Do you ever play the pregnancy guessing game while watching your favorite television shows? Being on celebrity baby bump watch is such a trend that there are numerous websites and entertainment channels that are devoted to figuring out which actresses are pregnant at any given moment.
My husband and I were watching a rerun of How I Met Your Mother. With a change in camera angle, we both turned to each other at the same time and said, “Is she pregnant?” about actress Cobie Smulders.
When a popular television actress gets pregnant, the show’s producers have three options: write the pregnancy into the show, such as when Lisa Kudrow from Friends became pregnant, and her character became a surrogate, go on hiatus or delay, such as for one of Sarah Jessica Parker’s pregnancies and her show Sex in the City, or simply attempt to hide the pregnancy.
This latter strategy is what most television shows wind up doing, and depending on the creativity of the show’s producers, viewer can be amazed to learn that the actress was pregnant at all, or they can be amused at the poor attempts to hide the obvious.
There are several strategies that are used to attempt to hide a pregnancy. If your favorite actress suddenly starts wearing baggy clothes, look out. Sometimes this is done very well. Sarah Jessica Parker, again, got away with very stylish designer clothes that were created to hide her beginning baby bump. On the other hand, when Courtney Cox from Friends became pregnant, the baggy clothes were a little more obvious.
Another way to hide a pregnancy on television is to place the actress behind large objects that obscure her belly. The kitchen in the Cosby show was altered to include higher counters, and Phylicia Rashad’s character spent a lot of time cooking.
Carrying large objects in front of their bellies, is another way that actresses attempt to hide a pregnancy. When the character starts carrying something in practically every scene, then she is probably pregnant. The large purses comes, out, the character suddenly feels a need to move a couple of lamps or some boxes, etc. What clued us in to Cobie Smulders was three things. The first was the baggy top, the second was a puffiness around her face, but the third and most obvious sign was the large hand bag she carried even in the middle of her own living room.
Once in a while, the shows get really creative about hiding a pregnancy. In How I Met Your Mother, Lilly (Alyson Hannigan) winds up with a big belly after winning a hot dog eating contest.
Related Articles:
Parents Who Regret Their Baby’s Name
How to Make Your Own Edible Arrangement