TV makes it family 'Practice'

USA TODAY - February 6, 2001

By Peter Johnson, USA TODAY

An update on the TV pregnancy front: The Practice's Kelli Williams gave birth on Saturday to her second child, a girl, who arrived three days after she had filmed her final scene for that week's episode. The birth brought sighs of relief from producers of the ABC drama who had created an alternate shooting schedule mixing scenes from future episodes, minus Williams, in case she delivered early. Co-star Camryn Manheim is due to deliver a month from now.

Both pregnancies have been written into the show, and both actresses plan to return to work soon after giving birth.

Meanwhile, at CBS' Judging Amy, producer Barbara Hall has been using judicial robes to camouflage star Amy Brenneman's increasingly noticeable pregnancy. Brenneman is in her third trimester.

"To make Amy's character, Amy Gray, pregnant would've changed the whole tenor of the show," Hall says. "We're telling a story about a woman in the middle part of her life. Introducing a baby would have changed that."

Co-producer Joseph Stern hopes Brenneman can continue to work for another month, have her baby, then return to shoot the final of 22 episodes. "Of course, we realize it's not entirely in our hands."


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