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[[File:lauren.jpg|link=The Nanny|frame|Bet you can't guess what's behind the plant.]]
Nowadays, when an actress gets pregnant, this event is usually written into the show as the character getting pregnant. However, sometimes the writers decide not to include the pregnancy, perhaps because it can't be written in convincingly, it doesn't fit with the storyline, or perhaps it's just that [[Status Quo Is God]]. In this case, they commonly resort to various (ineffective) tricks to avoid the actress' bump being noticed, such as
* The actress wears lots of loose, baggy clothes.
* The sudden, unprecedented wearing of heavy overcoats etc. which are ''much'' too big for her, with absolutely no
* She carries [[Scenery Censor|lots of bags in front of her belly]]
* She sits down a lot; in the late stages of pregnancy, this often entails some sort of blanket over herself to hide the bump. Such "supine shots" are filmed for prolonged periods, with no direct views of her ''ever'' actively getting up or sitting down.
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* The camera shoots her from far away if they need full body shots.
* She suddenly wears ''black.'' Lots and lots of black... without a funeral (or [[The Matrix|Matrix]]) in sight (for clarification - black helps hide the shadow that the actress' suddenly much larger stomach casts, as well as its shape).
* The excessive use of body-doubles for all revealing body-shots with the face conspicuously
* Worst of all, is the attempt of wearing high heels etc. to make her look more height-weight proportionate; this succeeds only in making her appear even more like "the elephant in the room" by towering over all else around her with her increased size. Even worse, when she walks, she typically becomes a lumbering hulk, lurching and teetering around on the heels like Frankenstein's Monster due to her increased height and decreased balance.
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* Veronica Lake was pregnant at the start of the filming of ''Sullivan's Travels'', but her character wasn't. Fortunately, as she was playing a hobo, she could convincingly wear loose, baggy clothes. The rest of the time, the greatest costume designer in Hollywood was hard at work making her look completely innocuous.
* ''The Swinging Cheerleaders'' a 70s exploitation comedy, averted this. Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith neglected to tell anybody involved with the production that she was five months pregnant. Never mind that her part called for several topless scenes, and that her character was a virgin.
* [[
* Averted in ''[[Fido]]''. Carrie-Anne Moss's real life pregnancy was written into the film, where her character mentions being pregnant, and the husband commenting that he can't afford to pay for another funeral.
* In ''[[Legally Blonde]] 2'', they filmed an introductory scene some time after the main shooting was completed. At that point Reese Witherspoon was obviously pregnant, so the scene consists of women sitting and talking, shot only from the chest up. It's pretty awkward and obvious.
* About midway through the film production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''[[Evita]]'', [[Madonna]] discovered that she was pregnant with her first child. The film directors went to great lengths to cover up the possibility of her "Eva Peron" getting pregnant, even if it meant removing some scenes of her being carried out of the church for fear she might slip.
* Catherine Zeta-Jones during ''[[Chicago]]'', that's why she never shows her stomach.
* Filipino actress Sharon Cuneta was pregnant with her daughter KC Concepcion when she was filming ''[[Bituwing Walang Ningning]]'' (lit. 'Star Without a Sparkle'). It became apparent that Sharon's baby bump was starting to grow, and as such, the film crew had to either film her from the chest up or use various objects such as bookshelves and lampshades in order to conceal Sharon's growing womb.
== Literature ==
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* ''[[Dallas]]''' Victoria Principal was only shown either conspicuously absent, or sitting down with a table conveniently in front of her for much of the season, while she was filmed from the chest up.
* ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' got very creative with this, using everything from giant gingerbread castles to Mrs. McClusky's head to hide Marcia Cross' pregnancy. But when the plot really could not get away with this, they just called in a stunt double. One episode required Bree to climb a ladder, hiding the other actress's face.
** And yet, Bree's first plotline upon Marcia's return was FAKING a pregnancy.
* This is why Zoe, in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' 20th anniversary special "The Five Doctors", specifically a vision of her that's tricking the Doctor, is wearing a layer of bubblewrap over her clothes.
* Near the middle of Season 5 of ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'', Christa Miller suddenly started sitting/lying down a lot while covered up, or wearing baggy and/or black clothing that she never wore previously. Her pregnancy couldn't be written into the script because her character was just starting her romance with Drew. However, she did show up pregnant as a "gag" in Episode 19, "What's Wrong with this Episode III" since the character wasn't ''supposed'' to be pregnant. (Ryan Stiles also showed up pregnant as "Lewis--" except that Christa Miller's wasn't simply a basketball under her shirt, as her widened overall girth showed even from behind).
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* Kelly Rutherford was pregnant during the second season of ''[[Gossip Girl]]''. At first they succeeded pretty well in hiding it, but towards the end they got really sloppy.
* Chyler Leigh's pregnancy in season five of ''[[Grey's Anatomy|Greys Anatomy]]'' was hidden in the classic manner. There was also one episode having her constantly eating because Mark and Derek were fighting. Ellen Pompeo's pregnancy during season six was hidden by having her character donate part of her liver to her father. Jessica Capshaw's pregnancy during season seven will also be hidden, while Sarah Drew and Jessica Capshaw's third pregnancy aren't being written in during season eight.
* Both [[Alyson Hannigan]] and Cobie Smulders were pregnant in the fourth season of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]''. It was much easier for Smulders given how tall she is, but Robin did spend most of her camera time sitting down. For Hannigan, her pregnancy resulted in the typical motions of baggy clothing, Lily suddenly incorporating guitar playing into her teaching style, and a lot of scenes behind things.
** Groundwork for a pregnancy storyline was even put in motion that would have provided an easy way around the whole issue. A perfect plan {{spoiler|that was abandoned entirely, as Lily and Marshall decide later in the same episode to wait to have kids}}, and to top it off, a later episode features Lily in a hot-dog eating competition. The result? A [[Balloon Belly|visibly expanded stomach]]. (This gag was also used on ''[[Titus]]''). The end of the pregnancy and birth was covered by {{spoiler|Barney telling an incredibly dirty joke and Lily refusing to be around him for four weeks}}.
** However, when Alyson got pregnant again in season seven, her character was already pregnant, so no need to hide it.
* Barbara Eden in the first episodes of ''[[I Dream of Jeannie]]''.
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** Averted with her second pregnancy: the [[Moral Guardians]] wanted her to do this, as pregnancy was a taboo subject in media at the time, but she refused, and the episode where Lucy gives birth wound up setting a new Nielson record. Since the word 'pregnant' couldn't be used on TV, the show coined (or at least popularized) the term 'expecting'.
* ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia|Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'' averted this when Kaitlin Olsen became pregnant. It was written into the series with an entire episode devoted to the Gang trying to find out the identity of the father, they never find out but Dee knows and she's not telling. {{spoiler|Turns out she was carrying the baby for a post-op transgender woman}}.
** However; zig-zagged because a couple of episodes had used the classic tricks of shooting her at an angle, putting something in front of her, or only having her visible from the chest up in certain shots. You can especially see this in the swimming pool episode.
* When ''[[JAG]]'' actress [[Catherine Bell]] became pregnant, Mac was appointed as a judge, to allow her to sit behind a big judge desk. (Military judges don't wear robes.)
* ''[[Kate And Allie]]'' put Kate in a hospital bed with a foot injury. A later episode was told largely in flashback, during the time when Kate was pregnant with her daughter Emma.
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* When Gina Bellman of ''[[Leverage]]'' was pregnant, Sophie's stomach was hidden (in the same episode!) by being in a coffin, oh, and HOLDING A BOMB TO HER STOMACH. At the end of the episode, she goes on a journey to "find herself"; the next episode, she's only present in phone calls from the main team, usually shot from the chest up behind a bar or in the back seat of a cab.
* In the second season of ''[[Life]]'', Sarah Shahi's pregnancy was utilized very well to further the story arc: Dani Reese goes off to interview for a job in the FBI, only to be used as a pawn by people in the conspiracy. This allows for the occasional chest-up shot of her while the rest of the cast is solving the mystery of the week.
* Katey Segal became pregnant twice during the run of ''[[Married... with Children|Married With Children]]'', the first time in season 6, Peg actually was pregnant, it stayed for half a season, then it was [[
* When [[Traylor Howard]] got pregnant during the fourth season of ''[[Monk]]'', she was usually filmed chest up in the usual way. However, in one episode her character Natalie is uncomfortable being around an old, obsessive boyfriend (played by [[Sean Astin]]!) and stuffs a pillow under her shirt so he'll think she's pregnant, allowing them to shoot her normally.
* Completely averted with Kari Byron of ''[[
{{quote|'''Kari:''' Protecting for two!}}
* Parodied on ''[[30 Rock|Thirty Rock]]''. In-universe, Avery is trying to hide her pregnancy from her superiors. Cue her carrying around ridiculously oversized objects, and coaxing a friend into "wizard robes" fashionable.
** This may have been lampshade hanging for Tina Fey's own pregnancy which was becoming visible at that time.
* ''[[The Nanny]]'' provides the page image of Lauren Lane, who played C.C Babcock.(Out of character as she's portrayed as being hopeless at attracting men). They even did some [[Lampshade Hanging]] with this one by having her carry a poster with "Baby" on it in front of her, and by making references to the ''[[Seinfeld]]'' example.
** They also hid both of Rachel Chagall's pregnancies. Her character Val was even more hopeless at attracting men, so they were forced to hide them as well. Hers was especially noticeable in the final season because they were trying to hide her (real) pregnancy while she was standing beside Fran Drescher in the middle of a (fake) pregnancy.
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* In ''[[Numb3rs]]'', while [[Diane Farr]] was pregnant, FBI Agent Megan Reeves was mostly limited to desk jobs.
* In the second half of the fourth season of ''[[The Office]]'', [[Angela Martin]] was strictly confined to her workspace behind a chest height wall due to her pregnancy.
* When [[Amy Poehler]] became pregnant for the second time during ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'', the producers decided to just write and film as many episodes as possible before she had to go on maternity leave, rather than taking a hiatus between the second and third seasons. This resulted in increasing amounts of bump-camouflaging ruffled blouses and creative clipboard and desk placement during the first six episodes of season three. Unfortunately, NBC decided to push back the season première to ''January of 2011'', rather than the expected September
* Olivia Colman in Series 4 of ''[[Peep Show]]'' was carefully filmed to avoid revealing that she was pregnant.
** Averted, however, in the second series of ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'', filmed around the same time, in which she appears heavily pregnant throughout. Kind of helps that it's a sketch show, however.
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* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' figured out a...let's say creative way of avoiding this trope with Nana Visitor's pregnancy by turning Major Kira into a sort of surrogate mother for the O'Briens.
* Likewise, Roxanne Dawson (Lt. Torres) of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' . The writers considered writing her pregnancy into the plot, but decided against it, resulting in a long period in which her character was never shown from the chest down ''and'' the big coat trick (except for a two-part episode set in the holodeck where the character was forced by aliens who had taken over the ship into portraying a pregnant woman). Amusingly enough, her character later became pregnant. Also due to her pregnancy there was only one Torres-focused episode in the whole season.
** The large coat actually tipped off the savvy viewer that she was pregnant as the coat was modelled after the style of top worn by pregnant women in the US Army. Thus it was pretty obvious when and for how long she was pregnant.
* [[Cynthia Watros]] was pregnant with twins during the second season if ''[[Titus]]'', so her character Erin ended up breaking her leg and being in a wheelchair for several episodes.
* Roma Downey's pregnancy couldn't be written into ''[[Touched By an Angel]]'' for obvious reasons. They went the standard baggy clothes, chest and up shots and lots of hiding behind plants/chairs/Andrew.
* In ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'', one of Charlie's former-girlfriends is shown as supposedly non-pregnant, despite that she's obviously at 8 months, draped utterly non-convincingly in a shawl which conceals
* ''[[Ugly Betty]]'''s Alexis Meade (played by Rebecca Romijn) was written out for the same reason as the ''[[Coronation Street]]'' example above.
* In ''[[The X-Files]]'', Scully wore a lot of trench-coats and stood behind a lot of desks while Gillian Anderson was pregnant. Then she got abducted by aliens while Gillian Anderson was giving birth (i.e. she was absent from that episode). During this time there were a few shots of her being examined aboard the alien ship, including one where it looked like the aliens were pumping her belly full of air. Scully spent the next episode in a coma; by the next episode she was walking and talking again.
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* Successful example on ''[[The Big Comfy Couch]]''. [[Alyson Court]] was pregnant during her last season as Loonette, but the big clown costume hid it well.
* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' did it with Emilia Fox, but not extremely well in the opinion of some fans.
* Subverted in the famous Brady episode of ''[[Day By Day]]'' where Maureen McCormick played her Marcia Brady character while very obviously in late pregnancy and no one mentioned that anything was different.
* Emily Procter on ''[[CSI: Miami]]''.
* Used on ''[[Due South]]'' in the third season, with the actress who played Frannie Vecchio.
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* [[Within Temptation]] has Sharon. The video for "Sinéad," where Sharon wears a heavy coat and is only shown from the chest up.
* Averted in "Someday" by [[Britney Spears]] which is basically a music video to celebrate her pregnancy.
* [[Pat Benatar]]'s video for "We Belong" tried to hide her pregnancy at the time with a large, drapey jacket.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Real Life Writes the Plot]]
[[Category:Pregnancy Tropes]]
[[Category:
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