While surrogacy, a method of reproduction, remains somewhat rare in the general American population, it is very popular among celebrities in Hollywood. The latest celebrity couple to announce they are expecting via a surrogate is actors Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex and the City fame and her actor husband Matthew Broderick, of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off fame.

The word surrogate means to substitute. Surrogacy is a method of reproduction in which a woman agrees to become pregnant and deliver a child for a contracted party also called intended parents, such as a couple or single individual. In the most traditional form of surrogacy the surrogate mother is also the child’s genetic mother; however in gestational surrogacy, the surrogate mother is simply the host of an implanted embryo and is therefore not related biologically to the child.

There are many reasons intended parents seek a surrogate in order to have children. Common reasons are infertility, underlying medical issues that may make pregnancy or delivery risk and age. Read more about contributing factors to pregnancy risks in magazines like Pregnancy, Fit Pregnancy, Parenting and American Baby.

Besides Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick many celebrity couples have chosen surrogacy in the last few years:

Actor Dennis Quaid (formerly Meg Ryan’s husband), 55, and wife Kimberly, 37, became proud parents of twins Thomas and Zoe, who were born in November 2007. Read more about Dennis Quaid in People magazine.

Joan Lunden (co-host of ABC's Good Morning America morning news show from 1980 to1997; an Entertainment Weekly magazine national viewer poll named her "television's favorite morning anchor") and her husband, businessman Jeff Konigsberg, welcomed twins Kimberly Elise and Jack Andrew via a surrogate in 2005.

Actors Angela Bassett (best known for her portrayal of Tina Turner in the movie What’s Love Got to Do with It) and husband Courtney B. Vance, welcomed twins – daughter Bronwyn Golden and son Slater Josiah in 2006 via surrogate after struggling for seven years to have children.

Actor Katey Sagal (best known for her role on the Fox sitcom Married with Children) and husband Kurt Sutter welcomed their first child together, daughter Esmé Louise Sutter, in January 2007 via surrogate. The couple's new daughter joined older siblings Sarah and Jackson, Sagal's children from a previous marriage.

Also in Hollywood, there are many fictional surrogate situations in recent movie and TV shows. And just like in real life, Hollywood’s fictional characters have a myriad of reasons (infertility to blackmail) for choosing surrogacy.

In the 2008 film Baby Mama (starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler,) a successful single business woman (Fey) hires a woman to carry a child via surrogate because she discovers she has fertility issues. In 2007 the character Christina McKinney in TV’s Ugly Betty acted as a surrogate for character Wilhelmina Slater. Also, in the fourth season of the popular sitcom Friends, which aired in 1997, the character Phoebe Buffay was a gestational surrogate mother for her brother and famously delivered triplets; the storyline was written around actor Lisa Kudrow’s real life pregnancy. Read more about movies and TV shows featuring surrogates in Entertainment Weekly magazine.