I'm A Hands-On Mom
Source: In Touch Magazine 1/27/03

By Earl Dittman

Catherine Zeta-Jones is strutting her stuff in Chicago, but the expectant mom is happiest at home with her family

    When Catherine Zeta-Jones was a struggling actress in the '80's, performing in London musicals, she danced to impress during audtions.  Little did she know that one day she'd be doing the same for her future husband, Michael Douglas.  On one of their first dates (a romantic evening at his home), he asked for a demonstration of her tap dancing skills.

    "We were on a date and he said, 'Do something,' " says Catherine.  "I said, 'I can't do it here.  I really beat the floor hard.' "

    Not wanting his newly refinished floors ruined, Michael suggested she dance in the bathroom, which was tiled.

    " 'That's too weird,' I said, 'I'm not tap dancing in your bathroom.  What are you going to do, sit on the toilet and watch me?' "  She relented and tapped away like Ginger Rogers.  "I must have been in love right then," she says.

Love in bloom

   Well she was right.  After meeting at the 1998 Deauville Film Festival in France, the couple quickly began a whirlwind romance.  In fact, the night they met he told her, "I want to father your children."  That wish came true when their son, Dylan, was born in August 2000.  Three months later, the couple was married in a lavish, star-studded celebration at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

    Now, Catherine, 33, who is starring in Chicago, is pregnant with their second child, due in April - and she can't wait to be a mother of two.  "I'm counting the days!" she says.

    She and Michael are devoted, hands-on parents.   They have decided to make Bermuda, where they own a $2.5 million five-bedroom mansion, their home.  Her mother-in-law lives there, so the whole family will be together.

The terrible twos

   Catherine took son Dylan with her to the Chicago set regularly.  One day he even stole the show from his mom.   "I was doing 'All that Jazz,' and he was in the middle of the auditorium dancing away.  Of course, no one was looking at me," she says.  "I could have been doing a Scottish jig!"

    Now that Dylan is almost 3 years old, Catherine has picked up a few motherly trade secrets that she will need when the next child arrives.   For instance, when Dylan starts crying for no reason, she knows just what to do.   "I say, 'And the Oscar goes to...' and he says, 'Dylan Douglas!'" she explains.  "He has no idea what an Oscar is, but it works every time."

    And Catherine's got the perfect answer when he shouts "No!"  "I told Dylan, 'Please don't say 'no' anymore, it's really driving me nuts," she says.  "Why don't you say, 'Not right now, Mama.'  Later that afternoon he said 'No!  No...Not right now, Mama!' "

    She's handling the delicate balancing act of motherhood and career with as much style as you'd expect.  She's earning rave reviews for her role as Velma in Chicago, which has landed her a Golden Globe nomination.   "I'm over the moon," she gushes.

    It's no wonder she shines in Chicago - for more than 10 years, she earned a living in musical theater.  In 1991, she gave it up to pursue a career in film.  "When I hung up my dancing shoes," she says, "I thought I'd never have to kick my legs again."

    Now, she's high-kicking her way to a possible Oscar.  "She's got that X-factor," explains Sir Anthony Hopkins.   "Lauren Bacall had it; Audrey Hepburn, Rita Heyworth.  And Catherine's got it."