Will & Grace Baby Mystery
Will & Grace is in major denial. Although actress Debra Messing is very pregnant — the baby's due in late spring — her character, Grace, is not. The show's producers initially hid Messing behind pillows and purses. But lately, they haven't tried too hard to conceal her distracting baby bump. At times, cameras shot her full body — belly and all — as if she were still stick-thin. What's up with that?
"Pretending Grace's body hasn't changed is stupid," says Leon Hall of E!'s Fashion Police. "Now, when Karen makes cracks about [Grace's] clothes, it comes off mean-spirited because we know [she's] with child." Reps for NBC and Messing refused to comment on the decision not to explain Grace's weight gain. We're just expected to accept, adds Hall, "that Grace is flat-chested. But suddenly her B-cup runneth over!"
"It's always a tricky situation when a series star gets pregnant midrun, especially when it makes no sense for her character to have a baby," says TV Guide critic Matt Roush. "Grace having a husband as boring as Leo (Harry Connick Jr.) was bad enough. But because Debra Messing's entire physical appearance changed during this pregnancy, it makes it even more awkward."
Indeed, whether she's supposed to be preggers or not, Grace is totally showing. "There's no perfect solution," Roush notes. "Just ignoring the whole situation might be jarring, but I still prefer that to the way Frasier dealt with Jane Leeves' pregnancy a few seasons ago, when they began doing fat jokes about Daphne. I found that incredibly offensive and still haven't entirely gotten over it."
