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Can Motherhood Make Us Better Athletes?

LilSugar — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:00:42 -0700

Forget Couch to 5K, maybe it should be Delivery Room to Marathon. While many postpartum mamas complain of the toll their pregnancies took on their bodies, doctors claim that the experience may make them more powerful than they were before conceiving a child. Researchers from Michigan State University and John Moores University in Liverpool have found that increases in blood volume and hormones that occur during pregnancy can improve the body's muscle strength, allowing women to excel at athletic activities.

The recent successes of mother-athletes like tennis ace Kim Clijsters, swimmer Dara Torres, distance runner Paula Radcliffe and golfer Catriona Matthew have the researchers looking at the psychological side of birth and athletics. Professor Greg Whyte, from John Moores University, speculates that the birthing process increases women's pain threshold, making female athletes even stronger than before:

"Women re-evaluate where they can anchor pain and many psychologists believe that woman’s pain threshold is effectively reset so that when she resumes or takes up training again, nothing ever seems as uncomfortable."

Did you find yourself stronger after giving birth?

Kim Clijsters Wins One For Working Mothers Everywhere

LilSugar — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:30:17 -0700

Serve one up for all of the mothers out there. The decision to return to work after the birth of a baby can be hard. For professional athletes, the preparation requires more than just emotional strength but physical preparation.

Once ranked the number-one tennis player in the world, Kim Clijsters retired from the sport in May 2007 with the intent to marry her boyfriend and start a family. In February 2008, she gave birth to daughter Jada Ellie before announcing her intention to return to the tennis the following year.

This afternoon, Clijsters topped Li Na to move on to the U.S. Open's semi-final round for the first time since 2005. After Clijsters's recent win over third-ranked Venus Williams, CBS Sports' Mary Jo Fernandez asked the mother, 26, about returning to work with a child in tow.

Check out what the athletic mama had to say:

On how hard it was to return. I've been working really hard the last 7-8 months, and I'm enjoying it. I think that's really something important for myself as well, as long as I can focus on tennis, but on the outside have fun as well. Tennis is a great sport, but I'm just happy that we can have a family and I can balance both.
On how she balances work and family. We have help, so that's great, but it's fun. . . . To your daughter, it doesn't matter if you win or lose, she's just happy to see me and that's great.
On how she prepared to re-enter the game: I have to admit that I only just started watching tennis at the start of this year, because I didn't really have that much time. With the baby running around, I was just happy to sleep when she was sleeping as well.

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Buzz In: Who Should Play Wonder Woman?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:35:05 -0700

Not that a solid plan for a Wonder Woman movie has been set in motion yet (Joss Whedon was allegedly involved and then dropped out of the project, leaving people to wonder who else should direct it -any thoughts?), but people keep buzzing about who would play the strong, lovely superhero if a movie about her ever finally shapes up. Some have mentioned Jessica Biel and Megan Fox, while Moviefone's extensive list of possibilities goes so far as to include Britney Spears and Shannon Elizabeth as options (their list also includes some ladies I think come closer to true possibilities, like Kate Beckinsale).

The latest actress to toss her hat in the ring? Jennifer Love Hewitt, who apparently longs to be in an action film and recently said, "I want them to make the movie of Wonder Woman and I want to play Wonder Woman so bad, I think it'd be really fun."

The DC Comics Amazonian princess was originally created "as a distinctly feminist role model whose mission was to bring the Amazon ideals of love, peace, and sexual equality to 'a world torn by the hatred of men.'" What present-day actress do you think could take on this character?

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Julianne Moore Has Children on Her Mind

LilSugar — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:00:32 -0700

Julianne Moore believes that children are our future and is doing all she can to ensure that they make it. The Academy Award nominated actress serves as a Save the Children artist ambassador and presented the agency's "The Disaster Decade: Lessons Unlearned for the United States" report recently.

According to the text, only seven out of 50 states meet the minimum preparedness standards for protecting children during disasters, which includes effective systems for family reunification and shelters that separate tots from adults to keep them safe from predators. Moore and Save the Children are now lobbying Congress to better prepare for helping children during hurricanes, wildfires, the recession and the like.

The mother of two – Caleb, 11, and Liv, 7 – plans her filming schedules around her offspring and is often seen shuttling them to school. She is an outspoken supporter of the TS Alliance to raise awareness of tuberous sclerosis and has penned two books about life as a redheaded child, Freckleface Strawberry and Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully.

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Sheryl Crow Rocks, Rolls and Is Raising a Lil Humanitarian

babysugar — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:00:18 -0700

For all the fame and fortune that has come her way, mama Sheryl Crow seems to keep a modest head on her very sculpted shoulders. Mother to adorable two-year-old Wyatt, the talented crooner has overcome quite a few obstacles in the public eye while maintaining a genuine smile and staying true to herself. On her biggest parenting task, she said:

I know I have a responsibility... As a mom, the biggest thrill for me, but most humbling role is raising my kid as a humanitarian. I want him to grow up feeling he can do something for people less fortunate.

By attending events like "Stamp Out Violence" and publicly speaking out on breast cancer, the philanthropic rock star is practicing what she preaches. By the time he enters school, lil Wyatt may be singing, "All I wanna do is volunteer."

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Sarah Jessica Parker Shines Brighter Off Screen

LilSugar — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:24:14 -0700

She's a fashion icon for an entire generation of women, and when she's not making headlines for her clothing choices - both on and off the television and movie screens - Sarah Jessica Parker prides herself on her urban family life.

While fans may love her best for playing Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw on both the small and large screens, Parker's role as mom to James Wilkie, 6, is the one that she cherishes. Often seen taking her son to school or palling around New York City with him, she said that she loves "to do everything with him as long as he will have me around . . . brushing his teeth with him is enjoyable right now." So it is no wonder that Parker and husband Matthew Broderick recently announced that they are expecting two new additions to the family - twin daughters - via a surrogate.

Though James Wilkie may sport hand-me-downs from his uncle, we hope the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador's daughters will have the opportunity to rifle through their mama's closet when they are older.

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Brooke Shields: Pretty Baby Has Staying Power as Smart Mama

LilSugar — Tue, 26 May 2009 06:00:08 -0700

Brooke Shields has proved she's more than just a pretty baby, but a talented woman. Thrust into the public eye modeling for Ivory Soap at the age of 11 months, the stunner had a successful modeling and film career before she took to the small screen starring in a number of television shows like Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and the recently canceled, Lipstick Jungle.

Though she sparked controversy with her role as a child prostitute in 1978's Pretty Baby and again a few years later in a Calvin Klein jeans ad, Shields may best be known these days as an outspoken advocate for women suffering from postpartum depression. Following the birth of her daughter Rowan, 6, the actress wrote Down Came the Rain an account of her struggle with the disease, her battle with fertility and her suicidal thoughts. She publicly and passionately disagreed with Tom Cruise about the use of psychiatric drugs for PPD treatment though they eventually called a truce.

The mom of two – Shields also is mom to Grier, 3, – still does a number of advertisements and promotes her books, including the just-released It's the Best Day Ever, Dad! about the bond between fathers and daughters.

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Maya Rudolph Has More Than Just a Baby in the Works

LilSugar — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:00:57 -0700

Actress and comedienne Maya Rudolph is celebrated for her comedic timing on-screen, but it is her dead-on timing offscreen that is generating buzz these days. The former Saturday Night Live cast member - whose impersonations of Condoleezza Rice and Donatella Versace were reasons enough to stay up past most mamas' bedtimes - recently announced that she is expecting baby number two just as she begins promoting her Summer film, Away We Go, in which she plays a mama-to-be.

Already mother to 3-year-old Pearl with longtime boyfriend Paul Thomas Anderson, Rudolph is no stranger to raising children in the public eye. The daughter of soul songstress Minnie Riperton and songwriter Richard Rudolph, Maya grew up in Los Angeles, befriending other celeb spawn like Gwyneth Paltrow during childhood.

Since leaving SNL in 2007, Rudolph has graced the screen in such Hollywood hits as A Prairie Home Companion and Shrek the Third, as well as co-starring in Kath & Kim. In Away We Go, Rudolph stars opposite John Krasinski as a couple traveling around the country in search of the perfect place to plant their roots and raise their impending babe.

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Wonder Woman: Rachel Weisz Wants to End World Hunger

LilSugar — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:00:37 -0700

Oscar winner, fashion muse, hunger advocate and mother, Rachel Weisz, juggles quite a few roles in addition to those that land her on the big screen. The British-born actress is about to embark on a whirlwind media blitz to promote her three new films this Summer, including The Brothers Bloom, which opens this week, and The Lovely Bones. While the tour of television studios will give us a better opportunity to see the beauty on our small screens, it doesn't mean the actress will be converting to the Hollywood lifestyle.

Known for intensely keeping her family-life private, Weisz and her fiancé Darren Aronofsky, director of the Oscar-winning film The Wrestler, welcomed son Henry Chance almost three years ago and quietly live in Manhattan's East Village, far from the glitz and glamour of other Tinseltown stars. Following the filming of her Academy Award-winning role as murdered Kenyan aid worker Tessa Quayle in The Constant Gardener, Weisz joined the UN's World Food Programme to bring global awareness to the hunger and poverty issues facing children around the world, saying:

"Every new mother wonders what will I pass on. Hunger is one inheritance no mother wants to give her child, yet millions of poor mothers have for generations. Help WFP break this cycle. No child inherit hunger."

Weisz recently signed on to play a similarly gritty role in The Whistleblower, the true story of post-war Bosnian peacekeeper who exposes a United Nations cover-up of a sex-trafficking scandal. We look forward to seeing the passion she brings to that project as well.

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Wonder Woman: Amy Poehler

LilSugar — Mon, 04 May 2009 09:00:06 -0700

She's had us rolling on the floor with her dead-on impression of Hillary Clinton during the presidential election and cracked us up as the junk food-eating, karaoke-singing surrogate mother to Tina Fey's baby in last year's Baby Mama. Now, Amy Poehler is back on our boob tubes as a public servant in Parks and Recreation.

The new mama - Poehler and her funny man husband Will Arnett welcomed son Archibald "Archie" William Emerson last Fall - went back to her Saturday Night Live Weekend Update chair just a weeks after giving birth to help have fits of hysterics through the final pre-election weekend. Shortly after, she announced her departure from the show in order to play an idealistic bureaucrat who is opening our eyes to the world of local public service.

When we spoke with Poehler during the Baby Mama press tour, she joked that, "I’m just gonna name my kids numbers. New Dude, Little Dude, and eight George Foremans." It looks like she took a different route, but we are loving her just the same.

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