The Word: Katherine Heigl still insists she’s not difficult to work with

Katherine Heigl has a new TV series debuting in a couple of weeks, which means she’s doing lots of publicity — which in turn means she has to deal with a lot of inquiries about her “difficult” reputation. Like in a recent Facebook Q&A session when a fan asked Heigl about “rumors that you’re very rude.” Boy, this should be good.

“Yeah I’ve heard those too,” Heigl responded. “Honestly, I don’t think I am. Nothing makes me more uncomfortable than confrontation or hurting someone’s feelings, and I would never, ever actively do so on purpose. Of course, just like any human being I’ve made mistakes and unwittingly or carelessly spoken or acted, but I always try to make any wrong right. That doesn’t mean I won’t stand up for myself by drawing boundaries and asking to be treated kindly and respectfully, but I don’t do that with any rude or unkind intentions, just with the same strength and honestly I think every one of us is entitled to.” Dang it, if she’s going to keep being so reasonable this isn’t going to be any fun. Now what do I do? Mock her for ending a sentence with a preposition? Sheesh.

That’s Lord Kanye to you, buddy
Kanye West wants to name his new, $20 million Los Angeles home after the fictional home on ” Downton Abbey” because of course he does. West, a noted master of subtlety and understatement, “wants the home to resemble ‘ Downton ‘ in its grandeur and ‘ regalness ,’ and there will be a sign naming it Highclere Castle,” a source tells the Sun. ” Kanye loves calling [wife Kim Kardashian ] ‘lady.’ He basically thinks he’s an even cooler version of Lord Grantham.” It could be worse, I suppose. Just imagine if he’d been watching a lot of “He-Man” instead and wanted to call it Castle Grayskull .

Selena Gomez’s friends continue to be worried
It’s been a bit since Selena Gomez’s well-intentioned friends have expressed their concern about her attachment to on-again, off-again boyfriend Justin Bieber, so let’s refill that tank, yeah? Gomez is supposedly dating noted Bieber sparring partner Orlando Bloom now, but her friends are worried her heart isn’t really in it. ” She is absolutely not into Orlando because she is still obsessed with Justin and always will be,” a source tells Radar Online. “Everyone is really sick of hearing the same old story. Nothing changes with them. She gets back with him, he lies, he gets caught, she gets upset and then tries to make him jealous. She needs to just let go.” Or maybe these friends need to take their own advice.

InStyle editor lets slip that Jessica Biel is pregnant
Social media can be a tricky thing when it comes to pregnancy. The last thing you want is a friend beating you to the punch in letting the world know you’ve got a bun in the oven, but that may be exactly what happened for Jessica Biel. Weeks of speculation that she and Justin Timberlake are expecting were seemingly confirmed recently when Biel’s pal, InStyle editor-in-chief Ariel Foxman , posted an Instagram photo of her and Biel together with the caption, “Congrats @jessicabiel on your impending motherhood. Looking forward to the red carpet maternity style pix to come.” The post was soon removed, but not before a lot of people noticed. Looks like someone’s been disinvited to the baby shower.

Idris Elba spoils “Avengers” Loki cameo
Apparently “Avengers: Age of Ultron ” is going to be an all-hands-on-deck kind of affair, as Idris Elba let slip in a recent interview that he and “Thor” co-star Tom Hiddleston had filmed a scene for the superhero sequel with Chris Hemsworth . “I’m in Avengers,” Elba tells the Telegraph. “And I’m doing a scene with Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston and they’re like, [whispers] ‘Aren’t you [meant to be DJing ] in Ibiza?'” It sounds like it’s just a cameo, which makes sense and wouldn’t necessarily mean Hiddleston was lying when he told me a year ago that Loki wasn’t going to be in the “Avengers” sequel, which didn’t even have an official title at that point anyway. “It was expected, to be honest, that Joss [ Whedon ] told me he wasn’t going to put me in it,” Hiddleston said at the time. So then I’d imagine hearing the opposite came as something of a surprise.

DAILY VIDEO: How about a throwback Tuesday?
In honor of BBC News declaring the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” the catchiest song of all time, here’s the, ahem, classic video for the 1996 hit single, filmed in a single take at London’s former Midland Grand Hotel. The song beat out 1,000 other hit singles from the past 75 years, with study participants able to recognize it in an average of 2.9 seconds. Now if that doesn’t deserve a ” zig-a-zig-ah ,” I don’t know what does. If you want to torture yourself further, by the way, the second catchiest song of all time is Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5,” followed by “Eye of the Tiger.” You’re welcome?