I love the way celebrities vacillate between over sharing every excruciating minute detail of their lives, and then insist on privacy. Case in point: Grey’s Anatomy actress Ellen Pompeo, 38, managed to keep her wedding to husband Chris Ivery totally secret – inviting no guests, not even family.

The only people in attendance were New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and First Deputy Mayor Patti Harris. And I can’t really fault Pompeo for that – I wouldn’t want TMZ showing up at my wedding either. And yet when there’s something to gain from it – like the cover of Allure magazine – suddenly Pompeo is okay with divulging all sorts of details a lot of people wouldn’t even tell their close friends.

Conveniently the topic at hand is babies. And I can think of few other subjects that will get you more attention and press than the starting the rumor mill going that you might be expecting. Though Pompeo doesn’t seem to have immediate pregnancy plans, just mentioning any word that starts with “bab” – it could be “babble” or “Babylon” even just “bubble” – will get the tabloids all atwitter at the thought of a possibly expanding womb.

Ellen Pompeo has babies on the brain.

“It’s a huge lifestyle change, and I take that very seriously,” she tells the October issue of Allure.

“We enjoy our life so much,” she adds. “We go to Europe and sleep in. So when I have the baby, I won’t feel like we’ve missed any fun, reckless times together, like staying up all night drinking champagne and having sex until five in the morning and not having to get up until two in the afternoon. But I’ve got to get on it, because the clock is ticking.”

[From Us Weekly]

This means that from now until whatever point in the future Ellen Pompeo reveals she’s pregnant, the tabloids will write nothing about her that doesn’t speculate about her possible fertilization. And that woman is thin as a rail, so she’s going to start showing within half an hour. The flip side is that because she’s so thin, if she ever eats three quarters of a hamburger all the tabloids are going to assume she’s two months along.

I find it to be sort of a paradox that Ellen Pompeo would go to such lengths to keep her wedding private but be so open about baby thoughts. It seems like maybe she’s wanting a bit more press or something, which makes me wonder what’s really going on.

Ellen Pompeo and Chris Ivery are shown at a Calvin Klein party during fashion week on 9/7/08. Credit: MLM/Fame Pictures