Katherine Heigl ashamed she didn't apologize to Knocked Up filmmakers

Katherine Heigl is "embarrassed" she has yet to personally apologize to Judd Apatow or Seth Rogen for publicly criticizing their hit comedy Knocked Up.

The actress and Rogen played unlikely lovers in the 2007 movie, which was written and directed by Apatow.

It became a box office smash, earning a global total of $219 million , but Heigl confessed in 2008 she found the plotline "a little sexist".

"It paints the women as shrews, as humourless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys," she told Vanity Fair magazine. "It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it, on some days. I'm playing such a b**ch; why is she being such a killjoy? Why is this how you're portraying women? Ninety-eight per cent of the time it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie."

Both Apatow and Rogen, who served as one of Knocked Up's executive producers, blasted Heigl for her remarks, and, according to the New York Daily News, the filmmaker expected the actress to eventually reach out to apologize, but he lamented, "Then the call never comes."

Now Heigl has revisited the controversy in a new radio interview with shock jock Howard Stern, during which she recalled an awkward encounter with Rogen and his production partner Evan Goldberg a couple of years after the Vanity Fair article was published.

"I ran into him at a restaurant and I didn't realize it was as serious as it was," Heigl said. "I walked up like, 'Hey guys!' It was him and Evan, (I was) like, 'How are y'all?' They were very like, 'Uhh...' and I was like, 'Oh, you are really mad'. I didn't realize it was that bad!"

The uncomfortable run-in made Heigl rethink her Vanity Fair criticism, and on Wednesday (20Apr16), she admitted, "It was an immature, dumb-a** moment."

However, Heigl revealed she never did try to make amends with Apatow or Rogen directly.

She continued, "I did it (apologized) publicly instead, and kind of tried to say, 'Look, this was not what I meant, this was an incredible experience for me and they were incredibly good to me on this movie so I did not mean to s**t on them at all,' but I thought about writing a note."

"I feel embarrassed. I don't want it to feel insincere on any level," she added. "I absolutely owe anybody an apology who I unwillingly offended or disrespected."