Pregnant Celebrities: A recent history
A quick guide to famous public up-knockings
Our brief history begins in 1991, when a 28-year-old Demi Moore appeared naked and pregnant on the cover of the August issue of Vanity Fair. Annie Liebovitz took the infamous photo, editor Tina Brown published it, and modern celebrity gestation was never the same again.Annie Leibovitz/The Associated Press
Five years later, pregnant celebrity exploitation moved on to its postmodern/ironic phase when TV sitcom star Roseanne Barr appeared with husband Ben Thomas in the September issue of Vanity Fair in another photo by Annie Liebovitz.Annie Leibovitz/The Associated Press
The post-irony period began with this photograph of Celine Dion on the March 2001 cover of Redbook magazine. We have been in the post-irony period ever since.Reuters
By 2006, nakedly ripping off Demi Moore and Vanity Fair was common practice for singers and actresses whose pregnancies conveniently coincided with an upcoming release. Or with a career hiatus involving the release of a best-of album, a series of personal embarassments and a marriage breakdown: Britney Spears, six months pregnant, poses for the cover of the August 2006 issue Harper's Bazaar.Reuters
Soon enough, posing pregnant moved from magazine covers to the red carpet. Nicole Richie sticks out her bump at the 2007 Fashion Rocks Concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Sept. 6, 2007.Reuters
Jennifer Lopez, here being stroked by Kate Hudson, displayed her bulge (it was twins) at an event in Los Angeles on Dec. 2, 2007.Chris Polk
Here are the twins on the May 4, 2008, cover of People magazine. The magazine paid a record $5-million for the first public photos of Lopez and her babies.
Soon it was safe for teenagers to get into the act, such as Jamie Lynn Spears, who appeared on an August 2008 cover of OK! magazine with her daughter Maddie Briann. She was 17 at the time.The Associated Press
So, what's left? Film festivals! A very pregnant Angelina Jolie poses at the photo call for the movie "Changeling" at the Cannes film festival on May 20, 2008. The baby, Knox Leon, was born in July.Evan Agostini/The Associated Press
Okay, so now what's left? Royal weddings! Soccer star David Beckham pats his pregnant wife Victoria as they take their seats for the Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey in London on April 29, 2011.Reuters
And then? On Aug. 28, 2011, Beyonce used the red carpet at the MTV Music Awards to announce her pregnancy (with the rapper Jay-Z) . She gave birth to a daughter in January.Reuters
And so we come full circle, 21 years later, to Jessica Simpson recreating Demi Moore's famous Vanity Fair pose on the cover of the April issue of Elle magazine (but with none of the grace). Every generation gets the icon it deserves.