Box-office sorority sisters

By Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

This past weekend Hollywood’s richest, most beautiful and most exclusive sorority of ladies who can open a film -- let's call it Omega Mega Bucks -- welcomed a new member into its gleaming, wide-smiling ranks.

Katherine Heigl had been an attractive rushee as Dr. Izzy Stevens on “Grey’s Anatomy” and a promising pledge when she starred as the gorgeous but vulnerable E! News anchor who helped push “Knocked Up” close to the $150-million mark this summer.

But it wasn’t until “27 Dresses” (marketed almost entirely on Heigl’s personality) grossed $30 million in four days that Heigl passed the crucial initiation test: She opened a film successfully. That puts her in the same rarefied club as Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson, Drew Barrymore and just a few select others.

Like all sororities, this exclusive group of women is in constant flux: There are alumnae who enjoyed the adoration of the masses for a time but then moved on to more adult (read: less mass appeal) pictures, those who joined but were eventually kicked out, and others who are desperately beating down the door to get in.

Here’s a look at Heigl’s peers, her role models and those she may someday mentor -- if she lasts long enough. After all, this group has something else in common with college campus sororities: It’s vicious.