Private Practice Amps Up the Intramural Romances

It was soon after the introduction of “Gizzie” — the romantic pairing of George O’Malley and Izzie Stevens — when I began to notice that longtime Grey’s Anatomy fans were starting to gripe in earnest that things had gone too far, romance-wise.

The bed hopping among and between staff members at Seattle Grace grew so prevalent — George with Meredith, George with Callie, George with Izzie, George getting pursued by Lil’ Grey who’d already slept with Alex, then with McSteamy, Callie with McSteamy, Callie with Hahn, Callie with Arizona, you get the picture — that you need a scorecard to keep up. Seriously.

I’m starting to get the same feeling about Grey’s little sister of a program, Private Practice, given all the partner swapping that’s been going on there these days, particularly in light of its recent episode, “Love Bites.”

What kind of romantic partner swapping? Well, let’s do a brief rundown of Private Practice history, shall we?

Addison Montgomery commenced the first season of Private Practice by trying to decide whether she should hook up with her new colleague Pete Wilder. They flirted. They kissed. They made a date for Pete to come over. He stood her up.

In Private Practice’s early days, co-workers Cooper Freedman and Violet Turner decided to be “friends with benefits,” but the moment Violet got naked, Cooper freaked out and fled. Violet found solace in the arms of Pete and later, with another therapist, Sheldon Wallace, who works in the same building. But her timing was bad because, when she was sleeping with Pete and Sheldon she got pregnant somewhere along the way and didn’t know, for a long time, which of them was her baby daddy.

Cooper, in the meantime, got very serious with Charlotte King, the chief of staff at the hospital where all the Private Practice folks have admitting privileges. Charlotte eventually joined Cooper’s medical practice then, shortly afterward, she and Cooper broke up.

Naomi and Sam Bennett started the series as a divorced couple and, in early episodes, enjoyed a couple of booty calls together until they decided to put the kibosh on all that. Not insignificantly, it was around this same time when their medical practice’s administrative assistant Dell Parker proclaimed his romantic feelings for Naomi.

As of the most recent episode, Naomi’s being courted by the owner of the new medical practice she’s running while another colleague of hers, Gabriel, spent a lot of time casting moony-eyed glances in her direction. (This was the season after Naomi had a brief relationship with best friend Addison’s brother, mind you.)

Meanwhile, next door neighbors and colleagues Addison and Sam have recently discovered that they have feelings for one another, but Addison won’t allow them to get carnal — no matter how much they’d like to — because Sam’s her best friend’s ex-husband. In the latest Private Practice episode, Addison opted to instead sleep with Pete, who’s still in love with Violet, who can’t deal with him or their baby right now. This was after Addison decided not to plunge into an affair with a pregnant patient’s husband, who worked at the same hospital where Charlotte King’s the chief of staff. Her most recent fling was a brief roll in the hay with McSteamy, libido on loan from Grey’s, while she was treating his pregnant daughter. (Lesson: If you’re pregnant and have a hot husband or father, keep him away from Addison.)

At what point does all this Private Practice partner swapping reach Grey’s proportions and they’ll be in danger of running out of new people to sleep with?

Clacked by Meredith O'Brien
on Feb 12, 2010 @ 17:26 EST5EDT