Lifetime gives birth to 'Pact'

Network picks up 'Pregnancy' telepic

By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

When word spread last year that a group of Massachusetts teens had made a "pregnancy pact," some bloggers remarked that it might make good fodder for a Lifetime TV movie.

Turns out they weren't too far off. Lifetime has picked up the telepic "Pregnancy Pact," inspired by the news that 17 girls at Gloucester High School apparently agreed to get pregnant at the same time -- and succeeded.

Prolific telepic producer Von Zerneck-Sertner Films is behind the project, with principals Frank Von Zerneck and Robert Sertner attached as exec producers. Pam Davis ("House") and Teena Booth ("Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal") are onboard to write.

Von Zerneck-Sertner is a regular movie supplier for Lifetime, one of the last nets to remain heavily involved in the made-for biz. Producers are behind Lifetime's upcoming "The Sorority Wars" and also produced another recent ripped-from-the-headlines entry, "Natalee Holloway," for the cabler.

Other recent collaborations between Lifetime and Von Zerneck-Sertner include "Acceptance," "Flirting With Forty" and "Queen Sized."

This "Pregnancy Pact" isn't expected to be directly about what happened in Massachusetts, where at least one of the girls involved has denied that a pact actually existed. 

What actually caused the baby boom has been fiercely debated -- with some blaming the lack of contraception in schools and others blaming the lack of abstinence education. Pop culture -- such as the feature "Juno" and the pregnancy of celeb teen Jamie Lynn Spears -- has also been targeted.