Two of the most successful films of last year borrowed variations of that relatively new Hollywood twist on what had once been the certainty of shame, regret, and ruined lives. Along the way, they reached a larger audience than Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck could have dreamed. Knocked Up, written and directed by Judd Apatow, the guy who brought us The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Juno, directed by Jason Reitman, who gave us Thank You for Smoking, were both gentle comedies about unexpectedly pregnant young women in a world full of inept, childlike men. In both films, the young heroines are faced with the familiar decisions about abortion, adoption, leaving reed baskets on doorsteps, living lives of shame, or changing diapers rather than going to law school. Spunky and resourceful, the women in these films are far more appealing to us than the hapless sperm donors who are initially unwilling to sacrifice their mindless pleasures and adolescent ego pursuits for the life-changing joys of parenting. The popularity of these films may result in part from the fact that, despite the lack of responsibility evidenced by the man in her life, the pregnant young woman isn't going it alone as did the unfortunate heroines of my youth. These modern-day unwed mothers have a village—parents, friends, siblings, neighbors, maybe even a therapist or two—who want to be part of the blessed, and maybe ever-so-slightly- naughty, event.

Knocked Up is centered around a pair of pretty sisters who work at attracting guys and then delight in holding the young men's quivering egos in their unsteady hands, and getting the sense of power that comes from determining whether to drop that sensitive organ. While the guys are preoccupied with inducing the girls to go to bed with them, the young women are so insecure that no matter how much they're admired, they only feel rejection, suspicion, and distrust. Despite how desperately the horny males pursue them, the women never feel attractive enough or pursued with sufficient vigor. Everyone goes home unfulfilled.

Katherine (27 Dresses) Heigl has a job standing around smiling photogenically and emptyheadedly at a local TV station. She lives with her sister, Leslie (George of the Jungle) Mann, her sister's rich and contemptuous husband (Paul Rudd), and their kids. Rudd avoids his perfectionistic wife as much as he can, while the sisters go to bars seeking reassurance that they're "hot." Heigl drinks too much during one escapade and wakes up in bed with Seth Rogen, a scruffy, John Belushi clone with an unwashed body and a hairy butt.

Rogen is a member of a pack of stoned slackers—illegal aliens from Canada—who, although well past puberty, are unwilling to take the next step toward work and adulthood. Their primary vocational passion is creating a website for quickly viewing naked moments in the filmography of movie stars. These guys are still devoting most of their energy to trying to get laid (mostly unsuccessfully), as they ridicule one another for their various repulsive features of body and soul. When Heigl enters their circle, she's repulsed and disapproving, much as Snow White probably felt when she took up with the Seven Dwarfs

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