When Is It Time to Ditch the Small Screen for the Big?

March 18, 2008 — -- She was in the movie of the summer, she's one of the most desired women in the world, she was the picture of old-Hollywood glamour at the Oscars.

So, why is she still on the small screen?

With "Knocked Up" and "27 Dresses" under her belt, as well as an Emmy award and a Golden Globe nomination, Katherine Heigl looks like she's outgrown her "Grey's Anatomy" scrubs.

While Heigl's representative denied that she's looking to jump from the show before her contract expires, it seems logical that the 29-year-old actress will eventually pull a George Clooney — leaving "ER" launched his Oscar-winning film career — and ditch the doctor drama to focus on big screen projects.

"When the TV series has peaked after a few seasons, as Katherine's has, the time may be good to try that move over to movies," said Bob Berney, president of independent film studio Picturehouse. "[Film is] still the gold standard. There's still that Academy Award possibility, there's still a snobbery with film."

"Television actors, although I'm sure they're happy to be on television, who wouldn't want to be in a movie?" said New York-based casting director Bernard Telsey, who cast "Dan in Real Life," "Across the Universe," and the upcoming "Sex and the City" movie.

Heigl's "Grey's" gig is far from shabby — she reportedly commands $200,000 per episode — but she stands to make much more from movies. Her salary for "Knocked Up" was a modest $300,000; that role raised her profile so much that little more than six months after the unplanned pregnancy hit came out, she banked $6 million for "27 Dresses."

Industry insiders said Heigl's benefiting from the fact that it's easier than ever for small screen stars to blow up on the big screen. While TV was once looked down on as the ugly stepsister of the glamorous film biz, in the past 10 years, thanks to critically acclaimed dramas such as "The Sopranos" and "The West Wing," they've practically become equals.

"There's so much good TV now," Telsey said. "It doesn't have that stigma in the Hollywood film community. It's not like the director's saying, 'Oh, I don't want a TV star, because that's something so much smaller and I'm doing an art film, I want to make the star, I want my own.' Now they're stealing people from everywhere."