Mike Fleming

UPDATE: Lakeshore and the actress’ camp are denying she was fired, said producer Gary Lucchesi: “Heigl’s Paradigm agent Norm Aladjem called us last night, saying that Heigl asked to withdraw. There was no drama here.”

EXCLUSIVE: Katherine Heigl this morning withdrew from Adaline, the Lakeshore/Kimmel Entertainment-produced film that was to begin production in March. Word has circulated that there was some acrimony involved — the word racing around Hollywood is she was fired after disagreements with Lakeshore — but  both Lakeshore and the actress’ camp are completely denying this. Heigl, they said, recently adopted a daughter, and wasn’t ready to go back to work. The role will be re-cast immediately. “She has made two movies with us and we certainly support her decision,” said Lakeshore partner Gary Lucchesi, a producer of the film. “We were scheduled to shoot mid-March and we hope to achieve that. We are great fans of hers and if this is what she has to do, we respect that.” Heigl starred in The Ugly Truth for Lakeshore and just completed One for the Money, an adaptation of the Janet Evanovich novel. Andy Tennant is directing the film, in which Heigl was to play a woman who should have been killed in a car accident, but was resuscitated by a simultaneous lightning strike that physiologically locked her in her late 20s.  Angela Lansbury just signed on to play her daughter. J Mills Goodloe and Sal Paskowitz wrote a script that is getting revisions from Allison Burnett, and Summit is distributing.