Kate: “Stepping into those shoes, there’s tons of pressure.”

"Stepping into those shoes, there's tons of pressure. This was Brandon's first taste of the movie industry, and he was so sweet." – Kate Bosworth in ELLE, about her Superman Returns co-star, Brandon Routh

This quote contains two errors: an error in subject/verb agreement and a dangling participle.

The subject of the first sentence is "tons." This creates two problems. First, the subject is plural but the verb, the contracted form of "is," is singular. However, the second problem overrides the first because "tons" should not be the subject of this sentence.

As the subject, "tons" is modified by the participial phrase "stepping into those shoes." This does not make sense. Who stepped into those shoes? "Tons of pressure" cannot step into shoes. Brandon stepped into those shoes, so Brandon (or a pronoun representing Brandon) must be the subject of this sentence.

This type of error is called a dangling participle. "Stepping into those shoes" does not clearly and correctly modify anything in the sentence. It simply "dangles" from one end of the sentence, not doing anything productive. To correct this error, restructure the sentence and introduce a subject that the participial phrase can modify. To improve the entire quote, move the proper noun ("Brandon") to the first sentence and use a pronoun in the second sentence.

This is what Kate should have said:

"Stepping into those shoes, Brandon was under tons of pressure. This was his first taste of the movie industry, and he was so sweet."

Denise: “Being pregnant, it would have been much easier”

"Being pregnant, it would have been much easier for me to stay married because of fear of the unknown." – Denise Richards, in People

This quote contains a dangling participle. The participial phrase "being pregnant" functions as an adjective to modify the subject "it." However, "it" cannot be pregnant; only a woman can be pregnant. One way to fix the sentence is to change the subject of the sentence and introduce a transitive verb to take the object "it."

The use of "for me" in this sentence is awkward. Denise should have said this:

"Being pregnant, I would have found it much easier to stay married because of fear of the unknown."