If Grace Adler, like the actress who plays her, becomes pregnant on "Will & Grace," she's going to be a single mother. Harry Connick Jr., who plays Grace's husband, isn't going to be around much longer.
"I only have a couple of shows left, and those won't happen until the end of the season, probably," Connick said. And there's no chance he's going to sign on for more episodes.
"I can't," he insisted, pointing to the need to spend time promoting both his new Christmas album and another album scheduled for release on Feb. 14. "No matter how well you're doing, you've got to get out there and promote, because if you don't you won't have the opportunity to perform or sell the records that you'd like to.
" 'Will & Grace' is great, it's just that when I'm there I can't do anything else."
Connick plays Leo, the nice-guy doctor Grace (Debra Messing) married. His long absences have been explained by sending Leo on charity missions to other countries. And his current stint in Cambodia came in handy when Messing was unable to appear in last week's episode due to her pregnancy, so Grace was sent to Southeast Asia to visit her husband.
Messing and her real husband, Daniel Zelman, are expecting their first child in July, approximately three months after she tapes the last episode of "Will & Grace" for this season. And, even if she starts looking pregnant before the production schedule ends in April, they could always dress her in baggy clothes and put her behind counters or whatever.
Will Grace get pregnant? What will happen to Leo? Connick doesn't know.
"If I knew, I would tell you. I have no idea," he said. "Now, with Debra being pregnant in real life, I don't know how they're going to resolve this thing. . . . They're going to have to figure some stuff out."
Connick would prefer, however, that his character doesn't abandon a pregnant wife.
"That would suck," he said.
Connick doesn't want people to think that he's suddenly abandoning "Will & Grace."
"It was supposed to be six shows, and it ended up being about 20. I just had a great time and they seemed to enjoy having me on the show so I did a bunch more. But it has to end somehow. I'm glad I don't have to write it because I don't know how I'd get out of it."
Neither do the writers, apparently.
"I know that they had a bunch of episodes written in advance and they were very proud of the fact that they were ahead of schedule," Connick said. "And then when we found out Debra was pregnant, it was kind of like, 'Oh my (gosh)!'"
Even when he's done with "Will & Grace," he won't be done with TV. He has a Christmas special scheduled to air on NBC on Thanksgiving, and he's talking to the network about starring in his own sitcom.
And, while he doesn't know how Leo will leave Grace behind, there is one thing he'd like to avoid.
"Well, I hope he doesn't die. Everything I do, I always die," he said. "It would be nice to live for once."
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com