Chapter Text
Teaser #1
On a very special LIVE edition of “Who’s Your Baby Daddy?”
Superstar Rose Landry shocked the public last year with the announcement she was having a “friend’s” baby.
[Red Carpet footage. Rose Landry wears a body-con black dress to show off a baby bump. She looks maybe 7 months pregnant]
Interviewer (off-screen): Rose! Rose, you’re glowing! Congratulations, you’ll be an awesome mom!
Rose: oh, thank you so much. It’s not mine, I’m just holding it for a friend.
[News coverage]
Announcer: Rose Landry announced via Instagram yesterday that she’d delivered a healthy baby boy, writing quote “I’m so happy to meet this little one, and even happier to be able to make a dear friend’s parenting dreams come true.” Sources speculate wildly about the identity of the parents [hard cut]
Sports Commentator: It may be off-season for MLH players right now, but there’s news from Centaurs captain Ilya Rozanov and his husband (and teammate) Shane Hollander. A joint press release from hockey’s record-breaking former rivals stated that this past Wednesday, they became dads. Of course we wish the new dads all the best, but I have to wonder, did they plan it for the off-season, or did it just work out that way?
[cut to in-studio footage of Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov on the couch across from Maury]
Shane and Ilya BOTH: We planned it.
Maury Povitch: So guys, I’ll ask the million-dollar question: who’s the daddy?
[Shane and Ilya look at each other]
BOTH (again): We don’t know.
[Maury takes out an envelope]
Maury: Let’s see the results…
Who do YOU think is the baby daddy? Vote now at WHOSYOURBABYDADDY.COM.
Rose Landry Opens up in an EXCLUSIVE interview about Surrogacy Journey on an all-new LIVE Special Edition of “Who’s Your Baby Daddy?” Friday June 10th at 9 PM Eastern, 6 PM Pacific. Go to WHOSYOURBABYDADDY.COM to reserve your ticket now!
[opening title]
[Soothing music]
Rose Landry:
[talking over press and personal photos from during Rose Landry’s pregnancy last year]
When I did the surrogacy, I never said who it was for… if they wanted to talk about it, they would, but I didn’t want to attract media attention if that wasn’t what they wanted.
Despite being in the public eye, they’re very private people.
Maury Povitch:
Well, they’ve agreed to talk to us today. What do you say to that?
Rose Landry: [smiles]
I’m so happy for them.
[Maury Povitch introduces the Special. He stands in his jeans and button-down, professional but relatable. He stands in front of a projector screen showing images of Rose Landry during her much-debated pregnancy.]
Maury Povitch [in studio]:
Last year, Superstar Rose Landry arrived at the Met Gala pairing Yves Saint Laurent with a baby bump. When she revealed she was “just holding it for a friend,” the internet exploded. Opinions, judgments, wild theories and speculation as to who the Oscar-nominated actress was carrying a child for, dominated the pop culture sphere. A couple months later, she announced the birth of a healthy boy, with no more clues as to the identity of the parents.
Tonight, the very people for whom Rose Landry served as a surrogate, will be joining me on this stage.
[applause]
Maury (continued):
But why all the secrecy? I sat down with Rose Landry just this week to find out. Take a look.
[cut to a pre-recorded interview. Maury Povitch and Rose Landry sit in director’s chairs across from each other in a liminal black void. She wears an outfit that shows off her figure, which has seemingly completely bounced back from pregnancy.]
Maury: Well Rose, it’s getting up on a year since that last Met Gala, which, for many people, was the first time anyone knew you were pregnant. What was behind the decision to break the news that way?
Rose Landry: Oh, I hadn’t really thought of it like that at all beforehand. It honestly didn’t occur to me, that first of all, people didn’t know. I mean I’d told friends and family, but I hadn’t really been on the town that much. I’d been back home in Michigan for the holidays, before that I was shooting in Belize. It didn’t cross my mind at all that it would be a big deal. It’s not even like I was the first person to walk the carpet of the Met Gala while pregnant. Or the most glamorous!
[she laughs]
Maury: I guess I can see that. Still, it caused quite a stir!
Rose: Apparently! I’m not on Twitter or anything, but I heard-- I heard that it was, like, a thing. I will say I’m glad that it started a lot of conversations about surrogacy, because there isn’t a ton of information out there, there’s a lot of misconceptions.
Maury: Speaking of conversations, why the secrecy surrounding the parents?
Rose: When I did the surrogacy… [obvious edit] I never said who it was for because it wasn’t for me to tell. I knew that, if they wanted to talk about it, they would. But I didn’t want to attract media attention if that wasn’t what they wanted.
Despite being in the public eye, they’re very private people.
Maury (off-camera): Well, they’ve agreed to talk to us today. What do you say to that?
Rose Landry: [smiles] I’m so happy for them.
[back to Maury in the studio. He sits in a corduroy chair and addresses the camera]
Maury: We’re all happy for them, I’m honored to announce the people raising the child Rose was carrying this time last year, are Major League Hockey’s own Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov!
[cut to wide shot of SHANE and ILYA seated together on a couch next to Maury. They are well-dressed, with Shane in a navy striped sweater vest and Ilya in a fitted, grey, long-sleeved shirt. The audience goes wild, as if they couldn’t see them before the camera cut to them.]
[Ilya leans back against the couch, mugging for the audience and the cameras. Shane sits stiffly, a hand raised in greeting.]
Maury:
First of all, thank you boys for coming out tonight, it’s a big step, letting the people in like this. It’s very brave.
Ilya:
Thank you. We are brave people.
[audience cheers]
Maury:
I’ll ask to start off with, why now? What motivated the decision to share your surrogacy journey with the world?
[Ilya and Shane look at each other.]
Shane:
There’s… two reasons. One we’ll get into a little later I think.
Ilya:
Yes, we are not paid to come here, but we are getting something from this.
Maury:
Yes, your charity, the Irina Foundation.
[the projector screens show a slideshow of marketing materials for the charity]
Maury (narration):
Helping aspiring hockey players hone their skills and funding mental health services and suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth.
[applause]
Maury (in-studio):
Now, we’re running a fundraiser for the Irina Foundation, and people in the live chat have the option to donate 5, 10, or 15$ toward the cause. The goal is $20,000, and I think the viewers at home will get us there before the night is through. In the first five minutes, They’ve already raised over 200$.
[applause]
[Shane purses his lips, looking out into the audience with big wet eyes. Ilya presses his palm against his chest and mouths ‘thank you’.]
Maury:
Of course we’ll get into the very important work you’re doing with the foundation a little later on. But first, tell me Shane, what was the other reason for coming here tonight? You said the foundation, and what was the other one?
Shane (is clearly saying rehearsed lines and cheating to the camera):
Well, Maury. There’s a score to settle, between Ilya and me. We’re both on Elliot’s birth certificate. And genetically, we know one of us is his biological father…
Maury:
I’ll ask the million dollar question: who’s the baby daddy?
Shane and Ilya BOTH:
We don’t know.
Ilya:
We hear you can help with this.
[Maury nods, rubbing his mouth. The audience oooohs and laughs.]
Maury (to the audience):
I think we can help with that.
We’ll be right back with a very special episode of “Who’s Your Baby Daddy?” Right after this!
[The livestream cuts to a title card and the audio for an advertisement plays without accompanying visuals. The chat is full of people asking if others can see the visuals. No one is seeing the visuals. This lasts for exactly 2 minutes and 30 seconds, until audio from the studio resumes, ten seconds before in-studio visuals resume.]
Voice:
We’re back in 5…4…3…2…action!
[slightly delayed theme tune overlaps live audio as the camera focuses back on Maury]
Maury:
—ack with Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozenov. We’re gonna be solving the mystery of which of them fathered Elliot, their nine-month-old son, in just a minute. First, tell me boys, how did we get here? Why don’t you know who your son’s biological father is?
Ilya:
We should begin at the beginning, yes?
Maury:
Sure.
Ilya:
It was Rose Landry’s idea.
Maury:
She said the same thing— let’s take a look.
[Back to the interview with Rose]
Maury: So how did it all come about? Did they come to you, did you go to them..?
Rose: It was my idea. I had recently turned 30, and all my friends were either having babies or raising toddlers, and I felt that clock ticking. But I’ve always known that motherhood was not for me. I’m way too selfish to be a mother, to devote my life to raising kids, it’s never been something I saw for myself. But, especially in Hollywood, a lot of the roles available for women over the age of 25 are ‘somebody’s mom’. And I didn’t want to lock myself out of opportunities to work because I can’t relate to this big part of a character’s identity.
Maury: So you don’t want children,
[Rose nods]
Maury (cont’d): But you want to be able to imagine yourself in the role of someone’s mother.
Rose: Does that sound weird?
Maury: I wouldn’t know, I’m not someone’s mother.
Rose (laughs): A friend of mine asked if I was doing the surrogacy as research for a role. And I laughed but honestly that’s not a bad way to explain it.
Maury: So you approach your former flame? How does that go?
Rose: Really well. We were in Vegas together, all three of us, and I floated the idea after a couple drinks. I know they were [obvious edit] considering adoption, but that’s expensive and also it can fall through at the last second. I mentioned surrogacy [edit]. And they said they'd want to know the person, because they’re private people and they’d need to be sure she’d be discreet.
And I said… what about me?
They didn’t think I was serious, but I was.
[back to the studio]
Maury:
Shane, Ilya, what was your reaction when Rose Landry said that?
Shane:
I didn’t think she was being serious.
Ilya (shakes his head):
No.
Shane (speaking from the heart, he’s far less wooden):
I think I said, point-blank, “you hate kids.” She doesn’t— she just doesn’t want them. But she said something about turning 30 and all her friends having kids, and she didn’t want to feel like… like she was missing out on anything? That’s the thing about Rose, she loves life, and experiences, and doesn’t like leaving any stone unturned. She told me once she doesn’t want to look back at her life and think she missed anything. And this, to her, felt like a pretty big thing to miss out on.
Maury:
And Ilya, what made you say yes to Rose?
Ilya:
Well we talked, me and Shane, and with Rose, and it seemed like… perfect solution. She wanted to be pregnant, to birth a child, not so much to be a mother. We, Shane and I, will not have that experience. No matter how much we try.
[audience laughs]
Maury:
So you want kids, Rose offers to carry one for you, how do the two of you end up on this couch? How do you end up seeking a paternity test?
Shane (with a sly smile):
That was also Rose’s idea.
[cut back to the interview with Rose, which remains paused for half a second before playing.]
Rose: We have a consult at the fertility clinic, me, Shane, Ilya, and Dr Tanvi. She explains the whole process, the options, success and failure rates. We agree on IUI, we set a date. She asks if we have any more questions and I… as a joke, mostly, ask if there was a medical reason not to… take both their samples, mix ‘em together, shoot ‘em up in me and see whose swimmers win the race?
[audience laughter drowns out Maury’s voice, but auto-captions read “they went with that?”]
Rose (laughing): They did! These boys are so competitive, I think they raced to produce the samples, to see who could do it faster.
Maury (laughs): as if that would have any bearing on—?
[Rose shakes her head and shrugs]
Rose: I mean it worked, and on the first try, too. We didn’t do the IUI right away, I had a shoot and we planned it so the potential due date would fall on the off-season for them. But yeah, so now we’ll see. A year later, we’ll finally see who won.
[commercial break]