Patrick Dempsey appeared on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show yesterday and, yes, the conversation turned to actress Brooke Smith's recent axing from ABC's Grey's Anatomy.

Some suspect ABC gave Smith the boot because her on-screen lesbian relationship was getting a bit too serious. Dempsey gave no credence to those rumors — not because they're not true, but because network executives told him what to say:

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Whoops! Just three days after sending everyone employed by TV rags The Insider and Entertainment Tonight a catty e-mail in which he called Insider host Lara Spencer out of touch and claimed she makes viewers want to "vomit," recovering addict Pat O'Brien is out on his ass. According to Page Six, O'Brien's bosses were "infuriated" by the missive.

O'Brien had been demoted from host to correspondent at The Insider following some time at rehab, apparently leaving him with some jealousy, resentment and anger issues. Shocking.

Time now for sad math: fired + bad attitude + recession = relapse

Broke media outlets from coast to coast looking to trim some fat have finally come to the realization that publishing film criticisms is about as necessary as running horoscopes: no matter what either divines, it can always be argued and is very often ignored. Now, movie critics everywhere are being served with walking papers.

… the Village Voice [has] axed film critic Nathan Lee … Word has it that revenues are way, way down at the chain and at least one of our friends at the LA Weekly will likely be pounding the pavements before the week is out.

Grim news — and this on the heels of the housecleaning 18 months earlier that resulted in Village Voice Media axing a number of its best critics and consolidating them into fewer posts.

… the fact that there could me more casualties to come signals the ongoing implosion of [the] profession, at least as far as print is concerned. … I think we're fast approaching the point where criticism will become, for the most part, a devotion rather than a job.

Guess we're all stuck thinking for ourselves from now on. Good luck out there!