Heavens, I congratulate you both on remembering Kate & Allie far better than me 
B’Elanna also had a line about how the hologram was so realistic it even kicked.
I’ve read that story, as well – I believe it happened during the scene on the bridge (where she sings “Till There Was You”).
Trying to figure out whether or not Julia Roberts counts for Ocean’s 12…
If they should be allowed to do this in entertainment, why not in any job?
We already have experience living in a society in which women can get fired for making lifestyle choices like getting pregnant, getting married, or even just dating.
Even now, the unavailability of flexible arrangements and on-site child care hampers many women’s ability to develop their careers. And we all suffer as a result.
Because it amounts to gender-based discrimination.
I think I understand kstarnes’s point, though. An actress’s appearance is usually highly relevant to her carrying out the job for which she’s been hired. I could understand the producers of a show not wanting to go through all the tired old baby-bump-concealment tricks.
There’s a hell of a lot of things that employers might not want to do that we tell them they have to do.
Getting pregnant is not the same type of decision as getting a haircut that changes your appearance too much. It’s a basic life choice that shouldn’t be subject to an employer’s whims.
It’s not a whim if it’s material to the job performance of the employee, and explicitly provided for in an employment contract.
It depends on the situation. The words used were that they “didn’t want to” do it. That’s whim language. It’s different from saying “it can’t be done in any practical sense.”
That also depends on context. What is the nature of the production?
Is it a three-camera sitcom that has the potential to go on for years, essentially covering an actor’s likely child-bearing years? These things have been accommodated frequently in the past. It doesn’t seem to me that “don’t want to” is an adequate response.
Is it an action movie with a role like Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft or Scarlett Johanson as Black Widow? In that case you might have a better argument that accommodation is less reasonable —
… but not necessarily, because feature film productions are frequently delayed for years at a time. It might not be unreasonable to accommodate a year’s delay. It depends on the circumstances. Also the use of better and better CGI might make it more plausible.
On the other hand, is it a live song and dance Broadway show that has no guaranteed run? In that case, accommodation would seem to be a huge burden.
The consideration must be context-dependent. Laying out a blanket rule that any entertainment business can just fire a woman for getting pregnant is a very backwards rule.
The law heavily regulates employment and employment contracts. Just because you wrote it down doesn’t mean you get to do it.
Bree Turner from Grimm was out from action for a few episodes of Season 2 because she had a baby. The in-show explanation for the absence was that she went to care for a sick aunt.
Sometimes, I actually wonder how often the actress isn’t pregnant when the character is visibly so.
Almost always. If they still look like a skinny actress with a salad bowl under their shirt, it’s almost certainly a prosthetic. If people are getting up in arms about whether or not an actress gets in trouble for getting pregnant when her character isn’t scheduled for that, can you imagine how upset people would be if a studio told an actress to get pregnant because her character will be? Yikes almighty.