGA has reached a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. (Have you ever heard 16 such wonderful words?) At 3 am Saturday morning — following all-night talks — the union's East and West Coast presidents zapped off emails (cited here by United Hollywood) to their membership stating that a deal has been made through 2011 that "protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery." Said offer (summarized here at WGA.org) is being detailed to WGA East members Saturday in New York, with their West Coast brethren to get the lowdown this evening. If all goes well, each coast's board of directors will confab Sunday to formally endorse the contract. In that scenario, scribes could be back at their keyboards as early as Monday, though WGA East president Michael Winship told reporters on Saturday, "There are several different alternative ways that the board and council could determine how this should be dealt with." source

So, yah, basically what that said is that the tentative contract still needs to be ratified by the WGA members, and once it is (please, God, let it be!), the writers can return to work!

OK, so, talk about the best news ever. Thanks to the amazing Ausiello at TVGuide.

Paging the cast of Grey's Anatomy... you're needed back on set, STAT!

With a tentative agreement between striking writers and Hollywood moguls expected to be announced sometime this week, my moles at Grey's tell me that production on the show is expected to resume in early March. The plan is to shoot four or five episodes to air in April/May.

Obviously, we'll keep you updated!
YAY!

According to Michael Ausiello over at TVGuide.com, someone major at Grey's Anatomy wants to leave the show - and soon. Current speculation is that it is Katherine Heigl, who has been quite outspoken about her dislike with the show's (and her character's) current direction, and is bursting into huge movie fame (first with Knocked Up, and now with 27 Dresses out next Friday). True, there are 13 main cast members on Grey's Anatomy, but Heigl is the most outspoken, with Patrick Dempsey coming close behind, but he's already spoken for himself, saying that even if he doesn't like the direction the show is heading, he'll stick with it until the end. In the same quote, he was also speaking for the whole cast, but obviously, this isn't true for all of them. Nevertheless, we probably don't have to worry about most of the cast members, including Patrick and Ellen Pompeo, but Katherine Heigl...well, I'm not too sure about her. I personally really hope she doesn't leave. It would be a huge blow to the show and Izzie's character is so essential. I'll keep you updated. Read on for Ausiello's scoop from his column...

Some very mean and nasty people have been saying that Sandra Oh is leaving Grey's Anatomy, whenever it comes back. Since you are the god of TV scoop, I knew you'd be able to deny this for me. Interesting. Unfortunately, I can't verify that rumor's authenticity. What I can verify is that someone — and a major someone at that — wants to be discharged from Seattle Grace, and STAT. But, as far as I can tell, that someone is not Sandra Oh.
You mentioned that Joshua Jackson's three-episode Grey's Anatomy arc was delayed indefinitely because of the writers' strike. However, there's a new Grey's airing this Thursday. Will he be in that episode? No, hence the "delayed indefinitely" thing. The good news is that I hear Shonda Rhimes has every intention of shoe-horning Pacey into Seattle Grace (and Cristina's bed) the second the strike is over.

According to one of our sources, there's going to be a triangle between, yup, you guessed it: Meredith, Derek, and Rose. The source continues on, telling us that while George and Izzie may not be back together by the end of this season, seedlings of a reunion between the couple (lubby-dubby wise) will be planted by at least mid-next season (Gizzie haters rejoice!). They also say that Mark will continue to not have a really big storyline during the course of this season, but that we should expect one next season. All of this information, I'm going to assume, is based on the fact that the writer's strike will end and season four will get a few more episodes in. And if it doesn't, well, all this goes down the pot...

Probably due to the fact that the episode isn't finished yet (I've had this confirmed by ABC), the final pre-strike episode (the one with no production involvement and completed completely by the network) Lay Your Hands on Me has been pushed back from January 3 to January 10. Haunt You Every Day will now air on January 3. Stay tuned as more updates come in.

Great news! ...that's also depressing at the same time. Grey's Anatomy will return with it's final all-new episode, Lay Your Hands on Me, on January 3. This was the final episode completed before the strike, and Shonda Rhimes (and the rest of the Grey's staff, for that matter) had no part in its production. Whether this will be our season finale or not is yet to be determined, but it is very likely that it could be. However, beginning on January 31, Lost will be stealing the Grey's Anatomy timeslot to play out its completed 8 episodes. This raises concerns and questions. Like, if the strike ends, and both Lost and Grey's Anatomy go back into production to finish out the season, who gets the Thursdays-at-9 timeslot? Will the Lost viewers be jerked around again? Or will we be jerked around? My concern, honestly, is that Lost will do so well in the timeslot that ABC will move Grey's Anatomy for its fifth season to an all-new timeslot, which, let's face it, would probably really really suck. There's so much up in the air...we'll just have to wait for the strike to end, Lost to premiere, and ABC's fall schedule to be released (which it will sometime in May/June 2008). Stay tuned for more info.

Here's the scoop from Ausiello at TVGuide.com...

You mentioned a while back that George's mom was returning to Grey's Anatomy. Did the strike push that back? That's what I'm hearing. According to my Seattle Grace mole, Mama O'Malley's return — originally slated for November sweeps — was delayed until Episode 11, aka the show's final pre-strike episode. That probably explains why George had little to do during the just-wrapped two-parter. Why'd they move her out of sweeps? Well, per my spy, when it became clear that eppy 11 might be the final hour of Grey's we get in a long time, the script underwent "massive rewrites" to ramp up the drama and add several cliff-hangers — one of which involves George's old lady. "They're pretty big bombshells," says the source. "Basically, everyone's futures are left up in the air." Well, not everyone's. As I reported in this week's Ausiello Report vodcast, by the end of the episode there will be little doubt which direction the Mer/Derek/Rose triangle is headed in. [Basically, Derek will dump Meredith's "whiny ass" for Rose.]
Earlier this season, you teased that someone's getting divorced on Grey's Anatomy, and it's not who we'd expect. After reading your Bailey/narration spoiler, it has me thinking that it's her. I can neither confirm nor deny that Bailey will be getting a divorce this season on Grey's Anatomy.

Here are the results to Are you worried for Bailey?

• 67 said yes.
• 36 said a little.
• 13 said no.

Now be sure to vote in our newest poll! Do you still support the strike?

Krista Vernoff, one of Grey's Anatomy's best writers (of episodes like Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, Haunt You Every Day, Into You Like a Train, etc) has apparently appeared on the ABC Message Boards, posting a message on how you can help with the strike. Of course, there isn't any actual proof this is Krista speaking, but we're pretty sure it is. Read on for Krista's message...

I will keep pasting it here til they end my access (which will be soon)! Thanks for the support -- you guys rock. Wouldn't it be awesome if you all copied and pasted this into your posts? Give the moderators some wooooork to do. xoxo, Krista

SC-JOHNSON - GLADE advertising executives and company lawyers are holding an emergency meeting Friday December 7th to debate pulling their network television spots due to direct pressure from the thousands of television fans who have called and expressed their EXTREME RELUCTANCE to buy their products until the writers of their favorite shows receive a fair contract. If SC Johnson Glade pulls their ads and asks for their money back, their competitors will follow suit. And the sooner the advertisers demand their money back from the networks, the sooner this strike will end! Let's make sure that SCJ GLADE feels the heat this week. Please distribute this email to your fans, friends, family, and anyone who watches network television, cares about writers, hates reruns, and despises corporate greed. Call SC JOHNSON GLADE at 1-800-494-4855 and say: “My name is _______. I am a consumer calling to tell you that I support the TV writers in their ongoing dispute with the television networks. I regret to to inform you that I am no longer comfortable using, buying, or recommending SC Johnson Glade products due to your company's continued financial support of the networks by paying them for television ad time. Thank you." The call is free and will only take two minutes of your time. We already know it is making a difference. Once you've called, please forward this email to anyone and everyone you know who watches television or movies. The strike is hurting everyone. Writers. Actors. Crew Members. Everyone who lives and works in or near Hollywood. Help all of them have a Happy Holiday Season. The strike needs to end. Help us. Make the call. Thank You.

Well, the strike still isn't over as Christmas nears, and many of TV's most popular shows are coming to an end. Desperate Housewives is over. Heroes has had it's season finale. Brothers & Sisters only has two episodes left. Nip/Tuck is half-way through its season. And Grey's Anatomy is coming up on its final two episodes (one airs tomorrow, the other one when the strike ends). However, things appear as though they could be looking up, as talks resumed yesterday. Here's the update from TVGuide.com:

As talks resumed Tuesday, the Writers Guild of America was expected to deliver its "counteroffer" to the New Economic Partnership that was proposed last week by the AMPTP, but swiftly dismissed by the scribes. Based on a statement issued late today by the AMPTP, that appears to be exactly what happened: "We will spend the evening studying what the WGA had to say today," says the group, "and we look forward to returning to the bargaining table tomorrow."

Sources tell Variety that Tuesday's talks were "encouraging and more productive" than previous sessions, with the writers detailing a tiered usage plan tied to Web streaming. Still, the $100 million question is whether the two sides can sort through a $100 million discrepancy over the AMPTP's original proposal. The producers claim writers would see a $130 million increase in compensation over three years, while the WGA argues it would closer to $32 million more.

We'll keep you updated as more reports come in.

But will we get to see it?
Read on for the scoop from Kristin at E! Online...

I actually really like Lauren Stamile on Grey's and hope that McThorny, as you call her, and McDreamy have lots of romance and babies together!
Well, then you'll be happy with the upcoming episodes. No babies, but they are definitely heading toward l'amour, mon cheri. I hear Rose/Lauren is sticking around until the last episode they shot before the strike—which is episode number 11—and she'll be an increasingly bigger part of the plot, as Derek calls on her to help save a surgery. For those of you rooting for Meredith and Derek, the good news is that this new McThorny romance is indeed a thorn in Mer's side—she just might realize how very badly she wants her own McDreamy ending. The bad news? According to my sources, she might realize that a little too late...(gulp.)
Is the writers strike going to interfere with Joshua Jackson's upcoming guest appearance on Grey's Anatomy?
And how. Josh is no longer scheduled to come on Grey's. Producers are hoping they can figure out another slot for him after the strike, but that's contingent on his schedule.