The speculation surrounding Jessica Simpson and her "is it a food or an actual baby" bump is reaching ridiculous proportions. Take this photo, for example, taken of the star in New York earlier today. Either she's swallowed a beach ball, or that little lady is expecting a mini-Simpson. We could understand if Jess had chosen to keep her pregnancy a secret. Remember when Angelina was refusing to admit that she was expecting twins and then Jack Black blabbed about it during a TV interview? J-Lo's ex Cris Judd was the one who told the press about his ex-wife expecting Marc Anthony's baby, while actress Thandie Newton spilled the news about Mariah Carey and a friend tweeted a pregnant Pink a congratulatory message without realising that the whole world would read it.
In Jessica's Simpson's case, however, things are apparently a bit different. She wants to tell the showbiz world her happy news, but she's reportedly holding out for a huge chunk of cash before she does so. According to Page Six, the star's "people" are asking for a whopping $500,000 in exchange for the official announcement and accompanying interview, but no publication is prepared to stump up the dollars. It is quite a lot of money to ask for when it's so blatantly obvious that she is pregnant.
"Jessica doesn't have anything super-relevant going on right now," 5W publicist Ronn Torossian told the LA Times. "It's a badly kept secret that she's pregnant, and I would be amazed if she got that much money." Baby bumps can be big money – Nicole Richie was rumoured to earn a cool million for the first photos of baby Harlow, while Brad and Ange got a huge $4million for those piccies of baby Shiloh and donated the whole lot to charity.
If we ever have a baby, we might make out friends pay us before we admit it. Not with money, you understand, but ice-cream and gherkin sandwiches.