Heigl's Anatomy

The cover of the January 2008 features an absolutely stunning photograph of Katherine Heigl. She looks elegant, intelligent and... sprightly? Active? As if she's straightening her fabulous hat while riding on some young stud's shoulders. (I must say, in my humble opinion, it's quite a contrast to the Nicole Kidman cover. Kidman looked beautiful but disturbingly detached or vacant, and I thought it was a little weird the way she was holding her shirt open. Ick.)

The title of the piece is kind of unfortunate-- Heigl's Anatomy? Um, yikes. But it's a relief to read the piece and realize that they've showcased the part of her anatomy that really counts-- her brain.

There's been a lot of talk about Heigl's comment that "'Knocked Up' was a little sexist." I was interested to read her personal take on the part of Alison, because I found myself feeling conflicted after watching the movie. It was definitely funny, but there were moments I was wondering why that level of disgusting-ness and idiocy was allowed from the men-- but not the women. There was an interesting post about this after an article on Heigl's comment on Salon.com-- the post suggests that it might be funny to have a movie about slacker moms.

Slacker moms, people! It's kind of revolutionary. The poster didn't mean slacking to a level that would equal neglect/abuse. She meant:

Not hyperscheduling the kids.
Not volunteering to be head of PTA, head of church school, soccer coach *and* Scout leader (and maybe resenting the lack of downtime).
Not stressing about every unfluffed pillow.

That doesn't sound like slacker mommying. That sounds like smart mommying to me!

But back to the article. Heigl comes across as down to earth, smart and interesting. If she sometimes also says things that me cringe ("I had to sit tight until he proposed" even though she also admitted being impatient and wanting the relationship to move to marriage), I chalked that up to not censoring herself or cleaning it up too much for the interview.

She also described with candor the childhood experience of losing her brother and how that affected her relationship with her mother. I think it's unusual to hear about such a functional mother/manager relationship, especially one where mother and daughter are so close yet where the daughter has another significant relationship. (Think LiLo, Brit, etc.) I've got a daughter, and while I certainly don't plan on becoming her manager, I am intrigued by thinking about how our relationship will change with time. I wonder what causes some mothers and daughters to enjoy a close relationship and others, not so much, even if both are good people.

VF readers, discuss!