Katherine Heigl has signed on to star in and produce the big-screen drama Life As We Know It — but Grey’s Anatomy fans needn’t worry about this new gig impacting Heigl’s recently confirmed return to the ABC series.

Heigl — who is currently filming the Lionsgate thriller Five Killers, opposite Ashton Kutcher — is due back on the Grey’s set in late July, now that her option for Season 6 has been picked up. And while a rep for the actress was unable to comment on the anticipated production start for Life As We Know It, it is unlikely the film commitment will affect her Grey’s work. On multiple occasions — and as recently as this spring — Heigl has simultaneously juggled film roles and her portrayal of Dr. Isobel Stevens.

Life As We Know It revolves around a woman and a man whose respective best friends die in a car accident. Following the tragedy, they are left to share in caring for the deceased’s orphaned daughter. Everwood creator Greg Berlanti will direct.

Heigl will next be seen on the big screen opposite Gerard Butler in The Ugly Truth, opening July 24.

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ABC declined TVGuide.com’s request for further comment from Rhimes (who did issue a statement on Friday regarding Knight’s departure). Similarly, Heigl’s rep said no statement was forthcoming from the actress.

The announcement ends months of speculation over Heigl’s future with the show. In June 2008, she made statements about her Emmy worthiness that appeared to cast aspersion on the Grey’s Anatomy writing staff. Not long after that controversy, there were reports that Rhimes would exact a sort of “payback” by killing off Izzie Stevens, Heigl’s character. Seemingly confirming such speculation, Izzie was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic brain cancer and appeared to flat-line in the season-finale episode.

In other Grey’s news, ABC also officially announced that Jessica Capshaw, whose Dr. Arizona Robbins has been a breath of fresh air in the often angsty halls of Seattle Grace, will continue with the show — now as a series regular.

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Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes wants to set the record straight: T.R. Knight and Katherine Heigl are not leaving the show.

“That was a very interesting rumor,” Rhimes said Thursday night at the 40th NAACP Image Awards in Los Angeles. “And it’s not true.”

Rhimes was referring to a recent comment in the press attributed to Grey’s castmember James Pickens Jr., in which he was said to be confirming the departure of Heigl and Knight.

“That was absolutely taken out of context,” said Rhimes. “Things happen, and … I think rumors become fact very easily. And you know I don’t like to tell you what’s going to happen on the show — but that is a rumor,” she emphasized.

For his part, Pickens says he meant to wish the pair well in general.

“We’ve been living with these rumors for a long time,” he said before the NAACP’s awards show. “When the question was posed to me, I was more trying to congratulate Katie and T.R. on whatever they were going to do. But yeah, I don’t have any special info about it either way.”

ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy took home three awards, including Chandra Wilson’s win for outstanding actress in a drama series. Wilson said she was looking forward to the show’s upcoming 100th episode — and insisted things were all good on the set.

“We’re laughing at the rumors, as we always do,” Wilson said before the ceremony. “Stories come out, and [there are] these big quotes, and we go, ‘But that’s not exactly what I said.’ So, we’re busy doing our jobs, doing our work.”

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After months of rumors that Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight may be leaving Grey’s Anatomy, costar James Pickens (”The Chief”) has added fuel to the fire.

“Yes, she is,” he told Us Weekly when asked if Heigl will exit the show. “Wherever Katherine goes, I wish her nothing but the best.”

As for Knight, Pickens said, “He’s going too.”

The network and studio say they cannot confirm anything, and Heigl’s and Knight’s personal reps have declined to comment.

However, a well-placed ABC source tells us, “There’s no way [Pickens] could know that, because nothing has been decided yet. Nothing has been written and [Heigl and Knight] are still working out what will happen next season with the network.”

According to inside sources who work on Grey’s, it is likely that Heigl and Knight will make an exit at the end of the current season. Both have asked to leave the show. However, ABC needs to sign off on letting them out of their contracts, which has not been done.

So why did Pickens say they are leaving?

“I don’t think James meant to say what he did,” one insider who works on the show says of the Us Weekly interview. “I think he was thrown by the line of questioning and didn’t realize what he was saying.”

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New Greys comes back this Thursday!