Pregnant or Piling on the Pounds?

March 11, 2008 — -- Accused by the tabloids of "piling on the pounds" and taking up her late father's unhealthy lifestyle, Lisa Marie Presley is pushing back, confirming her third pregnancy and berating the media for prying into her private life.

"After being the target all week of slanderous and degrading stories, horribly manipulated pictures and articles in the media, I have had to show my cards and announce under the gun and under vicious personal attack that I am in fact pregnant," Presley wrote in a blog entry entitled "Confirmation under the gun" March 6.

Presley, who says she's "mortified," wrote, "It is unfortunate that I couldn't have announced something that is this much of a blessing and that has made us so incredibly happy under better circumstances."

But did the media really ruin a typically private moment for 40-year-old Presley, or does the fact that her father is Elvis Presley and her ex-husbands include Michael Jackson and Nicholas Cage make any pregnancy speculation fair game?

Pregnancy and Tabloids

"It's unfortunate how [Presley] was put in a position where she had to come out and confirm her pregnancy," said PR guru Lizzie Grubman. "She had to confirm it. To be name-called is downright mean and to then to be compared with her father. They scrutinized her entire family. You can't blame her for wanting to set the record straight."

Like Presley, Grubman was forced to confirm her pregnancy in 2006 after paparazzi photographed her rapidly gaining weight. Grubman told ABCNEWS.com that she gained 110 pounds during her pregnancy, more than twice the size of her typical 95-pound frame.

"You just never know what can happen to an unborn child -- there's a reason people try to keep pregnancies private," said Grubman. "It's obvious when celebrities are pregnant, so why are we pushing and pushing and prying and prying? There's no reason for it."

"Yes, she's a public figure but guess what -- it's not about her, it's about the unborn child," added Grubman.

While Presley declined to comment to ABCNEWS.com directly, her publicist Cindy Guagenti said that her client was treated unfairly.

"They were saying she was going to die because she was overweight like her dad," said Guagenti, who confirmed Presley is due in the fall. "They took something that should have been a really joyous private situation and made it all ugly."

Presley, in addition to her scathing blog entry, is also planning to sue London newspaper The Daily Mail for libel, said Guagenti, who described the singer as a fairly private person who had yet to decide whether she'd confirm her pregnancy.

Presley has two children with ex-husband Danny Keough. Her current husband is music producer Micheal Lockwood.

Jill Kroog, mother and founder of parenting Web site Mother Matters, told ABCNEWS.com that Presley had every right to be offended by the media's speculation -- just as any other noncelebrity woman would.

"Not only should [Presley] have the right to announce her pregnancy on her own time line, but I think that any woman, famous or not, would be upset by the innuendo," said Kroog, who told ABCNEWS.com that she had a miscarriage between her two sons and was apprehensive to announce her own pregnancy.

"Timing of the announcement is exciting and meant for family and friends. It is sad that her happy news had to come from such negative media attention," said Kroog.

For Celebs, 'Fat' Label Stings

Presley may be angry about confirming her pregnancy, but chances are she was more upset about the embarrassing photograph tagged with headlines calling her fat and bloated.

Wrote the Daily Mail: "Like father like daughter? Bloated Lisa Marie is now the double of dad Elvis."

"Women can be anything these days except for fat," said Debbie Then, a social psychologist who specializes in women and appearances. "Being overweight is social death for women and they want to give another reason for it whenever they can."

Midge Wilson, a professor of psychology and women's studies at DePaul University in Chicago, told ABCNEWS.com that when you're a celebrity, anything is better than being fat.

"Pregnancy is like your get-out-of-jail-free card -- you can be fat," said Wilson, who focuses on women and physical attractiveness. "One of the worst things you can be accused of ... is [being] fat and out of shape."

"It's better to reveal something that might be very personal that you might not be prepared to disclose to the public than be fat," said Wilson.