Earlier in the Television Critics Association's summer meetings -- months ago, as one reporter puts it -- NBC entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman told us he'd had conversations about bringing Isaiah Washington to NBC even before he knew that Washington's contract with ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" would not be renewed.

I don't recall anyone actually believing that at the time, but, hey, "Grey's" creator Shonda Rhimes is here, along with the cast of her new Kate Walsh spinoff, "Private Practice," so someone asks her not to explain what led to Washington's exit but whether she'd known that he was approached by Silverman before she let him go.

"No, I was not aware of any conversation that happened before I had a conversation with him," Rhimes says, no doubt relieved to have gotten off the Isaiah hook so easily.

"I hope he does really well on 'Bionic Woman' and that show does well, just not as well as 'Private Practice,'" she adds.

Some of you, I know, have bigger questions about "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice," and if you've posed them on Rhimes' blog, you should know that she's seen them.

Rhimes claims to read all the comments on the blog (which she last posted to on May 17), even when they run into the "tens of thousands," and also claims she has no problem with those who disagree with her creative choices.

Me, I'm just annoyed that she's spun off Walsh, whose character, Addison, was one of my two favorites on "Grey's." (If Chandra Wilson's Dr. Bailey disappears, I'm outta there.)

Some of you, though, might not be so happy about, say, the George and Izzie thing.

"I'm not saying that George and Izzie is the love story of the century," Rhimes says, hinting that it might even be a mistake.

But mistakes continue to interest Rhimes, at least dramatically.

Which means that, for better or worse, viewers of "Grey's Anatomy" -- and now, "Private Practice" -- should expect her characters to continue making the kind of decisions that have so-called sensible people throwing remote controls at the screen.