A Star Is Born on hold for Beyonce’s 1st child

Filming on Beyoncé’s new movie A Star Is Born has had to be pushed back after the singer revealed she is expecting her first child.

Clint Eastwood is due to start shooting in February 2012, but insiders on the film told Deadline Hollywood that Warner Bros ‘could push’ the start date on the film.

It is also claimed the delay to the start of shooting will give them longer to find a suitable leading man after Eastwood failed to convince Leonardo DiCaprio to sign on.

Single Ladies hitmaker Beyoncé will take on the role previously held by Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland in the 1976 and 1954 adaptations, and Janet Gaynor in the 1937 original.

She will play up and coming starlet Esther Blodgett, later Vicki Lester, who falls for a has-been rockstar.

Beyoncé proved her acting chops in Oscar-winning musical Dreamgirls in 2006, as well as portraying Etta James in Cadillac Records.

The 29-year-old singer announced at last night’s MTV VMA Awards that she and husband Jay-Z are expecting their first child together.

And today her former Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland came forward to publicly congratulate her friend.

She said, ‘I have known for quite a while, and she’s happy, and Jay is happy, and that’s all that counts.

‘I think she’ll be an incredible mother, because she’s always been motherly. I think that she takes after so many traits from her mother. And I just think it’s going to be so natural for her. Its natural for her now!’

Last night Beyoncé debuted her baby bump in an orange Lanvin gown and told the assembled press: ‘I have a surprise!’

And the singer didn’t let her pregnancy prevent her from bringing the house down with an energetic performance.

She cheered on Jay-Z, who performed new single Otis with Kanye West, before taking to the stage herself.

Arriving onstage in a purple glittery blazer and black trousers by Dolce & Gabbana, the mother-to-be said: ‘I want you to feel the love that’s growing inside of me.’

After a fabulous performance of Love On Top that attracted a standing ovation from the audience, Beyoncé ripped open her jacket and proudly rubbed her baby bump.

The cameras panned to the audience where Jay-Z was beaming, as his friend Kanye jumped up and down, smacking the father-to-be on the back and shaking him.

Beyoncé performed at the Roseland Ballroom in New York on August 14, and covered up her stomach with a sheath of fabric that draped lightly across her protruding bump.

The announcement comes after a stellar summer for the Grammy-winner in which she headlined Glastonbury and released another hit album, 4.

Beyoncé, who has won 16 Grammy awards, said in a recent  interview that she feels she has achieved enough in her career to settle down and make family a priority.

‘When you’re young – 18 or 19 – you have the energy and drive. That’s the time to work as hard as you can,’ she told the September issue of In Style.

‘Now I’m a woman, and because I gave it my all, I can focus on my marriage.

‘I can decide I want to have kids. I can be the mother I want to be and dedicate myself to my children.’

Beyoncé married rapper Jay-Z on September 4, 2008 in New York.

Speaking to Piers Morgan in June, she hinted: ‘I always said I was going to have a baby at 30. I’m 29 now.

‘But I also said I was going to retire at 30. So I don’t know,’ she said, adding: ‘I am not retiring, I tell you.’

Pressed by Morgan she said, ‘Only God knows, only God knows.’

by Lorelle Heath

 

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