LilSugar

Baby Mama Interview: Sigourney Weaver

LilSugar — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:00:13 -0700

Working girl Sigourney Weaver plays Chaffee Bicknell, the head of the surrogacy firm in Baby Mama.

Though Weaver only shares a few scenes with the film’s stars, her presence is felt throughout the film.

To read more about her role and how her experience as an older mom influenced the movie, read more.

Weaver plays a smart, motivated woman who has the enviable ability, unlike her clients, to easily get pregnant. The actress entered motherhood at the age of 40.

While “older moms” are common these days, they were not the norm 18 years ago. Weaver said:

I remember when I was carrying my daughter they referred to me as an elderly prima pare, or something like that, and the word elderly stuck out. And I felt, you know, phew, I had her just in time before I turned into a pumpkin or something. And I actually think the film will help surrogate motherhood get a different exposure. I really do believe what my character says that there is no wrong way to have a family as long as the welfare of the child and the health of everybody is kept in mind.

She also discussed why all women will relate to this movie:

One of the things I admire about the movie is that there are things included in it that are true and really humiliating for women. Like the doctor who says your uterus is upside down or it is shaped like a shoe or your eggs have crossed eyes or whatever awful things they say to you. You are by yourself and you go, ‘Well this isn’t really funny and this is heartbreaking.’ So they really brought in this whole experience and gave us a great chance to laugh about it. I think it really is a great gift to audiences because so many people have been through this.

Weaver also provided insight on the ways parenthood has changed from generation to generation and how satisfying it is to be a working woman:

I think that parenthood in the last 25 years has changed . . . I think in the old days women stayed home and children were left to their own devices to grow up. There wasn’t this intense focus on the child and the development of the child and doing the homework. My parents never really did homework with me, my G-d! So I just think that our focus on children includes my generation as a parent.

I guess the big challenge for a mother is that if you are a working woman there are these separations that you have to deal with. Once a child gets older they are much harder on the mother than they are on the child. But I think that the good thing is that the child grows up knowing that work is something that’s desirable, fun, exciting, stimulating, not just something you have to do. So I think it was interesting to try to go back and forth. I definitely think that motherhood was the most satisfying job that I had. My daughter’s going off to college so I don’t know what I’ll do with myself it will be so quiet and neat at home!

Baby Mama Interview: Michael McCullers

LilSugar — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:00:23 -0700

What's a man know about being a baby mama?

A lot if you're Michael McCullers, the father of three who wrote and directed the must see movie that hits theaters Friday.

Having previously written Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Austin Powers in Goldmember, McCullers met with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler who he worked with at Saturday Night Live to brainstorm ideas for a film they could work on together. When Fey mentioned that she would like to make a modern day version of the Diane Keaton film Baby Boom, the group developed the idea of a surrogate pregnancy and the story was hatched.

To see how a man was able to delve into the minds of expectant mothers, read more.

Since he had two children at home and another on the way, McCullers had plenty of crazy pregnancy stories to write into the script. His initial drafts of the film were fine-tuned by Fey and Poehler to ensure that their characters accurately reflected the personalities of an expectant yuppie mom and her less classy surrogate.

Knowing that people would question the idea of a man writing about pregnancy and babymaking, McCullers addressed the question directly:

Am I the best person to write and direct that idea, being a guy? Although I am not a baby-crazed woman, I do live with a baby-crazed woman, which helped. My wife is one of these women who knew early on that she wanted kids. At that point we already had two kids and during the course of the movie we were actually trying to have a third and ended up having a baby while the movie was shooting. So I did have a pregnant wife at home [and] it helped me relate, though I didn’t see her very much.

I’m in my 30s and I’ve started to know a lot of women who are dealing with infertility. All of the sudden infertility and who can have a baby and who can’t has become a big issue with a lot of people in my life. And although there is a lot of anger and emotion that comes with that, there is, at least with the people I know, a lot of humor and funny stuff that goes with it.

Given the sometimes derogatory definition of the term “baby mama,” McCullers also discussed his decision to use the term for the movie’s title:

I saw that phrase migrating into the greater popular culture. People Magazine and Page Six and everyone sort of uses the term baby mama now. Its almost [gone] from unwed mother of your child to just the mother of a child. You know, they’ll say Tom Cruise’s baby mama or whatever, in US Weekly and it seems to be entering into pop culture. And I liked the way it sounded and looked.

Source

Baby Mama Interview: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler

LilSugar — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:00:35 -0700

Baby Mama takes a comedic approach to fertility.

Tina Fey plays a successful businesswoman yearning to have a child. After learning she has a million in one chance of getting pregnant, she finds a surrogacy center and begins the process of finding a baby mama, played by Amy Poehler.

When asked about the research they conducted into birthing centers and natural birth methods, the actresses discussed the experts they had on set:

Tina Fey: We had some experts on set who were wonderful, like very earthy women who came up to me and were like (in a breathy voice), "Are you thinking about having another child now?" and I was like "No," and she was like "You should consider a water birth" and I’m like, "Didn’t you hear the part where I said no!"
Amy Poehler: The same woman was telling pregnant people in like their 9th month . . .
TF: Because a lot of the other women in the class were very, very pregnant . . .
AP: And she was explaining nice ways to make love and the women were like, "Uh, no."
TF: But by the end of it, I did want to have a water birth.
AP: You don't need to have a baby to have a water birth.

To read the rest of the interview, read more.
They were also asked about the stress that new parents face today and the differences that go into raising a city child:

TF: My daughter starts preschool next year so I just went through the process of taking her to her preschool interviews and you are just hoping "Please don’t poop yourself during that time."
AP: Did she wear a little power suit?
TF: Yeah, she had a little power suit!
AP: And did she have a teeny tiny brief case?
TF: She had little teeny tiny resumes.
AP: Made of candy!
TF: Yeah, she ate it. That you don’t find in the suburbs.
AP: Yeah I like that moment [in the film] where they say Wingspan and Banjo do you want to play with Groovy and Cheyenne?

Given Fey’s decision to give her daughter a traditional name Alice, we asked the women about Hollywood’s penchant for giving their children odd names:

TF: I like interesting names. My daughter’s middle name is sort of unusual, but they are all family names. I think that when you have a kid you have to try to think that when this child is an adult, how is this name going to suit the person. I like the name Apple.
AP: I’m just gonna name my kids numbers. New Dude, Little Dude, and eight George Foremans.

With Knocked Up and Juno having already covered pregnancy over the past year, the women were also asked why Hollywood is giving pregnancy so much attention:

TF: I think it is a universal experience and there may be a generation of comedy writers that are hitting that age where they all have kids and the guys would have written their dating fantasy comedies 15 years ago. People write what they know and it might be a generational thing.
AP: I think that Juno is very different from Knocked Up and our film is very different from that too. They’re all kind of different. Although they all tend to deal with a similar topic that’s really where it ends. But I think that our film is in the same way as Knocked Up it's just kind of straight up . . . with jokes.

Source

Countdown to Baby Mama!

LilSugar — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:00:40 -0700

Baby mama drama makes for great comedy.

As Buzz mentioned, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are co-starring in Baby Mama, a hysterical new movie about motherhood that opens Friday.

An updated, female version of the Odd Couple, the flick revolves around Fey's character - a 37-year-old organic food executive who yearns for a baby - and her unemployed, junk food-eating surrogate that Poehler portrays.

The movie makes the most of the mama-to-be moments from Lamaze classes to baby-proofing and test-driving top-of-the line strollers.

I attended the Baby Mama press junket where Fey, Poehler, Sigourney Weaver and writer and director, Michael McCullers dished about making the film. This week we'll be running all the tidbits, so tune in tomorrow to see what funny women Fey and Poehler had to say. In the meantime to check out the trailer, read more.

Source

New York Mom Hits the Weed to Cope With Work and Wee One

LilSugar — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:00:38 -0700

The word stoner doesn't necessarily conjure up the image of a working woman with a kid, but some mothers find that smoking a bowl allows them to find better balance between career and child. A recent article in Marie Claire included an interview with mama Rachel Murphy, who routinely inhales after she puts her young daughter to bed. In order to secure an insurance policy, the New Yorker had to resort to chugging Ready Clean, which her husband was none to thrilled about. The story said:

The white-knuckle experience became a major source of tension in her marriage, Murphy concedes, so she stopped smoking for a while. But it didn't last. "I'm sorry, but I have a stressful job, I have a baby. I need to unwind somehow, and I don't really like to drink," she grumbles. So, while hanging out with married friends, most of whom are also parents, Murphy will occasionally join in when one pulls out a baggie and starts prepping a bowl. "I got kind of uptight," she says of her weed-free phase. "And my husband was like, 'Actually, I liked you better when you smoked.'"

While some people prefer their children smoke instead of drink and 54 percent of lilsugar readers said parents' bad habits were less offensive when they weren't around their kids - what's your opinion of mommies indulging in marijuana?
Source: Flickr User dana.ocker

Delilicious: Homemade Baby Food Is Back in Vogue

LilSugar — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:00:23 -0700

While past generations of parents had no alternative but to make their own baby foods, the introduction of jarred food changed the way American mamas fed their children. Pre-made food gave parents the flexibility to grab and go, and boasted certain health benefits that made moms and dads feel safe, so it makes sense that it became the mainstream method for feeding tots. But the organic movement and concern over the foods we give our children are changing the pureed food trend.

The Washington Post recently interviewed Nina Planck, whose book, Real Food for Mother and Baby outlines the benefits of introducing babies to table food as soon as they start solid eating. According to Planck:

"What we're seeing now is a well-informed group of people who seek out whole foods for their children. They're not yuppies from red states and blue states. There are lots of working mothers who choose to do this because it's healthful and because it's economical."

The trend is even bringing parents who do not even cook for themselves into the kitchen. Chefs from around the country are offering baby food tutorials, demonstrating the basic process for preparing first purees and chunkier mixtures, as well as providing recipes that don't look like anything found on store shelves. The executive chef of one DC restaurant held a seminar that resulted in recipes for green beans with mint, curry chicken and Mexican beans and rice, while another restaurant chef is preparing to release a book of gourmet baby purees including poached halibut with peas. Not exactly what Gerber serves up.

Would you prefer to introduce your tots to decadent food purees or the simple ones found in basic books?

Source

Jon and Kate Gosselin May Split Up

LilSugar — Wed, 13 May 2009 09:28:50 -0700

Single Kate raising eight? It's a sad day for Gosselin supporters - in the latest issue of People, the normally outspoken mama of multiples got candid and quiet during her exclusive interview on the state of her marriage. Here is what Kate had to say:

On hearing reports about Jon and Deanna Hummel: "I don't know that we're in the same place anymore, that we want the same thing. I've been struggling with the question of 'Who is this person?' for a while. I remember where I was the first time I heard her name. It's one of those things where you can try to make it go away, but there's blaring, red flashing lights."
On the possibility of splitting up: "You can't imagine yourself in a certain position when all this first happens, but you can do it over some months. It's a lot like when I was first pregnant with the babies, and it was pure shock and denial. But over time I imagined six cribs in my house, and six car seats. When your mind is ready to go there, you can accept any number of scenarios."
On hoping to save her marriage: "I will never give up hope that every member of our family can be absolutely happy again."

The fifth season of Jon and Kate Plus 8 premieres on May 25.

Interview With Michelle Duggar: Mother of 18 (Part IV)

LilSugar — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:00:00 -0800

In their spacious abode for their big brood, the Duggars have two kitchens - one for looks, a "pretty" place to make smaller meals and another for the more industrial cooking required when you have so many mouths to feed. Jim Bob and Michelle's book, The Duggars: 20 and Counting! ($11) is filled with recipes for their clan's favorite meals and thirst quenchers - from tater tot casserole to poor man's pizza and snow ice cream to lemonappleade.

There are even some thrifty ones for how to make household products like laundry detergent and inventive baby wipes from paper towels and an old ice cream bin. While chatting with the mama of 18, Michelle told us her thoughts on eating organic, how she stays trim between babies and even let us in on her very basic beauty regimen.

lilsugar: There's a big movement in parts of the United States to eat local and organic, but many of your recipes include canned or processed ingredients - do you not believe in that type of diet or is it an economical decision?

Michelle Duggar: We probably don't eat as healthy as we should. If we were trying to feed our large family, it would be a lot more expensive to do so. Our health and our children's health have been very good. We don't eat organic, but we do make wise choices with our food, we do eat candy and cookies occasionally, but it's not day in and day out. I will admit, I like ice cream so I consider a freezer without it not properly stocked. Overall, we eat a lot of vegetables and fruits and our meals have a lot of whole grains, we use brown rice and make our own bread after grinding our wheat. We have salad just about every meal and on any given occasion, we're going and buying five more bags of apples, but they're not organic (laughs). We also cook with ground turkey and season it so it tastes really rich. But, we also love dill pickles and pretzels as snacks.

To see Michele's way for losing her postpartum pounds and what surprised her most about motherhood, read more.

lilsugar: I read that you stay trim between babies by being a lifetime member of Weight Watchers. Despite the stress that comes with having 18 children, you look incredibly youthful. What's your secret?

Michelle Duggar: I guess that the children keep you young running and keeping up with them. Losing 40 pounds years ago made me so much more energetic and eating high fiber and low fat. I still have a sweet tooth, but I satisfy it with Fiber1 and fudge bars.

lilsugar: Do you have any favorite products? I know you make your own detergent, do you make your own soap or beauty products as well?

Michelle Duggar: We don't make our own soap, but I've used Ivory soap forever. And then Lubriderm lotion. I have dry skin and I've used it from way back when the dermatologist said to use the one without scent. So every night, I put another coat on my face whether I get a shower or not! (laughs) And, I'm really bad, I don't take my makeup off every day. I put the lotion right on top and go on!

lilsugar: You know you're a mother when ______?

Michelle Duggar: You can't go to the bathroom without somebody knocking on the door saying, "Are you in there?"

lilsugar: Why didn't anybody tell me _______ about motherhood?

Michelle Duggar: How little sleep you learn to live on. Actually, the baby slept until six in the morning last night. I put her down at 11 o'clock and I woke up at 4:30 thinking why did she not wake up.

lilsugar: How much sleep do you get?

Michelle Duggar: I'm getting about three hour stretches or four. But sometimes she'll go six hours and I'm amazed, especially with breastfeeding.

lilsugar: What's the best trick your mama taught you?

Michelle Duggar: To be organized. My mom was such an organizer and I'm not. Things are never where they are supposed to be around here. We have a place for them, but everybody is always using them and they don't get back to where they belong.

lilsugar: Helicopter mom or free-range kids?

Michelle Duggar: I feel like I train them and I want them to be responsible and stand on their own, but it takes some time before you can cut them loose!

To read our full interview with Michelle, check out these posts. The Duggars: 17 Kids and Counting airs on Tuesday nights on TLC. For more information on the Duggars, check out their website.

Courtesy of TLC

Lil Links: Salma Hayek Is Helping Save Babies and Raising One

LilSugar — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:00:44 -0800

Alpha Mom interviews Salma Hayek on her work with UNICEF (Part 1) - Alpha Mom
Alpha Mom talks to Salma about raising Valentina (Part 2) - Alpha Mom
Hugh Jackman's got a biker baby! - Celebrity Baby Blog
Maggie Gyllenhaal isn't a leave-them-in-their-cribs-to-cry type of mama - Celebrity Baby Scoop
Do you let your kids watch TV and play video games? - Cookie
Do you have a preconception checklist? - Fit Pregnancy
How Sarah Palin came up with her children's names - Parentdish
Pregnancy old wives' tales examined - Health
Should you tell your children about past drug use? - Momversation
Sex: All my husband wants for Valentine's Day - Cafe Mom

Lil Links: First Granny to Live in the White House With Obamas

LilSugar — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:00:51 -0800

Michelle Obama's mama will move into the White House with them - Celebrity Baby Blog
Why kids are invaluable in the White House - The Poop
Barack Obama thinks he's a pretty cool dad - Celebrity Baby Scoop
Disagreeing with your partner's parenting decisions - Momversation
CARE and Obstetric emergencies - Fit Pregnancy
Oprah may not be a mommy, but she's got signature goodies for babies - Jezebel
DIY: fabric covered knobs - Cookie
Drinking problems and childhood IQ linked - Parent Dish
How to interview a teenaged babysitter - Alpha Mom
Grandmother gives birth to her own grandchildren - DearSugar