Elisabeth Shue is reportedly pregnant -- so what? Maybe I'm overreacting to this news story from AP Entertainment about the actress Elisabeth Shue's reported pregnancy:

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/wire/sns-ap-people-shue,0,5796435.story?coll=sns-ap-entertainment-headlines

Here is what the headline says:

Elisabeth Shue Reportedly Pregnant Again

And here is the first line of the article:

Elisabeth Shue can leave Las Vegas but apparently she can't get out of the nursery.

Now, is it me, or does this opening line make it sound as if the actress is churning out children like a baby factory? But here's the next line:

Shue is pregnant with her third child, US Weekly reported Friday on its Web site, citing her manager, David Seltzer.

OK, and now we skip to the last line of the article:

She and her husband, Davis Guggenheim, have an 8-year-old son, Miles, and a 4-year-old daughter, Stella.

So, what's the big deal? Pardon my ignorance, but is it so unusual for a 42-year-old woman to have three children that were each born four years after the other, all by the same father? Apparently it is unusual in Hollywood, especially when the father of all three children is the woman's husband!

Don't get me wrong; I know why Shue's pregnancy is making headlines. News sources like Us Weekly and AP Entertainment specialize in reporting on such things as celebrity pregnancies. And it does have some relevance to the industry, because the article notes that Shue has dropped out of a Joel Schumacher film project called Number 23 because of her pregnancy. So, I understand why it is a newsworthy item within these sources.

But something about the article's tone is bugging me. The writer (presumably a Hollywood liberal) seems to think it is strange that Shue would live her life this way. Dear Sir or Madam: lots of people live like this in mainstream society (which, I realize, is often viewed with contempt by Hollywood). Of course, I think much of contemporary society places more importance on work than on family, which is a sad thing, because it used to be the other way around. People used to get jobs and build careers in order to support their families; now it seems like people build and plan their families around their careers. That goes trebly for Hollywood, where actresses have a reputation for putting off having children for the sake of their careers. I don't know how many times I have read interviews in which 40-something actresses have said that they were trying to have children before it was too late, and that they regretted not having children sooner. Well, Shue is one actress who did not make that mistake, and I applaud her for not putting her career before her family. (Maybe she doesn't want my praise -- Hollywood stars sometimes act insulted when they are praised by conservatives -- but I applaud her anyway).

I know. Maybe I read too much into these things. I'll calm down now, and let you go back to reading Us Weekly.