Nev Schulman is the creator and star of MTV’s Catfish. Schulman and his eight months pregnant fiance, Laura Perlongo, got a lot of attention at the VMAs this weekend. Perlongo’s outfit consisted of an open jacket, pants pulled down under her pregnant stomach, and a body chain. There was surely some double sided tape involved, and it was like her pregnancy was the main accessory because it would have been a rather boring look if she’d worn a t-shirt under the jacket. Following the VMAs, Perlongo gave an interview to attn: magazine in which she said she had no regrets about the outfit, that the response was all positive, and that she wanted to send a message to other pregnant women about body positivity.
ATTN: What do you think about the reaction to your VMA look? Was it mostly positive?
Laura Perlongo: It was overwhelmingly positive and supportive. Kim Kardashian loved it. Other pregnant women and women with children came up to me with praise and congratulations throughout the night. Good vibes all around. I don’t regret the decision at all.ATTN: As a pregnant woman, what kind of challenges do you face when you try to be yourself?
LP: There is so much pressure on women to look a certain way. That ‘way’ is hard to achieve even when you’re not pregnant. Be sexy, but not too sexy. Be confident, but wear something that fits our current standard of acceptable. When it came to choosing an outfit for last night, I wasn’t feeling the pregnancy options that were out there — they made me feel like a big blob or were tight and constricting. That is, they made me feel more self-conscious than just being myself and wearing my skin. And yeah, I wanted to rep my fellow pregnant ladies (s/o to the baby bumps).ATTN: Why is it important for women to stay confident both before and after their pregnancies?
LP: I think a lot of women are afraid of pregnancy because society makes it seem like the end of youthful exuberance and sexual independence. Women are so judged about how they look, so pregnancy can be a scary thing. How will my body change? Will I lose the weight? Will my partner still find me attractive? I believe staying confident and accepting pregnant bodies for what they are is good for mental health, the health of our relationships and the overall health of our babies.ATTN: And at the VMAs, did you have a message that you wanted to send?
LP: I’ve found pregnancy to be such an incredible shared experience — one where you really learn how smart the human body is, it just knows what to do. And in the case of the VMAs, always a very skin-forward event, I thought I’d just be myself and wear something I felt good in. Something that expressed a little optimism. I like my pregnant body and felt hot. I hoped other pregnant women would relate to the feeling.Really it was all about having fun.
I was pleasantly surprised by that interview. She didn’t sound defensive or braggy at all and just spelled out her reasons for wearing an open shirt. I still think publicity was the main reason, but even if that was the case she just used her platform to send a nice message to other pregnant women and to women in general. I can’t fault her for that. Personally I feel more self conscious the less clothing I’m wearing, as I’m assuming most people do, and I can’t relate to what she’s saying about how she felt self conscious in pregnancy clothing. Also, when I was pregnant the easiest thing to wear was a nice loose dress. Still, she handled this well and as goofy as it was she owned that look and isn’t backing down from it.
Schulman gushed about his fiance in that interview too. He said “Over the past eight months I’ve watched my fiancée carry and care for our child and transform into the magical goddess she is now and to me this is the most beautiful she has ever been. I couldn’t be more proud of and inspired by her.” He just called her a “magical goddess.”
Look at these two. The cringe factor is very high. At least she didn’t go barefoot. That would have been overkill.
I think she looked adorable. Nev, on the other hand, is a hot douche.
I know folks who were in theater school with him and they have nothing positive to say. Egocentric, narcissistic drama king with entitlement issues basically.
I know Laura – she sounds a lot like how you described Nev. A total exhibitionist who loves any kind of attention she can get — all of it is contrived. It’s expected when always jacked up on coke.
I’m so glad I don’t know who he is or she is and I think this look is just awful! (And I’m female, if that matters.)
Compared to the rest of the carpet I thought it was almost modest. I dont get the big deal as suit with no shirt has been done before. Pregnancy doesn’t mean you need to become a nun. I thought the jacket could have been a better color, but she looked cute and happy
There’s a difference between being a nun and putting a shirt on before you leave the house.
Hmm why didn’t I think of this two months ago when I was 7 months preggo and suffering through Alabama heat?!
I got lucky with a husband who loved all of the crazy changes my body went through. Though he misses my baby belly (baby was 4 weeks early), there was never any pressure from him that I was going to have to lose the weight quickly or even at all. Whereas my niece’s ‘father’ wanted my sister to drop the baby weight pretty much a week after giving birth.
My first thought was it looked like she got a spray tan too close to the day.
That was really my thoughts on her look too. She can wear whatever she wants but I thought the spray tan made her belly look prostatic and fake.
Oh that’s what it is? A spray tan? I could not understand why her body does not match her face, it’s like it is from another person, because of the difference in colour. Well, in part I can relate. i felt like the happiest, the most beautiful person in the world with the best hair when I was pregnant (it’s amazing the things hormones will do to your self-esteem). BUT I would never wear that. Not a chance. And it looks weird, maybe she should have found her self a different jacket, because it just looks like she forgot to put on a t-shirt or it got stained and she had to cover up with the extra jacket or something.
@SM it’s the off-color makeup on her face as well. Maybe she did her own makeup and didn’t realize it doesn’t mesh with the cameras. I suspect her real complexion is somewhere between these two.
that’s got to be good for the baby, right?!! nice healthy dose of chemicals to leach through her skin and into her bloodstream that feeds the placenta that her child LIVES on ….all for her to “feel hot about her pregnancy”, not at ALL about shock value and media attn like everyone else….whatever, her wannabe famous smug face says it all.
Yeah, her explanation was total hooey. She did it for attention and she succeeded. No one had heard of her before but she got her name out there by dressing like a ninny. Job well done I guess.
Hey minor quibble, but your skin is specificly made to keep things out.
So it spray tan on the skin won’t leach directly to her blood stream and then to the placenta.
That’s really not likely unless spray tan chemicals can change from hydrophilic to phobic and back, then get to the blood stream, which tons of pharmaceutical companies have been trying to do forever with many different drugs. Since they can’t even make spray tan look not-orange I doubt they can manage this scientific feat.
So yeah, probably not a worse choice than exposing yourself to the particulate pollution in New York, LA, Toronto, whatever major city. Probably not even as bad for you as eating Cheetos.
Good lord, Judgey McJudgerson. Since when is being pregnant license for everyone to give input on your body?
By the way, you’re actually suggested to spray tan as an alternative to using a tanning bed. Their entire purpose is that they just stain the skin, not be absorbed into the bloodstream.
Probably, put many women get weird pigment changes on their belly too. I had a huge, very dark brown stripe from my belly button all the way down.
I think nearly everyone gets that stripe. But skin changes generally stop there, save stretch marks.
That’s the linea negra. Most women get it.
I mean it was for attention let’s be real. If the jacket was cuter it would’ve been a slam dunk but I didn’t care that she had no shirt. Rock the pregnancy belly
Right?
Yeah I don’t care that she’s pregnant, it’s just a bad outfit.
LOL, I hated my pregnant body and I felt like a whale. I couldn’t turn from one side to another when lying in bed without making it a five minute operation, clutching for everything I could grab. My husband though loved my pregnant body, but to be honest I love every pregnant body when it is not my load to carry around.
Lol, your description of moving brought back memories of trying to move or get out of bed myself while pregnant. I’m in the same boat, it looks and is beautiful on others. I was the type that’s whole body, including face blew up.
Same!! Well, my first pregnancy was twins, and I BLEW UP, like inSANE, and had crazy stretch marks everywhere LOL So I would never EVER be caught dead with a bare belly, but she looks good!! I’m sure she’s got body make up or a spray tan or something on though, right?! And as far as rolling over in bed, not happening, once I was down, I was down until I had to get up! haha
I am all for body positivity and for pregnant women feeling beautiful and showing skin if she wants.
I am not into famehoing.
This whole display was straight up thirst. An I.V. level attention-dehydration move.
And you can tell he’s so happy it worked.
Mia girl, lemme come sit by you cuz this is The Mummy levels of thirst. And the magical goddess quote is giving me eye muscles a work out. Much cringe. So extra.
I feel like she’s using her bump as an accessory and I am not a fan. Chrissy Teagan, I know, she’s thirsty too, showed off her bump and her beauty without basically appearing naked in public.
Granted, if this were Beyoncé showing off her bump, I’d be onboard but she’s über famous already. She wouldn’t be doing it to get her name out
I’m with you. Should pregnant women be ashamed of their bodies? Of course not. But do I see this as feminism or anything other than attention-seeking, Absolutely Not! It is definitely attention-seeking in a most opportunistic fashion (pardon the pun).
I will get so blasted for this, but I find pregnant bellies creepy. I know I’m a woman, I’ll maybe be pregnant one day, but a bare pregrant belly creeps me out. So her outfit makes me very uncomortable. I’m fully aware that’s my problem, not hers. The thirsty belly kissing pictures, however, are their fault and they should stop doing them.
OMG LOCKE SAME!!! I, too, am creeped out by pregnant bellies, despite being a woman myself. Maybe i’m not at that “life stage” yet, eventhough many of my friends are already getting pregnant and giving birth. I get so uncomfortable looking at pregnant tummies and people caressing and kissing them and whatnot. I’m so glad i found someone else who feels the same!!
Well, I’m waaaaay past that “life stage” and it’s still a bit…..um…weird to me.
I think part of my issue stems from finding a pregnant naked pic of my mom in an old photo album when I was a kid (my dad was an amateur photographer and we had a darkroom in our house) that really..um…surprised me?
And the thirsty belly pictures need to die already.
Kitten, did we just semi-agree on something ?! 😀
Ick. Belly kissing pictures weird me out totally. I don’t mind pregnant bellies but I’d rather not seen naked one. I’m with y’all.
THANK YOU
this is ridiculous def con level fame whoring and why is the rest of the outfit so budget? a members only jacket? really?
agreed. i’m so happy she loves her body and feels amazing! congrats…now go get an ice water and put on a shirt you thirsty weirdo.
those pictures of him kissing her naked pregnant belly on a red carpet are giving me the heaves. she’s not a magical goddess. she is a human woman and her body is actually doing something totally normal and borderline unremarkable.
hear here.
LMAO
Exactly. Pregnant women should feel good about there bodies, but I get so tired of people acting like they are the first people ever to be pregnant. I say this as someone who has given birth. It is what the body was designed to do and women have been doing it since the beginning of time. Of course it should be special to you, but no need to be a thirsty weirdo about it.
I’m tired of Nev. Let’s hand the show over to Max and call it a day, he was always the more interesting one out of the two. Also, i would’ve been freezing my tummy off in that get up at the VMAs. Props to ya mawma but i still think it was kind of thirsty.
they’re too cringey though, i can’t stand people who act like they’re the first one to ever produce an offspring. if i ever get pregnant and my partner decides to pose kissing my belly, i’d run a mile never to come back. ever.
No offense, but I think this looks kind of like you are trying way too hard. I would say that about anyone who wore this, not just some pregnant lady. To me, it is about whether or not you think wearing only a jacket with double stick tape on your boobs is appropriate at any kind of social event. I get it, she feels great being pregnant. I just do not get the whole I am going to double stick a jacket to my exposed chest thing.
Did you see her pregnancy announcement? It made me cringe SO HARD, and embarrassed that my age group is associated with her, that all late 20/early 30 somethings are out doing drugs and not taking responsibility for themselves. It’s disgusting.
http://www.attn.com/stories/7957/nev-schulman-and-laura-perlongo-pregnancy-announcement
Oh i wish I hadn’t read that. She sounds like a right pretentious nob.
Right? I had no opinion before I read that – I sure do now, lol.
That was my reaction too. These two make me cringe. I hope they grow up before the baby arrives!
Good lord… I honestly couldn’t get half-way through that. There is only so much smug, self-reverential, pseudo-literary gobbledygook I can read this early in the morning.
You’re lucky you got that far. I got to “vaginal pocket” and stopped. Figured it would go down hill from there and wanted no part of that mess.
Wow! That was a lot of words to basically defend irresponsibility. Rather than being convinced these two are oh so modern, it’s more like, Thou does protest too much. Get over yourself girl.
Ugh. She is certainly not doing anything to dispel millenial stereotypes with that piece.
I’m actually really glad I clicked on that…. no problem forming an opinion on them now. Wow. Just wow… These two are seriously gross. It’s like the whole pregnancy thing is for fun…
I guess sexual intercourse with birth control is like some super lame thing only “traditional” people do? SHUT UP.
IKR? Like they did this all specifically to be non-conformists with their “we never wanted anything remotely traditional, etc.” Pfffft….you’re having an oops baby. Don’t make it into some kind of planned journey to prove you are of superior intelligence. Because those that do plan it and believe in preparedness, etc. are you know, just blind sheep. Whatever.
Is that real?
I dunno, I’m obviously in the tiny minority, but I didn’t think it was that bad?
“To make a long letter short, Nev and I certainly have no idea what we’re doing, we just know we’re doing something we want to be doing. Hopefully we don’t suck at it or turn into know-it-all zombies. Mainly we’re just really happy and excited.”
Did you miss the part where they continued to do drugs after finding out she was pregnant, or the part where she explains her “kidult” way of living, and blaming it on “being a millennial”?
I can’t believe they were irresponsible in a 7 month long distance relationship. I would bet money they won’t last, they barely know one another.
I 100% missed the part where she continued to do drugs while pregnant.
Unlike spray tans, there is a chance drug use will impact the fetus. Especially heavy use.
Where does she say she continued to do drugs after finding out she was pregnant? I went back and read it again twice, but the only mention of drugs I saw was the part where she says she was high at the time she took the pregnancy test–at which point, obviously, she didn’t know she was pregnant.
Yeah, it’s obnoxious writing, and their relationship is highly unlikely to work out well, but the vitriol being flung at her seems a little over the top.
Somebody is clearly thirsty.
The whole ‘let’s be naked for attention’ thing is old and overdone. Does she look fit, pretty and nubile..yes. Does it work as a ‘look’…nope.
They’re trying too hard to be cool and en vogue.
After Nev supported and cheered on the psycho author who stalked, followed and doxxed a book reviewer, he proved himself to be a hypocrite and moron. A bit of boob, belly kissing and matching jackets isn’t going to change that.
And Kim Kardashian LOVED her look because, of course.
I don’t know anything about her (he seems like a jerk and I hate the idea of his show), but I can’t hate on what she says.
I don’t really love the look, and it may have been for attention, but she looks stylish and comfortable. Kim K should take some hints-she always at least tries to dress stylishly during her pregnancies (with mixed results), but it always looks like she was trying to dress her pre-pregnancy body, not the one she currently had and as a result she may have been Vogue worthy, but she rarely looked comfortable and that must have been exhausting.
Lest we forget, this is the same guy who allegedly assaulted a woman in college:
http://jezebel.com/nev-schulman-is-probably-the-jerk-everyone-says-he-is-1633192580
That’s right! I forgot about that.
But he absolutely punched a girl in the face and was expelled from college.
The only allegedly is his description of what happened vs what the victim and a bunch of people there described.
Good point. Frankly I only added ‘allegedly’ in case leaving it out would get my comment rejected, but you’re right – no one is disputing that he punched her.
And he’s the one who decided to tweet (then delete/replace with an apology) this gem when “Black Girls Rock” was airing on BET (an affiliate of his parent company, Viacom) a FEW MONTHS AGO:
“#BlackGirlsRock I totally agree. They also tend to #catfish a lot. Just sayin.”
Bcuz *that* is absolute truth and needed to be said/heard/seen right then. Yeah. He’s awesome. Much the gentleman. 😒
Whoa – that’s messed up.
What a horrible story. And the fact that he was photographing gay couples for sport makes it even more disgusting.
I didn’t know who he was before reading this post. Definitely will never be a fan.
Uh yeah, it was definitely for attention. Still, her interview didn’t bug me and she’s a beautiful woman.
Why is this nobody being interviewed?
Silly look for the red carpet. She is showing off the fact that she is pretty, thin and pregnant. If she thinks she’s an inspiration to most of the pregnant women out there, I say, riiiiiight. Let’s just call an attention grab an attention grab and be real about it.
Of course Kim loved it.
She was so badly dressed, old clothes, hair not washed and done, skin looked shiny and greasy. Definitely not red or white carpet ready. Disrespectful to the other guests.
Oh come on, no one knew who this woman was until Sunday. She clearly had more on her mind than just being comfortable. I’m all for pregnant belly positivity, but she was so clearly trying to get attention it’s insane.
In all actuality, I’ve never ever heard a pregnant woman claim “comfortableness” whilst not wearing a bra. Boobs swell, they hang, they hurt, they need a bra. She needs to take a seat.
I thought this was a really dumb look. Pregnant or not, it would still look dumb because the jacket and chain suck. It just looks stupid.
“But Kim Kardashian liked it, guys!”
SMH.
So this is thirsty? Showing off her pregnant belly? But Amber Rose giving up on counting her dicks is not? I’m truly lost in this world ….. LOL
More importantly, I’m surprised Nev is into this… Her blog on her pregnancy, ect. Not the vibe I got from him. I always thought he was the complete opposite
No amber rose is thirsty too.
So thirsty and gross.
Ridiculous … Unnecessary … Sorry, just do not get this! Where’s her shirt???
Number 1 reason – self-publicity
Number 2 reason – self-publicity
Number 3 reason – bad fashion
Number 4 reason – self-publicity
Looks like a troll doll without the bushy hair.
Tacky. That’s all I’ve got.
LOL. Tacky.
I’m sorry, I’m very happy for her that she loves her body and feels great during her pregnancy but this was the THIRSTIEST shit EVER. They are desperate for attention.
The fact is no one knows who she is so there is no pressure on her whatsoever to look a certain way. And the attitudes she’s referencing are out of the 50s, or maybe the 80s. Pregnancy and body acceptance has come a loooong way since then. She wanted attention, she got it, plain and simple.
Its funny how the only people preaching ‘body confidence’ are the ones with good bodies.. This isn’t a positive message to pregnant women. Most feel like a sack of s**t most of the time and don’t have stylists to help them out. I call you out as a fame ho love, nothing more. PS can you all stop cradling and kissing stomachs, its really pretentious.
“It was overwhelmingly positive and supportive. Kim Kardashian loved it.”
And this is something to be proud of?
Grow up, and buy a flowy shirt!
I’m grossed out by their behavior and not by what she wore.