Can Katherine Heigl Save Her Career By Returning to Television?

Poor Katherine Heigl. America has still not forgiven her for verbally abusing Grey's Anatomy -- the series that brought her fame, fortune and countless one-dimensional rom-com roles -- on national television. As such, her post-Grey's films tanked at the box office, her former co-stars mocked her to the press, and she became the butt of jokes made by other romcom characters. In the latest crushing blow to Heigl, Lionsgate yanked her newest film from the lucrative summer to the barren winter. How's a girl supposed to fix a self-admitted image problem?

By returning to television! Well, that's what Heigl is going to try, anyway. The actress is teaming up with HBO to produce and star in an adaptation of Ann Hood's best-selling novel The Knitting Circle. Dirty Sexy Money creator Craig Wright will pen the script, about a mother who struggles to overcome the grief of losing her young daughter and the trauma of a struggling marriage through a knitting circle. (So, like How to Make an American Quilt meets Rabbit Hole?) In addition to marking Heigl's first premium cable project, The Knitting Circle will allow the Emmy winner to revisit more dramatic material akin to her Izzie Stevens days on Grey's Anatomy.

Could this be the career saver that Heigl is hoping for? As long as it doesn't involve the actress knitting a pair of vibrating panties or playing house with Ashton Kutcher, perhaps. If it succeeds however, let's just hope The Knitting Circle doesn't lead to The Ugly Truth 2: The Uglier Truth.

· Katherine Heigl To Produce And Star In Movie Project For HBO [Deadline]