Strollerderby : pregnant celebrities

When a Sitcom Actress Gets Pregnant

JeanneSager — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:22:00 GMT

The problem with hit television shows for the actors can be trying to live their lives around their TV schedule. And for actresses, that means trying to make sure their pregnancies don't intervene with shooting.

But CBS's How I Met Your Mother has taken the pregnancies of two of its main actresses (Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders) in stride. They worked around the burgeoning bellies - as most sitcoms do these days - and they played off of them.

In the past, TV shows have taken one of two tacks. They've completely hidden women's growing bellies by shooting from the chest up, making their characters do a lot more sitting or having them tote large handbags or stand behind counters - like Ugly Betty's Ana Ortiz. Or they've written pregnancy into the show - most famously when Lucille Ball was expecting her second child with co-star and husband Desi Arnaz, and suddenly their characters on I Love Lucy, the Ricardos, were expecting too. More recently, Without a Trace's Poppy Montgomery had a similar go as TV mom-to-be and pregnant chick, and the baby's daddy was the same onscreen and off.

The folks on How I Met Your Mother have taken another road entirely. They've made catching sight of the actresses' bellies a sight gag. When Hannigan's character took part in an eating contest, she lept up to show off her overextended tummy - supposedly from all that extra food . . . but not really. Other times, they've had her stand near a globe or rack of basketballs, the round shapes mimicking her real stomach.

The show's executive producer has said they figured they might as well play up the pregnancies for extra laughs, and it's been working.

I do tend to notice more when an actress seems to be spending a lot of time hiding behind baskets of fruit or sitting at a desk, even those whose pregnancies I missed hearing about in the news (or on Famecrawler!). It's a goofy game, but I love trying to catch the director out, see if they miss a second of covering the bump.

Do you notice or do most of your favorite stars do a pretty good job of keeping their pregnancy off camera?

Image: Chicago Tribune

French Vogue: Bringing up Baby on Cigarettes and Prada

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Oh, mon dieu. French Vogue has outdone themselves. The April issue features a faux pregnant Lilly Donaldson wearing six-inch heels and doing things with a doll and a baby bottle that, well, defy summary. You really have to check these photos out yourself.

Call me paranoid, but I think they may be making fun of les americains in this one. All right, you got us, we Americans ARE totally uptight about not letting our fetuses smoke in utero.

In the next one, it seems the model confused the instruction, "Check the temperature of the milk on your wrist," with, "Use the milk to shoot up."

Judging from Jezebel’s take on the spread, I’m more uptight than I thought. Both the writers and commenters seemed united in their appreciation of the, ah, unusual take on motherhood. Tatiana writes, “French Vogue found the tenderness in mothering, but also the humor, the wackiness, the suggestion that it isn't perhaps natural to all women, and the surprise.”

As in, “Surprise! Motherhood turned me into a heroin addict?” I guess I don't like to be quite that surprised.

I agree with Jezebel that it’s nice to see taboos busted, but this spread perpetuates just as many myths about femininity as it knocks down. Donaldson couldn’t look more childish and helpless in many of these photos.

I like the idea that motherhood does not equal self-sacrificing sainthood, but is a pregnant supermodel smoking two cigarettes at the same time necessarily the best way to demonstrate that?

Photos: Jezebel

No twin visits for Jon Voight

Brett Singer — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:30:00 GMT

Usually the birth of a child can bring a family together. But whatever is going on between Jon Voight and Angelina Jolie must be pretty bad. According to E! (that's hard to type – the !) Voight says, "I was just as excited as everybody else" about the birth of the twins. (Maybe, "I'm more excited than everybody else" would have been a better choice of words?) As for actually seeing them in person, "If I'm asked, I'll find a way but I haven't been asked." Here's the REALLY LOUD CELEBRITY NEWS VIDEO FROM E!ONLINE(!!!!!):

It's kind of sad news -- grampa not allowed. But here are some facts about their relationship (in this case, "facts" means stuff I read on the Internet that could be true):

Jolie was raised by her mom, and officially changed her last name from Voight to Jolie in 2002. (I don't remember her ever being known as Angelina Voight, but who knows, maybe I was just busier back then.) She did this about a month the Midnight Cowboy said, on television, that his lovely daughter had "serious emotional problems." Nice! Here's the quote that seems like there's more here than meets the eye: "My father and I don’t speak. I don’t hold any anger toward him. I don’t believe that somebody’s family becomes their blood. Because my son’s adopted, and families are earned." She stated that she did not want to publicize her reasons for her estrangement from her father, but because she had adopted her son, she did not think it was healthy for her to associate with Voight. (Premiere Magazine, via Wikipedia)

Taking that quote at face value, it makes a certain amount of sense. She's adopted, what, about 47 children at this point? She wants them all to feel loved. I would imagine that anyone who adopts a child would say the same thing. (I have no idea if this is true, but it seems like a good thing to feel.) Plus, dad wasn't around for her when she was growing up.

Maybe she's just annoyed at this line from Voight's own Wikipedia page that talks about Angelina and her brother, James Haven: Both children would go on to enter their father's business, James as an actor and assistant director, and Angelina as a major Oscar-winning movie star in her own right.

In her own right? Is that a joke? How often do you hear about what James Haven is up to? I think the last time was when everybody thought he and Angie were a little tooclose, if you know what I mean. Oh, he played an usher in 2003's "Hunter of Man". Didn't see it? Maybe you were sick that day. No disrespect to James, but whoever wrote that needs to get out more.

Anyway, bummer for Jonny V, but based on my potentially inaccurate information, it sounds like Angelina has a right to be pissed off. Brad's parents can play Gramma and Grampa.

image: Heatworld.com

Dad Rod to visit Kid Rod

Xtina and Max Rock the Vote

Brangelina's Twins Have Arrived!

Angelina's Due Date - Got It!!!!

Want to know about the twin Earths? Ask people with twins!

Couple Dump Twins at Hospital for Being the Wrong Sex

Introducing The Twins - Photo!

Brangelina Twins' Photos

20 mil for pics of twins

Brett Singer — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:45:00 GMT

OMG! Magazines might be paying $20 million for pics of twins! Quick! Everyone with twins hurry and get some shots taken!

Oh, wait. Not YOUR twins. The Jolie-Pitt twins. OH. Sorry. Didn't mean to get your hopes up.

The Associated Press (via Yahoo! News) quotes Darryn Lyons of the photo agency Big Pictures in London, as saying that the "official" photos of the most famous pair of rugrats on the planet could fetch between $15 and $20 million.

How does this compare to previous bambino/bambina windfalls? AOL Money says that Jennifer and Marc Lopez (let's face it, she's the one with the career) received $6 million for photos of Max and Emme in March of 2008. They also received sighs of relief from millions when they gave the kids normal names. But Shiloh Nouvel, Brad and what's-her-name's first non-adopted child, snagged $4.1 million in June of 2006. So the $20 million figure is probably not far off.

Quote of the day: The only other photos that "would possibly come that close is Britney Spears giving birth to an alien," [said Lyons.] I'd pay a couple of bucks to see that.

image: jewels-whatevah

Brangelina's Twins Have Arrived!

Angelina's Due Date - Got It!!!!

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's Baby Names!

Screw twin Earth, I'm going to Mars

Want to know about the twin Earths? Ask people with twins!

Lesbian Mama is Pregnant With Twins, and so is Her Partner

Couple Dump Twins at Hospital for Being the Wrong Sex

BREAKING NEWS: Doctor Confirms to AP That Angelina Jolie Twins Are Here

More On the Annoying Hot Pregnant Celebrity Thing From Maxim

Kelly Mills — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:04:00 GMT

When I covered Xtina's nude-knocked-up pics, I totally neglected to dicover that Maxim has a slideshow of the hottest pregnant women. It is, of course, not very interesting choice-wise. Maxim is generally boringly celebrity A-list fawn-y, only Monica Belluci is a good selection, and if you're gonna do it, uh, how can you leave out Gabby Reece? But leaving aside the merits of the Maxim slideshow selection process, I just feel even more annoyed with the pregnant-hot thing. There's the tagline: "When you're Christina Aguilera, you can pull off swollen ankles." Wow guys, thanks for your generosity in still finding your favorite pinups sexy even when they are with child. Oh, or Halle Berry's bit: "Descriptions like 'over 40' and 'with child' aren´t usually things we associate with looking hot, but Halle pulls off both better than anyone we´ve seen." Hmmm, why is this "we'd still do you knocked up" thing feeling just this side of condescending?

Maybe it's also lines like this when talking about Naomi Watts: "Naomi has always been hot, but a little on the scrawny side for our tastes. Once she got pregnant, she carried that baby weight in all the right places (boobs)." Look, as I said before, I'm already irked that now women have an unrealistic, airbrushed standard of pregnant beauty to try and emulate now, and so with this oogling maybe I'm getting het up over what's just a wider objectification net. Like, "Really? You guys would still beat off to these celebrities even though they have a bun in the oven? What sweethearts." It chafes, oh yes it does. This kind of ushering in of the full-bellied red carpet queens to 'sex-symbol' status feels about as comfortable as the maternity up-to-the-boobs underwear.

More Hilarity from Funny Or Die: Mama Jams with Jenna Elfman

Alisyn — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 12:08:00 GMT

You know what? I don't care how weird and annoying Jenna Elfman is in real life - on camera she funny. And she's the latest celebrity to get the Funny or Die treatment in Momma Jams. Anyone who can sink rocks in the hole while delivering lines like "my baby just kicked... your ass!" is cool in my book.

Check out the street ball, bitch!

mamajams

Strollerderby : pregnant celebrities

When a Sitcom Actress Gets Pregnant

School Expels Teen for Birth Control Pill

Playdate: How to Exploit Your Own Kids

Family Evicted for Having Twins

NBA's Eddie House and Son Hoop it Up at Cartoon Network

French Vogue: Bringing up Baby on Cigarettes and Prada

No twin visits for Jon Voight

20 mil for pics of twins

Dad Rod to visit Kid Rod

Xtina and Max Rock the Vote

Brangelina's Twins Have Arrived!

Want to know about the twin Earths? Ask people with twins!

Couple Dump Twins at Hospital for Being the Wrong Sex

Introducing The Twins - Photo!

20 mil for pics of twins

Brangelina's Twins Have Arrived!

Screw twin Earth, I'm going to Mars

Want to know about the twin Earths? Ask people with twins!

Lesbian Mama is Pregnant With Twins, and so is Her Partner

Couple Dump Twins at Hospital for Being the Wrong Sex

BREAKING NEWS: Doctor Confirms to AP That Angelina Jolie Twins Are Here

More On the Annoying Hot Pregnant Celebrity Thing From Maxim

More Hilarity from Funny Or Die: Mama Jams with Jenna Elfman