Ellen Pompeo isn’t fully checked out of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’: ‘I’ll definitely be back’
As I watched Ellen Pompeo and her co-star Isaiah Washington struggle through a hospital room full of patients in “Grey’s Anatomy,” I was struck by how many of them looked a lot like me. Pompeo’s character, Meredith Grey, was a single mom with two teenage kids. Washington’s character, Owen Hunt, was a doctor who worked at a hospital in Boston.
I first met Pompeo while she was filming the ABC medical drama when, in the early ’80s, I was living in Los Angeles. She was a newly single mother, and she had been a medical student at UCLA. At the time, she was writing music for the television show “Beverly Hills, 90210” so she was often there shooting scenes.
We were friendly, but then, while filming one day, Pompeo and I were sitting at her home in Culver City, having coffee. I asked her if I could check out her apartment — because I had just moved to Los Angeles, too. We were introduced by her friend, who later became my husband.
Pompeo moved to L.A. just a few months after filming and I joined her there to get my real-life medical degree. The next year, I graduated and went back to UCLA to work in medical school.
We’ve stayed friends ever since. When Pompeo moved back to L.A. in 2003, she moved in with me. I became her roommate.
Last year, we went to a dinner party where Pompeo was introduced to President Obama. We met up again at a party in L.A. and Pompeo was working as a doctor for the government — working on Obamacare for the first time. I brought Pompeo to Washington for the same reason — I wanted her to see the sights. I was glad it wasn’t just me. She lives in a really nice part of D.C.
As I watched her and Washington struggle through the hospital, “Grey’s Anatomy�
