Pretty Woman's Pregnancy Pains

Motherhood is already taking a toll on one of America's sweethearts. Pregnant with twins, Julia Roberts has been confined to bed for weeks, and is expected to be until her due date.

So with two films coming out in early December — Mike Nichols' "Closer" and "Ocean's Twelve," the Steven Soderbergh-directed sequel to 2001's star-studded heist caper — Roberts is conducting phone interviews while contemplating her pregnancy.

The 37-year-old actress and her husband Danny Moder are expecting twins — a boy and a girl — in early January. Her doctors advised bed rest until her due date.

"I'm enormous," she says. "Let me tell you something, my babies weigh six pounds each. That's 12 pounds of just baby in me right now and I still have miles to go before I sleep with them. They're bionic. It's pretty amazing."

"Closer" is a romantic drama about two couples played by Roberts, Clive Owen, Jude Law and Natalie Portman.

"It becomes about the emotion and not about bad words or hard words to say or raunchiness or shock value or anything else," Roberts said. "It becomes about two people in this house whose lives are kind of falling apart. Then it's like afterward when you're able to have a coherent thought that you go, 'I can't believe that I just said all of those bad words.'"

As to the pregnancy — "I feel great," she said.

Roberts can next be seen spoofing her own persona and her pregnancy in the heist sequel "Ocean's Twelve" opening Dec. 10. Soon after the birth, she will begin filming the comedy "Seven-Year Switch" with "Closer" director Mike Nichols.

Roberts married Moder, a cinematographer, in July 2002 at her home in Taos, N.M. The twins would be the first children for Roberts, who won the best actress Oscar in 2001 for "Erin Brockovich."

"Closer" is set for release in the United States Dec. 3. "Ocean's Twelve," also starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, will be in U.S. theaters Dec. 10.

On being advised to stay in bed by her doctors, Zap2it.com reports Roberts laughed: "I'm using it as an excuse to get out of work."