But seriously folks... (Updated)

For upated material, go here and be sure to vote in RTK's Most Movie-worthy Jewish Canadian Man poll.
--------------------------

In Tearfree’s non-RTK life, she ponders more serious journalistic concerns. Along with writing about crazy things like Rebecca Eckler controversies, Crocs and Dr. Oetker, she’s also interested in intellectual property, how the Internet’s changing journalism and related esoteric topics like crowd sourcing.

She is therefore proposing to bring her many interests together and use this Rebecca Eckler, Judd Apatow, Knocked Up lawsuit story as an experiment in crowd sourcing.

Eckler has made known several of the reasons why she believes the filmmakers copied her book. All of them strike Tearfree as completely unconvincing and as someone who works in a field where lawsuits over copyright and plagiarism are becoming more common, Tearfree is worried about the chilling effect frivolous legal actions can have. She does not think it's a good thing when wheel reinventing writers like Eckler get lawyers involved because, as the author declared today on CBC radio: "No one had written about it before me."

Tearfree therefore invites her readers to participate in the RTK crowd-sourcing experiment. Participants look for prior examples of all the ideas Eckler believes originated with her. We already have some of this going on with the Martini glass/pacifier illustration, which has been used by at least two other Mummy writers (although it still needs to be established when they initially appeared.)

Participants can use any research methods they choose but will get extra points for sticking with sources that anyone can access via the Internet. We are looking for references to the following topics, made prior to 2004, when the book Knocked Up first appeared. so far, our brilliant readers and commenters have contrinuted the following:

1) Martini glass and pacifier illustrations and logos
See comments and June 7 post above.

2) Ambivalent pregnant women surrounded by best friends and family with screaming kids
Anonymous commenter cites early SATC episode "when the four women go out of town to a former wild girl's baby shower and all the pastel-clad mothers there are repressed wild girls themselves with unbearable screaming children." Admittedly, Carrie et al aren't pregnant but are nevertheless appalled.

3) Women taking multiple pregnancy tests
Kate cites Sliding Doors: "Gwyneth Paltrow, 1998 - her character thinks she might be pregnant and in a later scene announces to her roommate that she took six home pregnancy tests and all were positive."

4) Books, movies, sitcoms whose up-and-coming heroines work in media

A very prolific Anonymous cites:

Films: What Women Want, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Hitched, The Devil Wears Prada
The Hours (Nicole Kidman plays writer Virginia Woolf), My Best Friend’s Wedding (Julia Roberts plays a food critic who writes for a newspaper)

Television Shows: Murphy Brown, 30 Rock, Ugly Betty, Just Shoot Me, Sex in the City

Books: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (character works for a magazine), The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger, Wasted by Marya Hornbacher (Marya works for a newspaper), Emily’s Quest by Lucy Maude Montgomery (Emily works to be a writer)

Another Anonymous suggest this site which tracks the image of the female journalist in popular culture.

Jane Doe cites the book and movie Playing House by Patricia Pearson in which "an underemployed, pot-smoking Canadian guy in New York gets his brand-new girlfriend, an up an coming journalist, pregnant, and they cope ambivalently and uncertainly with getting to know one another as the pregnancy grows."

5) Jokes about sex while pregnant hurting in-utero kid
Anonymous cites Miranda of SATC having sex during pregnancy and the pair joking "Where do you think dimples come from?"

6) Jokes and comments relating pregnancy and trampolines
Nothing so far.

7) Worrying about telling your boss you’re pregnant
Anonymous cites "Miranda wanting to keep her pregnancy secret from her law firm because she predicts a slow demotion once the news comes out." Another Anonymous cites "Novel: Diary of a Mad Mom to Be by Laura Wolf."

8) Buying pregnancy books immediately after getting pregnant
Anonymous cites "Novel: Diary of a Mad Mom to Be by Laura Wolf."

9) Being “grossed out about what you read about the growing fetus”
Anonymous cites "Novel: Diary of a Mad Mom to Be by Laura Wolf."

10) Men’s behaviour at the obstetrician for pregnancy check-up appointments.
Several commenters cite Ross in Friends, The One With the Sonogram at the End
----------------------

The contest is still open and there's lots of good material in the comments.

Please cite references and if possible provide publishing dates.

Although we do not yet have a prize to offer, if this project is successful Universal Studios may very well throw in an all-expenses-paid trip to Hollywood worth the value of legal costs saved thanks to RTK.

For the record, Tearfree does feel a little guilty about launching an experiment that may help out a giant enertainment conglomerate given the industry's own reputation for legal bullying, but life is full of difficult choices so go out and fight the good fight for freedom of ideas and creativity. Maybe we can even get Universal Studios to see the light too.

(Aspiring journalists, please note that your career depends on understanding networked journalism (See point 7 especially.) Feel free to join right in.)