From left: Jessica Simpson posing (à la Demi Moore) for Elle magazine, April 2012; a pregnant Mariah Carey on the cover of OK! magazine, April 2011
Michele and Francesco Spiezia, owners of Films by Francesco, a company that shoots social events for the rich and famous, haven’t come across any such X-rated behavior in the births they’ve recorded over the years. Wealthy couples with upwards of six figures in pocket change have enlisted the duo—whose more conventional gigs have included Chelsea Clinton’s wedding—to make a documentary of their entire pregnancy, culminating in the actual delivery. In these cases, uncertain timing comes into play. “You know six months in advance the exact day you’re getting married,” Michele says. “With a birth, it’s so unpredictable. Just like the doctor, you’re on call for a week or two.” An emergency C-section is an extra curve ball that can make filming impossible. “It’s sort of like if a hurricane happens at a wedding—it’s out of our control. It’s part of a contractual thing.”
So how do doctors react to all these fancy deliveries? Laura Schiller, M.D., an ob-gyn on New York’s Upper East Side who counts Gwyneth Paltrow among her patients, has never encountered a cameraman in the hospital room. And when it comes to the more prosaic salon services, she remains rational and firm. “The highest priority is the medical care,” Schiller says. “Everything else is sideline. There’s nothing wrong with it, but do you really need a mani/pedi when you’re in labor? With obstetrics, most of what happens is normal stuff. At the end of the day, you could deliver your baby in Central Park and be fine.”
