It's Great Winslet: Pregnant Star Loves Her Bump

PREGNANT Kate Winslet is big and beautiful - and she wants the whole world to see her bump. Some mothers-to-be still hide their tummies in rent-a-tent maternity gear. But Titanic star Kate, 24, is glad to be growing. So she chose a cheeky crop-top for a stroll in Regent's Park yesterday, leaving no- one in any doubt that she is expecting her first child in September.

She complained recently [May 7th] that her tum was not as large as she had hoped, saying: "I know people who got pregnant at the same time and they're huge. I was fully expecting to explode."

Now, at almost six months pregnant, it's clearly a case of bigger is better. "It's nice to now really be able to indulge in being pregnant," she said. "I'm coming into the enjoyable bit where you start to look quite healthy. And the glow thing is starting to happen, which is quite nice. People have always told me I have childbearing hips. Now it's time to put them to good use."

The pregnant look is big with the stars at the moment. All Saints' Melanie Blatt and Spice Girl Mel B were happy to flaunt their bumps before giving birth.

Kate's new shape also suits her husband, film director Jim Threapleton, 26. She joked: "Jim is just completely beside himself. "He said, 'When we have the baby, do you think you could keep your tummy?'. I think it's a sensual thing. I'll never be a stick insect because he won't let me. I told him that after the baby I'll go back to having a lovely flat stomach with a nice waist. But he said: "I don't want that one, I want that one!"

Kate has always been proud of her fuller figure - whatever the critics might say. When she was sniped at after Titanic for putting on weight, she bluntly told her detractors that she would rather be healthy than stick-thin. And she drove the point home by scoffing bangers and mash at her wedding.

That message will please campaigners trying to save young girls from anorexia and bulimia. They believe society's unhealthy obsession with thin-ness, especially that of skeletal, sunken-cheeked "supermodels", is a major reason why teenagers grow to hate themselves and fall prey to eating disorders.

Kate has just finished filming war-time thriller Enigma, her last project before the arrival of her new family. The movie about World War II code-breakers, which also stars Fife-born Dougray Scott, is likely to be released early next year.

Kate had to look slim in most scenes but eight months pregnant in others. So she did the thin work early in the shooting before putting on padding to play the mother-to-be. "They were anticipating me being a lot larger so they decided to pad me out," she explained.

Now her work is over, she plans to spend the next few months "lying flat on my back" until the baby arrives.