D-List Celebrities: The Only Women Who Get A Career Boost From Their Baby Bump
Most women’s careers take a hit when they decide to have a family. Even if it doesn’t get you dropped from a movie role a la Hilary Duff, maternity leave and changing priorities generally lead to a difficult career transition. Bosses assume that you aren’t going to be dedicated. New projects are given to other employees who won’t be taking a month and a half off in the near future. Co-workers question your motivation and commitment. Even if your personal career ambition doesn’t waver, those around you tend to look at you differently. No matter how hard working mothers try, pregnancy can be a serious drain on your professional life.
Unless, of course, you’re a minor celebrity or reality show personality. These women don’t have actual careers to be interrupted by nine months of pregnancy. And if they do have a career, it’s largely centered around how much people talk about you in the press. Therefore, protruding abdomens provide a whole new world of opportunity for falling stars. Those baby bumps give them something new to talk about and market. It gives them a blog on People or Us Babies. It gets them mentioned on Celeb Baby Laundry. It helps them relate to the public in a new manor.
Ladies like Kendra Wilkinson, Elisabeth Rohm and Tori Spelling have found lots of press coverage from giving birth that they might not have garnered otherwise. In fact, even insanely famous stars gain popularity and press coverage by getting knocked up. Hello Beyonce and her record-breaking Twitter coverage! So it makes sense that celebrities who are desperately trying to stay relevant will play up their pregnancies, give plenty of interviews and smile for the cover of OK Magazine lovingly patting their bumps.
How will those children feel, with their every move being pimped for press coverage? Well, if they’ve inherited anything from their mothers, I’m sure we’ll find out in a Life & Style expose a couple of decades from now.
Listen, I love hearing about pregnancy and motherhood. I think every woman has an interesting story to tell, whether she’s shared her personal relationships on national television or not. I realize why we’re all so interested in the family lives of celebrities, it makes them feel more relatable. But as my wonderful colleague, Mollie Hemingway, has pointed out, celebrity parents are not just like us! Even the minor ones.
I think the discerning factor between celeb moms like Elisabeth Rohm and Soleil Moon Frye is that they’ve used their fame as a platform to launch a discussion about parenting. Frye’s chats on Hersay are fun, informative and further the dialogue on issues facing mothers. Rohm’s blog on People is thoughtful and intelligent. These ladies seem focused on promoting motherhood, it’s just easier for them to do because of their celeb status.
There are other celebs out there who seem to use their pregnancies and their children to garner more attention. They want their families to promote their fame. These are the ladies who we seem to see on the covers of tabloids with nothing to shill but a new bun in the oven. Or the possibility of a new baby. Or the hope that maybe they might kind of want a baby sometime in the next decade.
Of course there’s the third type of celeb mom, like Angelina Jolie, who would probably prefer that no one mention her children in the press but can’t hide them away because of the ever-present paparazzi. Those mothers don’t really get a choice but to share their children with the world. And like we’ve discussed, kids can both strengthen their popularity or cost them movie rolls.
Whichever class we’re talking about, there’s one thing for certain, everyone is talking about celebs and their kids. Suri Cruise is just as popular as her parents. And I have a hard time naming my six nephews, but you had better believe that I know the Jolie-Pitt clan. Celebrity babies are a big business. Can we really fault the D Listers for cashing in?
