New Bold and the Beautiful spoilers reveal that the writers and set designers at the CBS soap will soon face challenges to work around Karla Mosley’s growing baby bump. The actress who plays Maya Avant is reportedly five months along and is already bumping. But since Maya is a trans-woman, she can’t biologically carry a child. When a character can’t be pregnant for whatever reason, but the actress is gestating, that always proves problematic. This can mean months of baggy clothes, large handbags, and furniture placed at strange angles. B&B could do that, but there are some other things they can do, based on TV and movie plots, and real-life science, to actually write Karla’s pregnancy into the storyline.
1. Use The Mad Men Approach
If you watch soaps and AMC programs, you might remember how the 60s-era advertising drama handled January Jones’ unexpected pregnancy. Since Betty Draper (Jones) was split with Don Draper (Jon Hamm) at the time, they decided to write the looks-conscious housewife as fat rather than pregnant and added a fat suit on top of her pregnancy bulk, according to an interview January Jones did with Collider . The hashtag #FatBetty trended, and the character’s weight gain inspired loads of attention on social media. B&B could go that route and script an eating disorder or other health crisis to bulk up Maya then slim her down later.
2. Make It A Dallas Type Dream Sequence
Mental Floss reminds us that primetime soap Dallas wiped out an entire season of tragedy, including the death of Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy), with one shower scene in 1986. The AP dubbed it “the most exciting shower scene since Psycho ” and the gambit by showrunners to magically bring back Bobby was hotly debated among fans (and still is today). Similarly, Bold and the Beautiful could write Maya pregnant, not explain itself, then once Karla Mosley delivers, reveal it was all a dream. Since Maya so desperately wants another child, it’s believable that she might dream up a pregnancy. Yahoo ranked Bobby’s shower twist as one of the worst in TV history.
3. Give Maya A Female Twin
Soaps love secret twin twists. While Maya was born Myron, then transitioned to be Maya, the show could add a previously unknown twin, stolen by a midwife, that Maya’s parents never knew existed. This has been done on most every soap in existence and continues to be a standard trope, alongside resurrection, and improbable plastic surgery to explain new faces. While B&B is not a show that’s gone the evil twin route before, its sister soap Young and the Restless did it with sweet Cassie and scheming Mariah (who’s reformed now) and also Marco and Jack. Maya might have a female twin who turns up pregnant to make trouble!
Will Marco push Jack to the limit? #PeterBergman #YR @CBSDaytime pic.twitter.com/09XrSkbJDw
— Young & The Restless (@YRInsider) August 20, 2015
4. Maya Has A Breakdown, Fakes Pregnancy
A mental breakdown is something that Bold and the Beautiful does well. Maya could crack under the pressure of life (or be triggered in some way) to lose her grip on reality. Since Maya was pushing Nicole Avant (Reign Edwards) to give her a second child as a sibling to Lizzy, it would be an easy thing to conjure. After all, Maya was so jealous of Nicole’s bond with Lizzie that she sent her away as part of Rome Flynn’s exit story as Zende Forrester. Maya could get baby fever, have a breakdown, and start faking a pregnancy by wearing around a pregnancy pillow. Faked pregnancies and nervous breakdowns are all classic soap opera staples.
5. Crazy Science
One final option sounds like soap opera craziness but is firmly based in real science from research at the Cleveland Clinic . The reputable institution is on the forefront of procedures to implant donor uteri into women whose own doesn’t function or were born without a uterus. A doctor from the University of Southern California says men will be able to carry a baby within the next 5-10 years by way of a uterine transplant and a donor embryo. Since Maya lives near USC, the show could feature some trending (and impending) scientific procedure to make Maya pregnant for real and fulfill her lifelong wish to carry a child of her own.
It’s far more likely that Bold will go the route of filming Karla Mosley sitting, behind people, or holding large objects, but you never know. Since it’s a soap opera, anything is possible! Catch up on the latest B&B scoop on the secret May sweeps wedding for Bill and Steffy , plus what’s happening the rest of this week . Be sure to check back often for all the latest Bold and the Beautiful spoilers and news.