Former Grey’s Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington revealed that one of the show’s current stars received a $5 million hush payment to “not tell the world how toxic and nasty Patrick Dempsey was” to people on the set.
On Oct. 21, Washington appeared on Tavis Smiley’s podcast and spilled the piping hot tea on Grey’s Anatomy’s not-so golden boy and Pompeo’s payout. During the 40-minute interview, the P-Valley star claimed the actress took the $5 million from an undisclosed source to keep her mouth shut about Dempsey’s behavior. At the time, the #MeToo movement was taking off.
“And you want to run around here like you are the keeper of all feminine women and the feminist movement,” Washington quipped about the actress. He then revealed that soon after Pompeo became the highest-paid actress on television earning $20 million for her role on the long-running series.
Washington also dished on the toxic environment he worked in while on Grey’s Anatomy. He called Dempsey “pilot poison,” a term used when actors put a new series at risk of not getting picked up. The actor said the Can’t Buy Me Love alum wasn’t a nice person out the gate.
A new tell-all book titled “How To Save A Life: Inside Story Grey’s Anatomy” about the ABC series was recently released by Lynette Rice, Entertainment Weekly’s Editor-At-Large. Washington weighed in on the book on Instagram.
“I’m going to give this NYT Bestseller a read to actually ‘see’ what all the hoopla is about and to ‘see’ what I have never said to Lynette Rice, even after she chased me for a comment for 2 years. If I can generate all this global attention and haven’t told ‘my story’ in 14 years and people are still looking for the ‘smoking gun’, than it looks like I’m now forced to ‘finally’ address all of this in my own words.”
“Straight, No Chaser and with major receipts dating back to 2008. Yup,” he continued. “ Seems like my ‘comments’ in this bestseller are just comments taken off of the internet from 15 years ago. I’m now ACTIVATED and VERY interested to ‘see’ what will happen when I write ‘my’ own Greys Anatomy Tell All Book. Heads Will Roll. Tongues Will Be Wagging. Cowards and Liars Will Finally Be Checked and Exposed. That Will Be The Day The Earth Stands Still…Again.”
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Pompeo was recently blazed on the internet after she foolishly disclosed that she called legendary actor/director Denzel Washington a “m**********r,” on the set as he guest-directed the series.
She overstepped boundaries as an actress while Denzel was directing a scene. And when he checked her, she lost all common sense.
“‘Listen, m**********r , this is my show. This is my set. Who are you telling?’ Like, ‘You barely know where the bathroom is. And I have the utmost respect for him as an actor, as a director, as everything, but, like, yo, we went at it one day,” Pompeo responded.
From Washington’s interview with Smiley, it’s clear he doesn’t think much of the actress either.
