After an unflattering photo led to tabloid speculation that Lisa Marie Presley was "piling on the pounds" like her late father Elvis had, the singer was "mortified," she wrote on her MySpace page. In fact, her weight gain was actually a baby bump: She is expecting a child with her music producer husband, Michael Lockwood, this fall. (The couple wed in 2006.) "Yes, I am swollen," Presley, 40, tells PEOPLE. "And I am going to gain weight in a city where if you're not a minus size 0, you are fat." Presley says the focus on her figure "sends signals to women that even if you're pregnant, you shouldn't gain weight." So she is fighting back, filing a lawsuit against London's Daily Mail and blogging about her tabloid treatment. Presley, mom to Riley, 18, and Benjamin, 15, admits the controversy "was the last thing I wanted to deal with." But, she adds, "This is about stepping up for right and wrong."

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Hurtful Headlines
NY DAILY NEWS, MARCH 5 On her blog, Presley called the stories "slanderous and degrading."

DAILY MAIL, MARCH 4 The tabloids saw unflattering pictures "as an opportunity to degrade and harass me," says Presley. "And also my father."