Update!

Katherine Heigl Seemingly Confuses Iraq for Afghanistan in State of Affairs On-Set Snap

Actress is currently filming the NBC drama

By Alyssa Toomey Sep 21, 2014 3:37 PMTags
Katherine Heigl, State of AffairsNBC

UPDATE: Katherine Heigl has issued a statement to E! News, saying, "Some eagle-eyed fans spotted that the posters in the background of my photo yesterday were from Iraq not Afghanistan. Our secret is out! The sets we use on State of Affairs represent many different countries around the world. We were actually shooting scenes in 'Kabul,' but for the selfie had wandered into 'Iraq' by simply crossing the street. Movie magic, people!"

__________________________ 

Full disclosure: We have no idea where this scene in question is supposed to take place. And apparently, neither does Katherine Heigl

The 35-year-old actress, who is no stranger to criticism, took to Facebook on Thursday night to share a new set pic from her upcoming NBC drama State of Affairs, in which she stars alongside Young and Restless hottie Chris McKenna.

"Santa Clarita played the part of Kabul Afghanistan today for State of Affairs. Kinda blew my mind...," the former Grey's Anatomy's star captioned the image where she's flashing a subtle smile while standing with her arm perched on her handsome co-star's shoulder. 

Sounds innocent enough, right? Well, there's just one major problem: The set behind the actress is believed to be standing in for Iraq, not Afghanistan. 

Many Facebook users quickly noticed Heigl's blunder due to the fact that the photo features Iraqi flags in the background (check out the third row of posters), and, as the Washington Post noted, the "poster on the set appears to feature an earlier version of the Iraqi flag...likely a relic of the Saddam Hussein era," which makes up for the slight differences—namely, the script—which appears on the flags in the poster.

Meanwhile, Heigl's State of Affairs co-star David Harbour recently spoke to the New York Daily News about the actress's poor reputation in Hollywood.

"I know that the press has sort of had a field day with her in the past, sort of about her being nasty and stuff," he said. "But once you get on the inside of something and you start to see all of the personalities...and once I see her point of view, I somewhat understand a lot of her reactions."

Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Several years ago, Heigl was on the rise to become the next big movie star, but instead, she became one of the most polarzing personalities in Hollywood when she opted to discuss taboo topics in Tinseltown and openly criticized the writing she was given on ABC's Grey's Anatomy. 

Following a string of negative reports, the Emmy Award-winning actress took a four-year break from the boob tube (aside from NyQuil ads) and is looking forward to making her triumphant return to the small screen. 

"I think she was admittedly at a very frustrating point in her life and she was very frustrated and she was very vocal about it," Harbour said of Heigl's response to the backlash. "Now she sort of tells me she's kind of on an apology tour, and I wish her well for that because she's a lovely woman and she's really fun to work with."

Heigl plays a CIA anaylst in the fall drama, which premieres on Nov. 17. 

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

—Additional reporting by Marc Malkin