Yep. We're a culture obsessed with celebrities and their fertilized embryos. (Fotolia)
They’re rich. They’re talented (sometimes) and when they get impregnated we want to know all about it.
Myself included.
I don’t know these Prada-clad celebrities and they don’t know me, but somehow I feverishly click on the link when I see something like “Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer expecting their first baby together” pop up on my Twitter feed.
OK, I’ll admit it. I even just read with interest about Taylor Hanson, now 28, having his fifth baby, and I haven’t even heard MMMBop for 10 years.
So what is this obsession all about? Well, not much of a shocker, but experts say broke people love to gawk at rich people.
“I think the fascination may be some combination of the thrill of following and idealizing the glamorous, uber-wealthy version of motherhood that is depicted in magazines mixed with the target demographic of some of these magazines—women in their 30s—being preoccupied with their own attempts and experiences with pregnancy,” Dara Greenwood, an assistant professor of psychology at New York State’s Vassar College, told Youbeauty.com.
Well, I’m 26 and definitely not preggers but still somehow the developing fetus in that A-lister is something I want to read about.
Baby bumps aside, I was actually sad when I found out Seal and Heidi Klum were calling it quits. I mean, of all the celebrity couples, they were the ones I thought would stay together forever and birth more cute kids.
Greenwood said the fascination with celebrities may be because we feel like we know them having followed them through their careers. Maybe that’s true?
At the office recently we were all looking at photos of Jessica Simpson looking like she’s about to give birth to triplets all the while stomping around in her sky high heels.
I’ve caught myself reading about Simpson’s pregnancy weight gain and checking in on her to see if she’s at a healthy weight, just like a nosy in-law. I guess it’s just so easy and addicting. Just Google Jessica Simpson and pregnancy and shoes are the first two things to pop up.
At the hairdresser, this behaviour goes into overdrive with women flipping through stacks of celebrity magazines while their hair colour sets and chatting about who might have a bun in the oven or who’s lost their post-baby weight.
“Oh, it’s such a guilty pleasure,” my hairdresser told me.
Indeed it is.
