Hilary Duff Announces Pregnancy, Gets Dropped From Movie. What Did You Think Would Happen?

Let me begin this post by saying that I am a mother and a feminist. When I announced my pregnancy to my former employer, he told me he was thinking of cutting back my hours. In fairness, the company was going through a major transition and people were being “let go” left, right and center. Still, his timing was impeccable (it made me feel like shit). Anyway, I share this story because I believe that women have a right to reproduce while maintaining their position at work or at least of having that option.

Such is not the case with Hilary Duff, who last week announced her pregnancy to the world. She then announced it to the bigwigs behind The Story Of Bonnie and Clyde remake, scheduled to shoot in the fall, and guess what happened? Duff, who was set to play the role of Bonnie Parker, got dropped from the film. “The split was amicable,” a source tells TMZ. “Hilary won’t be available until next June. If we could wait we would.”

My initial reaction was disgust. I thought, How could this poor woman get canned simply for choosing to have a child and where’s the giant uproar here? Around 90 seconds later, I started to think, Wait a minute. The studio would really only have two choices if they kept Duff on board: halt production of the film, which would no doubt have huge financial repercussions and be a logistical nightmare, or have a pregnant Duff carry on with the role (and, let’s face it, not so sexy having a prego woman out on a bank-robbing spree).

So all day I’ve been having one of those “How can I call myself a feminist when I totally ‘get’ why Duff was dumped” dilemmas. As a colleague so rightly pointed out, this just sets a bad precedent. And I agree. But I still get it. Does this make me two-faced?

(Photo: WENN.com)

Similar Posts