You wanted to know why literally everyone has been killed off or rode out into the sunset on “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Now Ellen Pompeo herself has explained it on her own podcast. Pompeo, the queen of hubris, admitted on her own little radio show that she once yelled, “It’s my show!” to Oscar winner Denzel Washington when he, for some reason, directed an episode of “Grey’s” in 2016.

The extra weird part of this is that her podcast guest was former “Grey’s” star Patrick Dempsey, who was her co-star until she forced him off the show several years ago. Last season, Dempsey returned for a few “death” episodes. Now he’s on the podcast. He is really a glutton for punishment. Or maybe he elicited this conversation.

But on Pompeo’s “Tell Me with Ellen Pompeo” the Godzilla of Grey’s recalls she didn’t like the way another actor was delivering lines in the Denzel-directed episode.

“He [the actor in question] made this choice to speak very softly — and I was pissed that I had to sit there and listen to this apology. And he wasn’t looking at me in the eye. Again, we love actors who make choices. And I yelled at him, I was like, ‘Look at me! When you apologize, look at me!’ And that wasn’t in the dialogue.”

Washington, director of several well regarded movies and a two time Oscar winner, also a Tony Award winner, didn’t like Pompeo speaking to one of his actors. Pompeo recalls: “Denzel went ham on my ass. He was like, ‘I’m the director! Don’t you tell him what to do!’”

But Pompeo, who’s become out of control as “Grey’s” has turned her into an unlikely and by the way no award winning star of a soap opera that is strangely still on the air, told Denzel Washington: “I was like, ‘Listen, motherf–ker, this is my show! This is my set! Who are you telling? You barely even know where the bathroom is!’”

This actually happened in 2016, the same year Denzel’s Oscar nominated “Fences” was released. He was nominated for Best Actor, Viola Davis won for Best Supporting Actress. I have new respect for DW for not walking off the set of this two bit TV drama. My guess is he took the job to warm up for directing “Fences,” or as a favor to Shonda Rhimes.

Dozens of actors besides Dempsey have been tossed off of “Grey’s” over 18 years, not to mentioned maligned so badly in their exits that they’ve had to fight bad reputations. Let’s start with Katherine Heigl. And there’s a reason Sandra Oh hasn’t returned even for a cameo. Anyone who returned last year did it for SAG Insurance points.

The funny thing is, the departed actors probably all have NDA’s, or are too scared to speak out about Pompeo. So the fact that she admitted this herself is too funny.

Like it or not, “Grey’s Anatomy” continues tonight. (I’ll be watching “SVU.”) Kate Burton, a real actress, returns tonight to play her dead character after a decade away, for four episodes.

There was a lot of noise today about the temporary recasting of actor Marcus Coloma, a newer member of the cast of “General Hospital” on ABC.

Coloma was suddenly and without explanation not on today’s episode, replaced by another actor. “General Hospital” has had issues recently with actors getting COVID, and one actor< iIngo Rademacher, being a vocal anti-vaxxer.

But now it turns out that whatever sidelined Coloma, he has something else in his background of interest. For 15 years he’s been a major player in Hollywood’s creepy Scientology crowd.

He teaches acting at the “church” of Scientology, where he regularly advertises the “tools” he’s gleaned from the religious cult to gain success.

This hasn’t turned up in any of his interviews since joining the ABC soap. But the website truthaboutcientology.com shows that Coloma began taking classes in 2005 and his most recent class was a year ago. He’s taken about 20 courses over the 15 years.

Coloma’s worked his way to something called Class V Auditor. He’s also an “Operating Thetan” at Level V. In other words, he believes this mumbo jumbo and worships L. Ron Hubbard and Tom Cruise. It’s hard to imagine, but he believes in aliens.

There are few soap actors involved in Scientology including two from “The Young and the Restless”– Michelle Stafford and Sharon Case. There are more than a few in mainstream entertainment, from Tom Cruise and John Travolta to Jenna Elfman and Kirstie Alley. Some have left or escaped, like Jason Beghe of “Chicago PD” and Oscar winner Paul Haggis.

Most notable is Leah Remini, who’s won awards and Emmys for her outstanding documentary series about the cult. Other famous Scientologists in Hollywood are actress Elizabeth Moss, and Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson.

One thing is clear: Coloma’s character, if played by him, won’t be visiting the General Hospital shrink or spending time, as many characters do, in the nuthouse. Scientology doesn’t believe in psychiatry and regularly denounces it. (See Lawrence Wright’s documentary, “Going Clear,” and his book with the same title. Or check out Tony Ortega’s website.)

What isn’t clear: if Coloma has been vaccinated, or believes or doesn’t believe in the COVID vaccine. Scientology has not directly addressed their stance on the vaccine although there’s anecdotal evidence they’re against it. If a Scientology spokesperson wants to clarify the position about COVID vaccines, please email us at showbiz411@gmail.com.

Monday night:”NCIS” led the network shows with 8.055 million viewers, a big number for TV these days.

But it’s also the lowest ever rating for “NCIS,” which was down 400,000 viewers from last week and 900,000 from its Season 18 season finale last May.

“NCIS” also introduced Gary Cole as Mark Harmon’s eventual successor. They’re not saying it but the audience knows that Gibbs is going to be in many fewer episodes for Season 19. Cole’s new character is going to run the show.

Will “NCIS” fall below 7 million  next week? That’s still a good number most shows would be thrilled about. If this continues, season 20 will be the last. Also, “Law & Order” is being revived so it can break the “Gunsmoke” record of 20 seasons with number 21, maybe next spring. So “NCIS” will never be able to catch up.

I like Dick Wolf. He’s obviously a success and a survivor. He told NBC last winter that if they canceled “Manifest,” he’d give them a third hour of “Law & Order” to go with “SVU”and “Organized Crime.” He said it would be called “For the Defense,” and focus on defense lawyers.

Wolf hired Carol Mendelsohn, late of “CSI” to develop the show. But no  one ever developed it. And when the time came to pony up, Wolf blamed Mendelsohn for no show.

Insiders tell me that “For the Defense,” however, was all Wolf’s idea, and that he never thought it through. “You can’t have the police be wrong in every story,” said one observer. “It’s all Law, no Order. It breaks the whole theme of the shows.”

Wolf’s mistake meant “Manifest” went to Netflix after a public outcry, and NBC was left without a third hour to give Wolf a block on Thursday nights. NBC has since been scrambling to fill the time.

So no surprise today that Wolf has announced that next fall he’s bringing back the original “Law & Order.” Who’ll be in it? Chris Noth is otherwise occupied on “The Equalizer,” but he’d be a likely candidate to join the show. Wolf could make it up to Paul Sorvino, so good in the early shows almost three decades ago. Sam Waterston is available. And Linus Roache, who was kind of screwed during the show’s final seasons. Plus, where is Jesse L. Martin?

The “L&O/Wolf” people I spoke to over the summer must be cackling with this news. Mendelsohn was thrown under the bus when “For the Defense” couldn’t come up with a script or characters. The new show, as many pointed out, was just the Law without the Order. Now Wolf can try again to build his Thursday block.