Thank you Karen and Silvie for the article! I was near Maple Ridge a couple of summers ago with the hubby. It is v. v. beautiful there but a bit remote...DH loved it and would move there in a second...I don't know if I could live that far out...I'm more of a Metro Gal wannabe and not a nature girl...

Andie, thanks for such an interesting article. It seems to highlight what I like best about Colin - not simply his looks but his aura. character and personality. It's cool how he won over the reporter. As for his height, maybe he came in right after 6-4 Liam Neeson. I can't imagine any other reason related to fact, especially considering he's 2 inches taller than Hugh. Also a big thanks to the Boss and all the other ladies of Drool You have all made my Colin hobby so much fun, and I look forward to even greater things in 2004.

While I don't usually do plain old galleries, this one was an exception... http://www.firth.com/gal/gal_03jk.html

Seeing that "plain old" gallery, reminded me to jump in here and add my thanks to Karen and all the DDs for the CF entertainment shared here. Don't have much to contribute or say, but I'm lurking, enjoying it all so much. Happy 2004!

I don't think things get any better than this... I could be wrong though...will continue to hang out here and make a nuisance of myself to see if anything better does come up! Thanks Karen!!! Those are loverly...I get all warm and squishy just looking at all those!

Remember that strange article in the Chicago Sun Times a couple weeks ago about celebrities and "tongue-kissing Colin Firth?" (http://www.suntimes.com/output/wiser/sho-sunday-paige14.html)? I emailed the writer and asked about it, and she only just replied. From the writer: Yes, I was referring to Colin Farrell... but maybe a victim of some wishful thinking regarding Colin Firth? My Freudian slip is showing. Thanks for writing. Paige My original email question: I'm a little baffled by your latest column talking about celebrity makeovers and "tongue-kissing Colin Firth." As far as I know, Colin Firth does all his tongue-kissing in private. To my constant disappointment, Colin in his movies seems ever the English gentleman, reluctant to even open his mouth in his kissing scenes. The only kisses I've seen him give in public have been of the chaste smack-on-the-cheek variety, or the more European double cheek peck bestowed on Katie Couric recently. Are you mixing him up with the more wanton other Colin - Mr. Farrell, or is there something he's done in Chicago that has not been publicized in the rest of the world?

(Karen) While I don't usually do plain old galleries, this one was an exception... I've always associated that color of purple with chubby little old ladies in stretch pants. Never again! Thanks.

My favorite of the chair ones. The quiet, contemplative mood. (Tress) I don't think things get any better than this... One of my favorites of the tub set, with the knee sticking up and the bottle of wine by the tub. *sigh* Thanks, Karen. Funny note you wrote, Katty. Thanks for writing her. (Katty) or is there something he's done in Chicago that has not been publicized in the rest of the world? Though I couldn't imagine she'd admit it...about anyone really. Nice try, though. ;-) There's an Ivy Restaurant in Chicago, too? Or, I shouldn't assume the whole blurb happened in one place.....;-)

(Karen)While I don't usually do plain old galleries, this one was an exception... I bow to your impeccable judgement and kindness in this matter! So many of these are *jump on his bones* gorgeous. Wanna jump on his lap, wanna jump in that tub......... Ahh my. Love the Color Purple on him:-)

(Dorine) One of my favorites of the tub set... It is oh-so-hard for me to pic a favorite tub time pic (just the thought of him all nekky and wet...though I know he isn't...in a tub...like you said Dorine, he's learned to work "it") All the photos are so good (bathtime, piano and contemplative dreamer in torn up leather chair (and he's barefoot in those...sorry Evelyn!))!!! Like the 'new' purple shirt. I am assuming that it is new due to heavy crease in the sleeve...either that or ODB/Livia are v. v. intense ironers... LOL....Thanks Katty! Your original note and her response are both v. v. funny! Paige seems to be a closet Firth fan! Come out out Paige! The waters lovely! ;-)

Nice pics...he's goin Hollywood!!"Playgirl" next! My favorite of the chair ones. But let's chip in and get him a new chair. Wonder where the location was.

(Mary) I've always associated that color of purple with chubby little old ladies in stretch pants. Never again! LOL! Though that's somewhere between amethyst or violet. Looks v.g. on him and an excellent choice given his first question by Craig Kilborn. ;-) (Paige) Yes, I was referring to Colin Farrell... Another wonderful example of journalistic excellence. Good going, Katty. May not be true, but Colin got some press. (Dorine) There's an Ivy Restaurant in Chicago, too? Not that I know about. (Evelyn) Wonder where the location was. Deptford, but will recheck my emails to see if he was more specific.

That gallery could start me doing the Firth Fandango again! Thanks.

Doesn't it look like he's going to spit out his wine in manner of fountain? :-D I like the crows feet in this one, though easier to see on the huge one at Casa Feliz. (Tress) and he's barefoot in those. Gah!! How did I miss that?! Was blinded and distracted by the sight of a knee. ;-P (Karen) Deptford, Where is that in relation to London....a suburb? Enclave? I also think that's a v. good color on him (Me) My favorite of the chair ones. (Evelyn) But let's chip in and get him a new chair. Is there enough left from the Spring Pledge Drive? ;-) Was in my neighborhood movie theater for a sec today, and inquired if GWAPE was doing well. She gave an enthusiastic "yes!" and said many people have said it was very good, but she hadn't seen it yet.

(Dorine) Gah!! How did I miss that?! Was blinded and distracted by the sight of a knee. ;-P Very easy to get distracted...I didn't notice myself for a while...took some intense study! ;-) I mean, the sight of knees! Crikey! And in one of the pics (please see below) he looks a bit 'splayed'(two knees!!)....kinda sexy (if you're into that sort of thing) ;-D Wish I could get in with him...I need to cool off...jeez....

(Tress)And in one of the pics (please see below) he looks a bit 'splayed'(two knees!!) Yes, I did notice before, but apparently was distracted by the next thing. An eye candy merry-go-round! It's makin' me dizzy! ;-D kinda sexy (if you're into that sort of thing) ;-D And who wouldn't be? At least where he's concerned. ;-)

(Karen) While I don't usually do plain old galleries, this one was an exception... You just make all the exceptions you want...yowza -- need to take a nice, cool walk in the brisk air! I believe there was an earlier reference to "working it"? Love them all, but this one makes me think he needs Rupert to tell him "less is more."

(Evelyn) he's goin Hollywood!! "Playgirl" next! Now, don't tease me with a thought like that! Where's your winkie? ;-)

What a welcome back treat! Thank you Karen for the fantastic Kingman pics. Much as I love the bathtub pics I think the purple sweater does it for me more. I am almost speechless and will have to study these a lot more before I can comment coherently;-) Happy New Year to all the lovely DD's!

Oh my, Karen thanks for that gallery! . . Ahhh just the type of pics I like: Sweet . . . Shy and Unassuming . . . And another "Mushimoko" pic . .believe he�s toasting us! Like the Amythest/Purple/Violet sweater . .it�s always been one of my favorite colors . . and here�s another nice reason for it! ( better than those pics of him in that red tomato color sweater I�ve seen) Katty - Bravo for catching that writer on her Freudian Slip;) . .kind of neat that she wrote back . .perhaps she'll be a newbie here soon . .sounds like she's a fan!

The back cover of today's Times (Saturday) Magazine is a full page ad for GWAPE - the SJ/CF photo but more of it than is usually seen. Very striking image. And tomorrow's Sunday Times will include a free DVD of the trailer for GWAPE.

From today's Telegraph: FIRTH TAKES ON DIAMOND MINING GIANT Oddly, for such an accomplished luvvie, Colin Firth is about to declare war on some of the biggest names in showbusiness. He has just been appointed patron of Survival International, an organisation that campaigns against De Beers' mining practices in Southern Africa. That promises to make him fall out with the likes of Elle Macpherson, Minnie Driver and Jodie Kidd, who have all stepped out in De Beers jewellery recently. In a written attack on the alleged practices, which has been passed to Spy, Firth says: "The Kalahari Bushmen have lived on this land for millennia. Their water supply has been destroyed, and they've been shifted off to relocation camps where the lives they have known are basically over. "These people are not the remnants of a past era who need to be brought up to date; those who are able to continue to live on the land which is rightfully theirs are facing the 21st century with a confidence that many of us in the so-called developed world can only envy." Friend in UK tells me the story appears on p. 26 and has a small pic, which I couldn't find online.

(Tress)All the photos are so good (bathtime, piano and contemplative dreamer in torn up leather chair (and he's barefoot in those...sorry Evelyn!))! No apologies to me, Tress. Wrong Droolie. I like feet. Fact is...my fave is the one on the beach in LA featuring feet (Vogue, I think), and the one coming down the stairs in a tux...barefooted. Some Italina mag. better than those pics of him in that red tomato color sweater I?ve seen) *sigh* (Evelyn) he's goin Hollywood!! "Playgirl" next! (Dorine)Now, don't tease me with a thought like that! Where's your winkie? ;-) LOL. No kidding...and this one... Bottle is blantant phallic symbol. What a centerfold!!!*hee, hee*

Sorry to repost . . .but a lurked has emailed me re: the post Mary Murphy did a little while ago and asked I'd share the info. . . . She said you are able to vote every 15 minutes (so I guess we can tip the scales in Colin's favor if you bookmark the link and drop him a vote every now and then!) I put Murph's link/post below ************************************** Hello Magazine has Colin as one of the finalists for Most Attractive Man of the Year. You can vote here: http://www.hellomagazine.com/vote/grand_finale2003/hombreatractivo.html?pantalla=hombreatractivo

(Evelyn) my fave is the one on the beach in LA featuring feet (Vogue, I think) Ooooo, me too! The black and white one? Bottle is blantant phallic symbol. What a centerfold!! *hee,hee* Ok, now you're just being cruel. ;-D

Au contraire....I like 'em. Photogs do that all the time.

I find the wine photos interesting because you usually only see Colin with white wine. Red must have been a better choice from a photographic sense. ;-) Thanks for the news, Bethan and Evelyn. Do you think Livia wears Diamonique?

(Kimberly) ...you are able to vote every 15 minutes Ah, "Chicago" style voting ;-) Vote early and vote often! Will end up being not the "most attractive" but the one with the most obsessed "fan base". We're pretty obsessed, but not sure I'd put us up against teenage "Bloom"ers.

(Karen)While I don't usually do plain old galleries, this one was an exception... ....and how glad are we that you made that exception! Can't think of a better way to start off 2004 then these.

Admin note: Because the conference boards have finite message capabilities, please do not use them to discuss, cheerlead, or or otherwise promote online polls, voting contests, etc. A single message to notify people is fine, but not to continually monitor their status. Thanks, Your management

(BarbS) Will end up being not the "most attractive" but the one with the most obsessed "fan base". My thoughts exactly. That is why I never vote on things like that. When you can vote only once and no cheating is allowed then it's better. It's more fair that way. But I wish good luck to those who vote. By the way, I'd like to see O. Bloom immerse himself in a bathtub full of bubbles, hold a glass of red wine in his hand and look as blood stirringly gorgeous as the other "most attractive" candidate. No contest IMHO. :-) (Not trying to be mean to Bloomers, or the man himself, but watching him in 'Pirates' makes me feel that he is handsome all right, but I can only picture him with a glass of milk and a rubber duckie. ;-))

(BarbS) but the one with the most obsessed "fan base". (Ildi) My thoughts exactly. Or the most obsessed fan base with the most time on its hands. :-( If anybody's curious, go back about three years on this board to some online voting for the Hollywood Film Awards when BJD was in the running. :-(

Karen - Re: Admin note Sorry Boss, as per the email I sent, thought I was helping out a lurker . .will refrain from doing polls stuff in the future;) (Evelyn)Fact is...my fave is the one on the beach in LA featuring feet (Vogue, I think), and the one coming down the stairs in a tux...barefooted. Some Italina mag. Oooh sounds lovely. .don't think I've seen those .. . must make an online search;)

No need for apologies here; not necessary; not desired. I just wanted to mention this as the rest of the Internet Firthworld appears to be in a voting fervor. Betcha're thinking MCP is back; well, she never left. ;-) Anyone check out USA Today/Weekend for the printed article? I found the Fri-Sun paper, looked through the section labeled "Weekend" and didn't see it. Saw another article that was talking about Rodrigo Santoro and Essie Davis, saw an article in another section about Vermeer and the painting, but no article about Colin. Does this newspaper have a magazine? Grrrr! More wild goose chases.

(Karen)While I don't usually do plain old galleries, this one was an exception... Wow Boss!!! Great gallery! Though I'd hardly call those pic plain. Thanks again! I, too, love the knees. Mmmmm... ;-) (Evelyn)my fave is the one on the beach in LA featuring feet (Vogue, I think) (Dorine)Ooooo, me too! The black and white one? (Kimberly)Oooh sounds lovely Is this one (with thanks to Firthissimo) the one you are alluding to? Too many good pictures out there and not enough time to enjoy them all...

There it is! Nice to have it show up on occasion. Love those toes digging in the sand.

(Karen) Anyone check out USA Today/Weekend for the printed article? I found the Fri-Sun paper, looked through the section labeled "Weekend" and didn't see it. Saw another article that was talking about Rodrigo Santoro and Essie Davis, saw an article in another section about Vermeer and the painting, but no article about Colin. Does this newspaper have a magazine? Grrrr! More wild goose chases. USA Today Weekend is a "Parade"-like Sunday magazine supplement included in some newspapers, including the Sioux City Journal which will be delivered to my home sometime before dawn tomorrow. I will check and see if it's there.

(Dorine) There it is! I'll say. It's got it all...dimples, full teeth, toesies, slim pants, riotous curls and hands. Ought to start a tickle file just to make sure this one shows up every now and then, any reason, or no reason at all!

Shoshana)Is this one (with thanks to Firthissimo) the one you are alluding to "The very one". Thanks S. Send on to Tress who said : I didn't like feet. Grrrrr;-) Now let's find the one coming down the stairs barefooted... Let's put them on #181. Must remember NY Resolution;-D

No, I'm no longer scolding. I'm deleting. Does 181 (Firthology) have cooties or or something? I know I'm writing this in English. This is the NEWS topic.

Here's a link to a state by state list of Sunday papers that carry the USA Today weekend supplement. Karen, looks likes you can get it with the Sun Times. Maria, thanks for the original find! http://www.usaweekend.com/partners/partner_links/index.html There would have been no Beatles without American rock 'n' roll, and there would have been no Hendrix without the [Rolling] Stones," he says. And there would have been no Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow without Keith Richards!;-) Love the tubbie pics, Karen; oh, to be a rubber duckie. But where was he on New Year's Eve when we all needed a date and had to settle for Mr. Mishimoko? (And it *is* Mishimoko with an "i." ;-) intellectual property rights, ya know;-)

Firth drew inspiration for role from work of 17th-century artist By Moira Macdonald Seattle Times movie critic Inspiration can come from the oddest of places. In the case of actor Colin Firth, the key to playing 17th-century artist Johannes Vermeer came from the soft, dusty light in the corner of a long-gone room. The end result, "Girl With a Pearl Earring," co-starring Firth and Scarlett Johansson, opens this Friday at the Seven Gables and the Uptown. As very little is known of Vermeer's actual life, Firth had to find meaning in the paintings. "When you've got a bit of a blank canvas, you just have to impose your own notions on it," said the actor in a telephone interview. "I couldn't make up my mind whether (Vermeer) was a tortured soul or a rather serene fellow." But that corner of the studio, where so many of Vermeer's great works were created, haunted Firth. "I thought, that corner of that room that he keeps painting, maybe there's a restlessness to that, despite the seeming serenity of the paintings themselves. I thought, is he trying to solve something? Is he looking for something there? "That was something that I could bear in mind when I'm in front of the cameras � he is someone who is constantly looking for that serenity that he portrays, and he seems to keep looking for it in the same spot. He's got the whole rest of the town to paint � there's one example of a cityscape, one exterior of houses, a few others. The rest of the time, he paints the same corner of the same room, over and over." In the film, Firth's Vermeer is a quiet man, seemingly overshadowed by his petulant wife and regal mother-in-law, frustrated by the demands of his patron Master van Ruijven (Tom Wilkinson), who seems to want to control the artist like a puppetmaster pulling strings. But in the crisp, blue-gray light of the almost-bare studio, he breathes more freely � like he's in control of this small but perfect domain. Firth, no stranger to period roles (he's perhaps best known for his dashing performance as Mr. Darcy in the BBC miniseries "Pride and Prejudice"), viewed as many Vermeer originals as possible in preparation for the role, though he says it takes "a bit of a world tour" to see them all. Four of them reside handily in London � "the best one the Queen's got, under a bit of strip lighting next to a picture of a horse." (It's clear what he thinks of Her Majesty's curatorial standards.) And he worked to keep the story simple, letting images and actions speak louder than words. "What I brought to it was a feeling of, the less said the better. A lot of the paring down of dialogue was my responsibility. With the full endorsement, I must say, of the writer (Olivia Hetreed, who adapted Tracey Chevalier's novel). She was always looking out for a possibility of economizing." Firth, also recently seen in theaters in the romantic comedy "Love Actually," is currently at work filming another big-screen adaptation. "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," a sequel to the popular 2001 film "Bridget Jones's Diary," will be in theaters in late 2004, with Firth, Hugh Grant and Ren�e Zellweger reprising their roles. Though Firth said he was initially reluctant to make a sequel, he now says he has "high hopes" for the film. "The only sensible attitude to it was to be cautious. People want the same film and they don't want the same film. You have to really hit the right note with this thing. As long as you can take it forward in some way, it's justified." The classically-trained actor, whose dark eyes and stalwart bearing have inspired legions of female fans, is amused by his inadvertent heartthrob status. (Told of a colleague who packed her "Pride and Prejudice" tape for a trip to the labor room, his response was a heartfelt � and horrified � "Oh my God!") In Helen Fielding's book "The Edge of Reason," on which the "Bridget Jones" movie sequel is based, the fictional Bridget conducts an interview with the non-fictional Colin Firth. Unfortunately she keeps getting muddled because she's obsessed with the "Pride and Prejudice" scene, beloved by many, in which Mr. Darcy jumps into a lake and his shirt gets wet and clingy. "I did that interview with Helen Fielding," Firth remembered. "She didn't make it up, we actually did it. It's fun to be written into a piece of fiction. I guess that sort of thing is more common because popular culture draws on itself increasingly for its sources." Mindful of the power of surprise, Firth politely declined to discuss how that particular scene would be handled in the film. Nor would he comment on whether the notorious reindeer sweater, worn by the hapless Mark Darcy in "Bridget Jones's Diary" would reappear. Mark Darcy was, undoubtedly, less of a challenge than Vermeer � though in retrospect, Firth thinks he found the latter character only when he stopped working so hard. "In some ways, I reached my frustration in not being able to nail anything about (Vermeer)," he says. "I just thought, maybe this is it � you can't define anything. So I stopped trying, and let that somehow characterize what you do." http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2001829040_firth04.html

I'll try this, but I make no guarantees... Here's the link to the USA Weekend article. http://www.usaweekend.com/04_issues/040104/040104colin_firth.html The only thing not there is the pictures. (Black leather jacket, black tee, blue jeans against a tree) and this publicity photo for GWAPE...

Thanks for the USA article, Kathy. I liked this. He is always good for a quotable quote: Children make you feel mortal," Firth says. "Before you have kids, there's an invisible thread that's attached to your youth and your birth in some way. Once you've got them, that thread is now attached to the other end of your life somehow. It's their turn to be beginners. You have to move over." And although he's embraced his role as a parent, he says matter-of-factly, "I'm absolutely certain that it's not for everyone."

The London Times 1/4/04 thanks to Gill: January 04, 2004 Don't call me Darcy Britain's top male totty, in or out of his wet breeches, Colin Firth denies he is the eligible bit of posh he always ends up playing on screen. But that's not going to put off his army of female fans, says Jasper Gerard If Brad Pitt is the finest bit of trouser in America, and G�rard Depardieu the sexiest saucisson in France, Colin Firth is the nearest Britain comes to a cinematic stud. He is that peculiarly British phenomenon, PMT: Posh Male Totty. Firth invariably renders the wooing as being excruciatingly difficult. Rather than simply asking the love interest if she fancies a snog there is much brooding silence, wistful walks and crumpled Basildon Bond. You can almost understand how his Italian in-laws watched him in one flick and turned, puzzled, to his wife, �He�s sexy?� they asked. But, eventually, he invariably beds the girl. Until now. In the Golden Globe-nominated Girl with a Pearl Earring he plays Vermeer, the Dutch master, who falls for his lovely maid. He endlessly touches up her portrait, but his passion is confined to painting. It�s a role that fits the man. It�s not that in real life he is a romantic failure � even to my untrained eye he is handsome and happily married � but he is diffident. If Firth, 43, encountered the object of his infatuation after diving into a lake � as he did so as Darcy in the television version of Pride and Prejudice � he would probably scurry into the bushes. This modest quietness is ignored by adoring female fans. When he recently toured America, a posse followed him coast to coast in a frenzy of screams and lingerie lobbing. In Bridget Jones�s Diary he is an object of desire � a modern Darcy � but his swooning fans should clasp their smelling salts because he�s nothing like his upper-middle-class screen characters, or so he claims. �I�m a phoney,� he says in a garishly decorated caravan on the set of the second Bridget Jones film. As proof of his proletarian past he reprises the agricultural accent � and language � of his Hampshire secondary modern. �It was �Firthy, come and get a smack in the mouth� and �Who you f****** looking at, you c***!� He even claims to have sung in a band that was �hippie with punk overtones�. Hard to believe in his Gieves & Hawkes suit, which he insists is a stage prop. If he is a phoney it is as much because his career has not been true to his early rebelliousness as to any class sellout. In 1979, at the dawning of Thatcher�s Britain, he found himself at drama school. �The inverted snobbery was very aspirant, the alternative culture was riding high and I wanted to be a part of that. But my street cred certainly wasn�t going to be competing with the kids in that class: I wasn�t a smack addict and didn�t develop a criminal record.� Instead, casting directors realised he would look pretty in hunting pink and told him to ride with what could be described as the Brideshead Revisited pack. �To my astonishment I was identified immediately as silver spooned, plummy,� he says. And filled with ambition, he wasn�t going to let political posturing hold up his career. And so from Firth�s first role in Another Country he took on the Rex Harrison mantle of Britain�s favourite PMT. �It�s been so easy,� he smiles sheepishly. �I�ve got none of the credentials of treading the boards at the Hartlepool Empire.� Still, it says something depressing about Britain that he had to pretend that he had. Until recently, British film was so pre-Victorian you were classed as either toff or tyke. �Britain really does do the class labelling quite a bit. I�ve had such a full career, one doesn�t complain, but,� he says, rubbing a slightly greying temple, �I do notice dead-end roads.� Far from regretting some of his cinematic slush, he �couldn�t give a s***� about the sneers of trendies who say his films are schmaltzy. Partly this is because he can reel off lots of non-romantic flicks he has starred in (alas all the ones we didn�t notice, including a drama screened at the same time as Pride and Prejudice in which he played a �drunk Nottinghamshire miner and wife abuser�). He says he has �had it up to here� with �1980s edginess� and all those Ken Loach films about the underclass, and feels British tastes might be changing. He was �surprised� Love Actually, in which he stars, received benign reviews. �People said, �It�s fun, I like it, it made me laugh, it made me cry, it swept me along�,� he says, �and in its own way was actually enormously risky. It really is a case of � Duh, if you don�t like it you can see Kill Bill instead�.� Although he is grateful for the regular employment, he wishes offers would come in to play East End gangsters. �I have gone through periods of sitting around not working and waiting for the perfect part,� he says, �which I can do very easily as I�m naturally lazy.� If his life experience is anything to go by, he is suited to playing Dutch daubers: not only does he have an Italian wife by whom he has two children, he spent much of his childhood in Nigeria and America � his parents are academics � and later lived in Canada for five years. His son with his former live-in lover, the American actress Meg Tilly, lives with her Stateside and �is basically American�, while Firth says he feels �very nearly as at home in America as in Britain�. While classmates sported agricultural accents, he was called �the Yank� from the time when he lived in the US, �despite over-egging the Hampshire as much as I could�. So despite his current A-list status, he has always felt a bit of an outsider. �I have always been a chameleon and had this quite childish, rather solitary, love of fantasy. You need to be quite infantile to be an actor.� The personal cost of such a disposition is guilt about the treatment of his � now teenage � eldest son. Though he currently makes great efforts to see him regularly, he regrets not being around more during his formative years. �I think I am a much better father second time round,� he admits. He lives in Hampstead, northwest London, with his wife Livia Giuggiolo, a 33-year-old television producer, and their children Luca, 2, and six-month-old Mateo. He eschews showbusiness schmoozing parties, though admits it would be unnecessary now: most folk worth knowing in British film probably have their children �playing round at my house�. He laughs at suggestions that his life is remotely glam. �Filming is a workaday environment,� he says. �You mention female attention, but most of our life is conducted with very little awareness of it. I go to work, I come home and change nappies.� Hmm, new man as well; the aroma of Pampers will only make him more adorable to Bridgets everywhere. The one British actor who might be compared to Firth is Hugh Grant. Though the latter has stuck more to romantic comedy than the more eclectic Firth, they have shot three films together. Is theirs a friendly rivalry? �Well, I hope it�s friendly. In this) all we do is pull each other�s hair, and in the last one we just beat each other up. Off set we are very rude to each other.� Really? �Oh, it�s just little bitchy comments. I�ve just listened to the DVD commentary for Love Actually and Hugh points out unfavourable camera angles in a scene with me that an actress was obviously having to do all the work.� He might have a chance for revenge: he speculates there might well be a third Bridget Jones film. Unlike Grant, Firth has done the obligatory Shakespeare, but is also focused on film. Unusually for a British actor, he regards stage snobbery as misplaced. �The attraction of theatre is just how easy it is,� he insists. �You don�t utter a line in public before five weeks rehearsals. I�ve very rarely seen a brilliant film actor who can�t cut it on stage. In film you�ve only time for three takes. People imagine you do more takes, but there is a critical period in which you have to get it right or it�s indelible. �There are an awful lot of surprises. Yesterday I was dubbing this film Trauma, histrionic stuff about a man in an emotional crisis. Then I got a call to come out here and rescue Bridget Jones from a Thai prison. Film is all artifice: the actress you are �opposite� might not, in reality, even be there. The director will often say: �I�m sorry, we�re not going to do the scene where you kill your wife, you�re going to marry her instead,� and so in totally the wrong order you can actually get shot, have sex and get married before lunch.� Poor Firth. He�s the male Ursula Andress. Whatever parts he plays, 20 years from now you can guarantee he will only ever be remembered for one thing: emerging sexily sodden from the water. But maybe I shouldn�t feel too sorry for him.

Two quick blurbs from the NYT on 1/2/04: 'Girl With A Pearl Earring' Scarlett Johansson is a maid who serves in the household of the great Dutch painter Vermeer. When she becomes the model for one of his greatest works, jealousies and rivalries simmer around her. Pluses The visually ravishing film, based on Tracy Chevalier's novel, unfolds like a Vermeer canvas being slowly turned into the light. Ms. Johansson registers the tiniest calibrations of anxiety and erotic awareness as the model who has no idea she will be immortalized. Minuses The surrounding intrigue is jumbled and barely comprehensible. The movie is best appreciated as a cinematic painting. And this also... "GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING" starring Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. ....At the very start of this film, Griet (Ms. Johansson) is shown peeling an onion - an image as metaphor that isn't often seen outside first semester film making classes. The determination visible in such an effort communicates Importance Writ Large. This film, adapted by Olivia Hetreed from Tracy Chevalier's novel, does have a great subject: it creates a story around a work of art shrouded in mystery and deals with a project that ruins a woman's reputation and ensures her place in history. In "Girl With A Pearl Earring" the story offered is that of Griet, a servant who became the muse of Johannes Vermeer (Mr. Firth) and the subject of the painting of the same title. Ms. Johansson is photographed so that her skin is opalescent as her earring, but the movie is opaque. It's an earnest, obvious melodrama with no soul, filled with the longing silences that come after a sigh (Mitchell). Ouch!

Ah you just got ahead of me with the Sunday Times article. He is now living in Hampstead!!!! Surely a mistake?

I don't think this one's been posted from "The Scotsman" "....But if film-makers struggle with showing the creation of poetry and prose on screen, you might think that recreating another visual medium such as painting would be easier. The latest attempt is Girl With a Pearl Earring, based on the bestselling novel by Tracy Chevalier and directed by Peter Webber. It fleshes out a fictionalised back-story that led to the creation of the eponymous painting by 17th-century Dutch Master Vermeer (Colin Firth). The girl in question is Griet (Scarlett Johansson), a 17-year-old maid in Vermeer�s household, who grows close to her master and is eventually the inspiration for what would become his most famous painting. "I did come up with a list of clich�s that you have to avoid - like sticking your thumb up as a means of judging perspective," says Webber. "It was just an internal clich� alarm. Some of the films I love - like Lust For Life [the 1956 Van Gogh biopic starring Kirk Douglas] - are a bit ridiculous now. It wouldn�t work with Vermeer. The good thing about him is that he�s not a clich�d artist because he is so quiet and so still." Nevertheless, while Firth�s Vermeer may not fall into the trap of a furious flurry of creative activity, he does spend much of his time staring at his canvas with a demented look in his eyes. Admitting when he first saw the trailer that he advised the editor to recut it with "less art, more sex!", Webber - while underlining the film is not a "bodice ripper" and is a "chaste erotic film" - says he did not want to "let the painting get in the way". "I also didn�t think the audience wanted to hear a three-minute discussion of optics and the camera obscura. It�s not my film�s job to do that. I used to joke that this could be a film set in the world of plumbing. Painting is just the background. A lot of art is down to which pencil should I use." Yet it is exactly the films that attempt to show the painstaking process of canvas creation that are the most successful. V�ctor Erice�s 1992 documentary Quince Tree of the Sun spends two-and-a-quarter hours watching artist Antonio L�pez Garc�a paint the titular tree in his Madrid back yard. Despite the film�s tranquil pace echoing the painter�s own leisurely approach, the result is a mesmerising, almost suspenseful work. Likewise, narrative films such as John Maybury�s Francis Bacon portrait Love is the Devil or Maurice Pialat�s Van Gogh, that set out to sew the spirit of the artist�s work into the very rhythms and fabric of the film are the most triumphant. In the case of Maybury�s work, at times the film�s warped, hypnotic visuals come to resemble a painting by Bacon. Even Ed Harris�s more conventional Pollock takes great pains to capture the free-form style of action-painter Jackson Pollock, primarily thanks to the physical performance of Harris in the lead. That said, there is one jaw-dropping moment in Girl With a Pearl Earring that manages to express the mysterious intuition that governs all artistic endeavours. It comes near the climax as Griet literally turns into the painting - a daring scene not in the original script that was improvised on the day. "We never believed we could get her to look like the painting," says Webber. "There was a touch of fear there. Thank God I did it. It�s a crucial moment. I�d hate to think what the film would be without it." http://www.news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=7452004

Good Times interview. Some comments are old re-cycled ones. Doesn't sound like there's a stage project in the future:-(( Thanks to Murph and Gill. Seattle Times, Thanks Maria "Firth, no stranger to period roles ..." Does his best performances in these roles, IMO.

Thanks Mari and Kathy for the info on the magazine. There were piles of Sun-Timeses sitting there and I could've picked it up yesterday. Will run out shortly before there's too much snow. :-( (Told of a colleague who packed her "Pride and Prejudice" tape for a trip to the labor room, his response was a heartfelt � and horrified � "Oh my God!") A colleague? A fellow actor? LOL! Mindful of the power of surprise, Firth politely declined to discuss how that particular scene would be handled in the film. Nor would he comment on whether the notorious reindeer sweater, worn by the hapless Mark Darcy in "Bridget Jones's Diary" would reappear. Oh yeah, trade secrets. ;-) You can almost understand how his Italian in-laws watched him in one flick and turned, puzzled, to his wife, �He�s sexy?� they asked. But, eventually, he invariably beds the girl. And which movie might this be? When he recently toured America, a posse followed him coast to coast in a frenzy of screams and lingerie lobbing. Devoted fan base is now a posse. Where did this lingerie lobbing take place? He says he has �had it up to here� with �1980s edginess� Getting angry now? On the offensive? ;-) �People said, �It�s fun, I like it, it made me laugh, it made me cry, it swept me along�,� he says It made me want to vomit once or twice. ;-) Poor Firth. He�s the male Ursula Andress. Whatever parts he plays, 20 years from now you can guarantee he will only ever be remembered for one thing: emerging sexily sodden from the water. :-((((((((((((((( (Allison) He is now living in Hampstead!!!! Surely a mistake? And Livia is now a television producer. ;-)

Is the London Times article in the magazine or another section and is there a photo?

(Mari)(And it *is* Mishimoko with an "i." ;-) intellectual property rights, ya know;-) Whoops! . .meant to quote you, not plagarize!. .my spelling is n.g. . ."Mishimoko" it is! (Karen)Where did this lingerie lobbing take place? Perhaps pink sweater girl from the LA premiere has been stalking him, tossing her jollyhose about! Girls, thanks for all the articles . . .

Karen: It is in the Sunday Times Review section. I don't see a picture on the page Gill sent me, but perhaps Allison has a hard copy?

Thanks to everyone for galleries, interviews, tidbits!! �Oh, it�s just little bitchy comments. I�ve just listened to the DVD commentary for Love Actually and Hugh points out unfavourable camera angles in a scene with me that an actress was obviously having to do all the work.� DVD commentary! I'm going to assume he participates. One of my dreams come true. And a good omen for TEOR. Never mind the actual film, I'm thinking ahead to DVDs, LOL.

Thanks, Mary. We get the Review section of the paper, but not the regular magazine. I can always check tomorrow. USA Weekend used a pic that had been on the Daily Record's magazine cover when Conspiracy was shown. I don't have a clean one of that and it's too ugly outside to scan the one from today, so I used the Record's pic. Will substitute actual when weather improves. ;-) http://www.firth.com/articles/04usaweekend_104.html

"He is that peculiarly British phenomenon, PMT: Posh Male Totty." ODB, PMT , LOL;-) "rumpled Basildon Bond." Too funny. "alas all the ones we didn?t notice, including a drama screened at the same time as Pride and Prejudice in which he played a ?drunk Nottinghamshire miner and wife abuser?). " MOTM.One of his best. "He says he has ?had it up to here? with ?1980s edginess? and all those Ken Loach films about the underclass, and feels British tastes might be changing" Hooray! Let's throw in the films with people vomiting in the toilets.

"rumpled Basildon Bond." Too funny.

(article)"alas all the ones we didn?t notice, including a drama screened at the same time as Pride and Prejudice in which he played a ?drunk Nottinghamshire miner and wife abuser?). " (Evelyn)MOTM.One of his best. I agree about MOTM being one of his best, but don't you think they mean TWOMH? Thank you all for the comments, pictures, articles and what have yo :-) and - Karen, great you had the picture in your archive. Really yummy !!

Yes, it would be Mrs Holroyd, though I don't recall them showing Charlie as a wife abuser, psychologically yes, but physically no. I'd bet old Jasper didn't see Holroyd either.

"Told of a colleague who packed her "Pride and Prejudice" tape for a trip to the labor room, his response was a heartfelt � and horrified � "Oh my God!") Karen: A colleague? A fellow actor? LOL! This must refer to the colleague of the teller of the incident not his, but would love to know if that not the case. "You can almost understand how his Italian in-laws watched him in one flick and turned, puzzled, to his wife, �He�s sexy?� they asked. But, eventually, he invariably beds the girl." (Karen)And which movie might this be? I hate to belabor the point but my calculations suggest indeed, that was generally the case. If memory serves, everything post AZ excepting TeP (he may have bedded his wife, but being a cuckold IMO cancels that out),SIL and RV (his character of unlikely heterosexuality, probably should not be included in the statistics). You gotta admit in CoF, Simon was a slime-ball but he did BtG - enough to get her preggers):)

No, you're right. Colin has often mentioned COF as the film his in-laws saw and he indeed got to "bed the girl" in that one...plus you then had Nostromo, where he "mined the girl." ;-)

(Annette) great you had the picture in your archive. Actual USA Weekend one is there now: http://www.firth.com/articles/04usaweekend_104.html Wish I had a clean one of that in my files. And have added a color version (from my files) of the one with today's Sunday Times article. http://www.firth.com/articles/04times104.html Naturally, I could make it black and white to be more authentic. All I need to know, ladies, is what the pic is and I'll dig it out. No pressure for scanning, etc.

Thanks Karen and others for the the new articles. I was delighted to find the Time Traveler article in my morning paper. I didn't remember seeing this photo before.

(Annette)but don't you think they mean TWOMH? *smacking head* Of course! With Zoe Wanamaker and Stephen Dillane.Painful to watch and difficult for me to understand at times, but Wow~ what a winner. (I think his feet make a showing in the coffin at the end, don't they;-) Weekend BO: GWAPE Looks like it's #26 from #35 last week.Took in... $200,000 in 26 theatres {still!!]- $7,692/theatre [Woo Hoo!]] cum $854,000. LA in #35 ,cum $57 ,458 M. Only in 406 theatres $1869/theatre

Correction LA #21.Same as last week.

The Edge of Reason," .... Though Firth said he was initially reluctant to make a sequel, he now says he has "high hopes" for the film. "The only sensible attitude to it was to be cautious. ... You have to really hit the right note with this thing. As long as you can take it forward in some way, it's justified." And, of course, pay me really well, including a share of the back end. ;-) When he recently toured America, a posse followed him coast to coast in a frenzy of screams and lingerie lobbing. NY venue to venue, would be a more accurate statement. Unless 6th and 5th Aves would be considered coasts. ;-) Though the lingerie lobbing is still a mystery. :-/ Webber - while underlining the film is not a "bodice ripper" Uh-oh, he said "bodice ripper"! I think he's stealing the intellectual property posted on a website from notes of a Q&A that many people were at, and heard at the same time. And didn't give credit!! Oh the gall of him!! Quick, he must be banned from Colin websites! What a bad, bad man. ;-D Although he is grateful for the regular employment, he wishes offers would come in to play East End gangsters. �I have gone through periods of sitting around not working and waiting for the perfect part,� Well, he answered the exact question I was thinking of just yesterday to ask him, should I be in a position again to do so. (Brenda) DVD commentary! I'm going to assume he participates. Now don't be so hasty there. You know what happens when one assumes. ;-) He said he was listening, not working on it. And why would Hugh comment on Colin's part anyway? Thanks for all the articles and pictures.

(Seatle Times) A lot of the paring down of dialogue was my responsibility. Now I know who to . . .thank.;-) (But I want to know why Seattle will get this before Philly.;-( Told of a colleague who packed her "Pride and Prejudice" tape for a trip to the labor room, his response was a heartfelt � and horrified � "Oh my God!") LOL! Hey, it's better than a deck of cards.;-) Thanks for the article, Maria. (London Times)When he recently toured America, a posse followed him coast to coast in a frenzy of screams and lingerie lobbing. Kimberly, what did you put in that Today Show toy bag??;-) Unless this occurred when he was in Wisconsin.;-) Actually, I think this is ancient history when some fan gave an ill-advised quote to the LA Times about following him from LA to NY. Karen, you really need to start pointing these reporters to the more recent articles on firth.com.;-) And do we want to be peeps or a posse? I can't decide.;-) Firth says he feels �very nearly as at home in America as in Britain�. One thing I will say for Colin: he is always fair and respectful of other cultures. Unlike some foreign celebs who come here, make a great living, act all nicey nicey, then go back home and--zing!--take cheap shots at America in the press. And it sounds like they've moved? I gather Hampstead is more upscale? Actually, I can believe that the loquatious Huge is doing the DVD commmentary with Curtis. Thanks, Murph and Gill. Good article unti the last bit about 20 years from now.;-( (Kimberley)Mishimoko" it is! Nah, I was being anal, honey, ignore me.

(Mari) And do we want to be peeps or a posse? I can't decide.;-) LOL! A la EW mag.....Peeps are "in", posse is "out". Posse was so Arsenio. ;-) (oh really, how would I know? ;-)) Actually, I can believe that the loquatious Huge is doing the DVD commmentary with Curtis. He did say in one of those premiere interviews that he was involved with the making of LA every step of the way, didn't he. I think he's the anal one. ;-)

When he recently toured America, a posse followed him coast to coast in a frenzy of screams and lingerie lobbing. Whew! Did knicker check.....have all my jollyhose from NYC still....so....okay....who did it? Who tossed their pants??? ;-) �I have gone through periods of sitting around not working and waiting for the perfect part,� he says, �which I can do very easily as I�m naturally lazy.� Touring coast to coast, avoiding knickers, changing nappies, working on three films in one year....okay....lazy it is then......(sitting in a hammock doing nothin' is my idea of lazy....not making labor intensive spaghetti dishes and going to martini parties....) He lives in Hampstead, northwest London, with his wife Livia Giuggiolo, a 33-year-old television producer, and their children Luca, 2, and six-month-old Mateo. I had heard a rumor he had moved....but not to Hampstead.....hmmmmm....... (Evelyn) (I think his feet make a showing in the coffin at the end, don't they;-) TWOMH is one of the ones I have never seen....and there are toes??? GAH! Must make an effort to view this one! (Dorine) Well, he answered the exact question I was thinking of just yesterday to ask him, should I be in a position again to do so. Me thinks you should come up with another question then.....soon....!!! ;-)

(London Times)When he recently toured America, a posse followed him coast to coast in a frenzy of screams and lingerie lobbing. (Mari)Kimberly, what did you put in that Today Show toy bag??;-) Whatever do you mean, Mari????;) (**discretly shutting her jollyhose drawer***) Now . .I know waiting out in 25 degree weather for ODB was a prime occasion for genuinely tiny knickers. . .however, mine stayed on . .and were not lobbed into the toy bag, nor at him . . . But if you are referring to the scary, stomach-holding-in-pants (very popular with grannies the world over) that I folded nicely and placed in that note I slipped him. .well . .that's a ANOTHER thing altogether;) (Tress)I had heard a rumor he had moved....but not to Hampstead.....hmmmmm....... Did he actually move? . .Dear me, I guess I should stop looking for a flat in Islington and start elsewhere . . .;)

(Tress) I had heard a rumor he had moved....but not to Hampstead.... Yeah, they needed to be closer to her TV producer job. ;-)

(Karen) Yeah, they needed to be closer to her TV producer job. ;-) LOL...she's producing alright...but I don't think it's for the telly! ;-)

(Tress) LOL...she's producing alright...but I don't think it's for the telly! ;-) Oh, with one quick glimpse, I thought you wanted to say "it's for the belly!" ;-)

Ladies, I give you the modern-day Laurence Olivier Irish Independent by Ciara Dwyer 'COLIN Firth is waiting for you." All my life I have been waiting to hear a line like that. The publicity girl thinks I am going to talk to him about his latest film, Girl with a Pearl Earring - and I am. But what she does not know is that I am obsessed with this man, completely. And, as I make my way to meet him, I know that a lot of women would kill to be in my shoes. It all started when Firth played Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, the epitome of female desire - tall, dark and handsome. Then he played Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones's Diary and we all swooned some more. Hours before I was due to interview Firth, I was sitting in a corridor of the Dorchester Hotel - and who should walk by but His Nibs. I had been busy gabbling away to another journalist when this vision appears. All six foot one of him glides by, and I am gobsmacked. He wears a chocolate brown suede jacket, the same colour as his eyes. His long legs are covered in denim. And his shoulders are beautifully broad. He's a modern-day Laurence Olivier. I contemplate faking a faint, but I am already sitting down. So I settle for watching him walk by and leering at his fabulous frame. He is so tall, the ceiling looks low. But at last it is my turn. Colin Firth and I are alone in a hotel room. OK, so I have a Dictaphone on the table and this is supposed to be work, but if you have swooned over him as much as I have, it is a little tricky to control yourself. I sit on the edge of the armchair, asking him questions, and almost topple over in excitement. We will talk about Pearl Earring in a minute, but first we talk about his role in one of his many other films, Richard Curtis's Love Actually. In this he plays a writer who falls in love with a Portuguese girl and who goes to the ends of the earth to see her. Unabashed romance. Another one for the fans. You must have women of all ages leering and lusting after you, and writing you letters, I say. "There are definitely letters, yeah, but there are no knickers in the post," he says. "It's so terribly well-behaved, unfortunately. A lot of it is still vague, extremely polite and second-hand reporting. I don't tend to get the actual person themselves." If ever there was a cue to speak up . . . so I tell him that the one that did it for me was Bridget Jones's Diary in the navy pin-striped suit, with the barrister flies, standing over a pot, cooking for her. "Really?" he says, with a frisky look in his eye. I tell him that I even thought about bringing the costume that day and asking him to dress up for me. He smiles some more but, aah, I must stop flirting with Mr Firth. He is married to a beautiful Italian woman, for whom he learned the language. Imagine. Enough of my infatuation. On with our official reason for meeting. Girl with a Pearl Earring is based on Tracy Chevalier's book of the same title. It's a fictional account of the girl in that famous Vermeer painting, and how the picture came about. Firth plays Johannes Vermeer. The film is perfection. Every frame looks like a painting, the music is divine and the whole thing is very sensual. This is a case of less is more. There are lingering looks between Vermeer and Griet, the maid who was the muse for the painting. The moment when their fingers brush against each other is positively explosive. It is a darker role for Firth, and yet the women will be swooning once more. "I didn't know anything about Vermeer," he says, "but I'd noticed the painting - which doesn't come every day for me. I'm not an art expert but I do tend to pop into a gallery if I can, and this happened in New York. It was in the Met. I was just blithely wandering from room to room and there was this very small painting at the other end of the room and it absolutely hit me. Like most people who aren't art experts, you just know what you like. And I thought, 'Oh God, what is it about that one?' "It had this strong power and so it developed into a nerdy obsession. That was five or six years ago, but being the fickle creature that all actors are, you have this passion for something and then the capacity to completely forget." COLIN Firth was born in Hampshire, England in 1960. He has a brother and sister. His parents are academics; his father is a history lecturer at King Alfred's College, Winchester, and his mother is a comparative religions lecturer with the Open University. Were his parents draggy academics? "I suppose I thought so at the time, but now I think it was probably a gift, really. It was an environment which encouraged thinking, 'Fatherhood is a strangely passionate experience. I thought it would be a wise mellow thing, but it's not. It's a crazy devotion. I fall in love each time' reading and conversation. My parents were interested in different places and my father got a teaching post in Nigeria, so my first four years were there, and then he got a teaching post in the USA so I spent a year in high school in St Louis. "We moved about a bit. It set me slightly apart as I wasn't in an elite public-school system. At the time I considered it to be a mixed blessing, but now . . . " Firth has had a solid theatre training but he hasn't done that much stage work. Perhaps six plays in total, he thinks. Nor is he yearning to go back to the theatre, although in some ways he looks forward to the idea. "I'd love to do something very new and exciting in a smallish theatre," he says. He lives in London with his Italian wife, Livia Giuggioli, and their two sons. (He also has a 13-year-old son with the American actress Meg Tilly.) When I ask him about his home life, and how he met his wife, he clams up a little. "Without wanting to break too many rules of talking about wife and family and everything, we met in Colombia. She was the assistant producer on the television series Nostromo. I was having a slightly miserable time and we'd four months to go, and she showed up." Is she a typical Italian? "She's Italian, oh yeah. I have to draw a line under it now, but you can probably imagine. She's very fiery, very smart, she's no pushover." Does he enjoy fatherhood? "It's hard work but it is fantastic, particularly being a bit older now. I feel halfway to being a granddad really, which in a way is a nice thing because granddads are always kinder and more twinklier than dads. "It's exhausting. The moment you walk out of the house and leave that noise behind you is just fantastic. But, paradoxically, you find yourself missing them desperately within half an hour. It's weird. "Fatherhood is a strangely passionate experience. I didn't think it would be so much like passion - I thought it would be a wise mellow thing, but it's not. It's a crazy devotion. I fall in love each time. I hadn't realised how much I'd been living for myself. Parenthood is the one salvation to stop you from being a complete and utter egotist."As an actor on a film set, you're treated like an infant, really. You're told what time you're going to wake up. Somebody puts your face and hair on for you. You're told where you go and what you're going to say. Literally the only thing that you do for yourself is go to the bathroom. So you're like a 10-month-old child, but then you go home and the roles are radically reversed. You can't say, 'If you don't shut up I'll call my agent.' There's no recourse, the child is hungry and it's up to you." He talks about his career. He is no good at pursuing parts but he has pushed to change direction: "I do think character work is the best." And he can't understand why women have fallen in love with some of the grouchy characters he has played. "It's their problem, really, because I didn't play a person who wanted to be liked. It certainly surprised me." But he is not going to stop doing romantic roles: "One doesn't do these things on purpose, but I don't want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg." Our time is almost up, but I have a little request. Go on, say something in Italian for me, I plead. "I can't, I'll feel completely silly doing it," he says. "Oh God." And then he obliges . . . I have no notion of what he was saying, but, oh God, Colin Firth speaking Italian. Sponge me down, quick. 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' opens on January 16 http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=126&si=1102111&issue_id=10243 (registration necessary)

"There are definitely letters, yeah, but there are no knickers in the post," Saves postage to just lob them. ;-) I don't tend to get the actual person themselves." No, those were cardboard cutouts at the NY premiere. ;-) While it has been painfully obvious, I'm surprised he's been saying it on more than one occasion. Nor is he yearning to go back to the theatre, although in some ways he looks forward to the idea. "I'd love to do something very new and exciting in a smallish theatre," he says. Well, there's the answer to the theater question. There's nothing new over there? Come over here. Though he might find it easier to find some things if he gets out of his easy chair. ;-) You can't say, 'If you don't shut up I'll call my agent.' Sure he could. He could say, "Get me a job in Romania for a few months." ;-) Thanks, Josie.

Thanks for the article, Josie. A fun read. Think the author needs to be invited to join the DD's. Then again - perhaps she already has?? But at last it is my turn. Colin Firth and I are alone in a hotel room I think I might have been tempted to produce something more than a Dictaphone...

Oops, I meant..... He talks about his career. He is no good at pursuing parts While it has been painfully obvious with some recent choices, I'm surprised he's been saying it on more than one occasion.

(Josie's article)And then he obliges . . . I have no notion of what he was saying, but, oh God, Colin Firth speaking Italian. Sponge me down, quick. I know how she feels..;-)) Thanks Josie, that was a fun morning eye-opener.

Gah! So many great articles and pics and DD to thank! I love my DH dearly but he clung to me like a cheap toupe yesterday. I tried everything to get him out of the house but to no avail and when a girl's gotta drool.... "There are definitely letters, yeah, but there are no knickers in the post," (Dorine) Saves postage to just lob them. ;-) ROTF!!! 'Fatherhood is a strangely passionate experience. I thought it would be a wise mellow thing, but it's not. It's a crazy devotion. I fall in love each time' As do we hearing you say that... Nor is he yearning to go back to the theatre, although in some ways he looks forward to the idea. "I'd love to do something very new and exciting in a smallish theatre," he says. I really and truly believe but hardly ever feel that non commital answers are best..;-) "I can't, I'll feel completely silly doing it," he says. "Oh God." And then he obliges . . . I have no notion of what he was saying, but, oh God, Colin Firth speaking Italian. Sponge me down, quick. Jammy git! The reformed egotist is a good egg.... Thanks Josie!

(Tress), I had heard a rumor he had moved....but not to Hampstead.....hmmmmm....... Wot? I go away for a week and he's moved? Now Tress you know you must share this rumour... we're waiting... :-) I always thought Livia would prefer to live in Chelsea, but Hamstead is just as good, they must be thinking of the schools for Luca. Thank you ladies for the articles and Karen for such a wonderful site.

Many thanks for the fun article Josie!!! (Josie's article)You must have women of all ages leering and lusting after you, and writing you letters, I say. "There are definitely letters, yeah, but there are no knickers in the post," he says. "It's so terribly well-behaved, unfortunately. So if he doesn't like well-behaved, what does he want out of his fan base? Frankly, I never understood the idea of send/throwing underwear, but I suppose I could oblige. ;-)

(Tress)I had heard a rumor he had moved....but not to Hampstead.....hmmmmm....... He'll miss the button shop;-) ""As an actor on a film set, you're treated like an infant, really. You're told what time you're going to wake up. Somebody puts your face and hair on for you. You're told where you go and what you're going to say. Literally the only thing that you do for yourself is go to the bathroom..." But theatre is soooo much easier....;-D (Times)"The attraction of theatre is just how easy it is," he insists. "You don't utter a line in public before five weeks rehearsals" Tell that who the guys who slog away at doing 7 performances /week at the National or Donmar for 500 quid a week. Sometimes I wonder what planet this guy lives in.

From Variety: Repressed passion Peter Webber's 'Pearl Earring' brings Vermeer to life with restraint By DAVID WEDDLE In a year when many filmmakers risked the deathblow of an NC-17 rating and battled the MPAA to bring more graphic and realistic depictions of sexuality to the bigscreen, the most erotically charged movie turned out to be one in which the lead characters never make love, take off their clothes, or even kiss. Director Peter Webber understands that sublimated passions can be the most powerful, both in life and in a movie. "Whoever said the most important sex organ is the brain was right," Webber observes. "It's anticipation and the fact that two people can't get together that builds up a tremendous charge of energy, like static electricity. You're just waiting for it to discharge. That's an interesting register to work in." The two people are the 17th century painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth) and his 17-year-old model, Griet (Scarlett Johansson). When Vermeer decides to paint Griet's portrait, he manipulates both her emotions and his own, exploiting the sexual tension between them to coax from Griet a mixture of sadness, longing and frustration, which he captures on canvas. Their relationship climaxes (both dramatically and symbolically) when Vermeer presents Griet with one of his wife's pearl earrings -- which he has taken without her knowledge -- and then pierces Griet's ear so that she can wear it. "When I read that scene in Olivia Hetreed's screenplay, that was the moment I decided I wanted to do the movie," says Webber. "We make a lot of period movies in Britain that are fairly dull -- 'Masterpiece Theater' type films. They're rather pretty and everything, but you're not emotionally engaged. Then I got to that ear-piercing scene and I suddenly realized there was a darkness to this story, an edge of sexual obsession and power plays." A 50-day shooting schedule and $10 million budget for a period piece may be threadbare by Hollywood standards, but for Webber -- who cut his teeth directing documentaries and movies for British television -- it seemed quite luxurious. This would be his first feature, and Webber was determined not to squander the opportunity. "You're remembered by your first film," says Webber. "People pigeonhole you, and you may never get to make a second film."

Just got word that local theatre has GWAPE beginning 1/30/04. As DH said, "must be the real wide" opening ;-)

Thanks for the article, Josie, but am I the only person who thinks the title ridiculous? LO was quite good looking (1939ish) but his reputation was as an actor first. Murph, you're the expert here. Again, an article more about the writer than the subject. "I'd love to do something very new and exciting in a smallish theatre," he says. Could've done "Take Me Out" at the Donmar. oooh, to have those front row seats again for that. Now that would be a real "sponge me down, quick" moment. ;-) If ever there was a cue to speak up . . . so I tell him that the one that did it for me was Bridget Jones's Diary in the navy pin-striped suit, with the barrister flies, standing over a pot, cooking for her. "Really?" he says, with a frisky look in his eye. A ha!!! Ciara Dwyer is pseudonym for Lizza, Keeper of the Whisk ;-)

I was sitting in a corridor of the Dorchester Hotel - and who should walk by but His Nibs Am picturing this gal sitting there clutching a copy of Horse and Hound.;-) It's exhausting. The moment you walk out of the house and leave that noise behind you is just fantastic. Boy, do I remember *that* feeling. Kudos for your honesty on that one, Colin. I don't tend to get the actual person themselves." (Dorine)No, those were cardboard cutouts at the NY premiere. ;-) Pfft! The fan base is now a phan-tom base.;-) He talks about his career. He is no good at pursuing parts Astonish me. (Evelyn)He'll miss the button shop;-) ROTF! Thanks for the article, Josie!

I have no notion of what he was saying, but, oh God, Colin Firth speaking Italian. Sponge me down, quick. GAH! Me too! Is there a bathtub I can get into? ;-) Thanks Josie! "She's Italian, oh yeah. I have to draw a line under it now, but you can probably imagine. She's very fiery, very smart, she's no pushover." Sounds like she keeps him on his toes! Good! Means if he shows up with random knickers from his fan base she won't have any of that! Be careful out there ladies! ;-D "There are definitely letters, yeah, but there are no knickers in the post," (Dorine) Saves postage to just lob them. ;-) LOL...Was going to say we are a cheap lot...trying to save our pennies for when he does a play... ;-( (Peter Webber) You're just waiting for it to discharge. Wot? Is there some double meaning here? ;-) And if there is...I'll wait...LOL...waiting.... (Mari's article...again)...Their relationship climaxes Must find that tub... Thanks Mari!!

"Ladies, I give you the modern-day Laurence Olivier" I got the feeling she was talking about looks here more than talent. LO was pretty scrumptious in his youth, as Heathcliff showed us. But talent-wise, I don't think CF can touch him - yet! Enjoyed the article, Josie. Written by an Irish woman I presume?

(Murph) I got the feeling she was talking about looks here more than talent. Exactly, but did LO suffer comparisons to Gielgud because of his looks, i.e., was Gielgud taken more seriously as an actor than Larry because he was a heartthrob?

Josie - Love the article . .puts a smile on my face this Monday morning! (Irish Independant)"There are definitely letters, yeah, but there are no knickers in the post," he says. "It's so terribly well-behaved, unfortunately. A lot of it is still vague, extremely polite and second-hand reporting. I don't tend to get the actual person themselves." Hey! . .what was I . .chopped liver??? I delivered my note in person . .OK . . so I didn't wrap it in any knickers . . slight miscalculation on my part . . .perhaps I should have used a thong to slingshot the note over to him?;) But at last it is my turn. Colin Firth and I are alone in a hotel room. Lucky, lucky girl . . .I'm insanely jealous. Mari - Another wonderful article . . (Peter Webber) You're just waiting for it to discharge. (Tress)Wot? Is there some double meaning here? ;-) And if there is...I'll wait...LOL...waiting.... Tress . .you caught that too;) . .ahh great minds think alike!

(Murph)LO was pretty scrumptious in his youth, Wow, thanks for that Murph. My early favorite mood monster;-))

Thanks so much everyone for the news and articles! Was this posted? Still from your favorite, Karen: Hello Magazine and its polls :)( (can't quite make up my mind, happy or sad) : Coolest Baby Name COLIN FIRTH AND LIVIA GIUGGIOLI'S SON MATEO Though he faced stiff competition from fellow 2003 infants Daisy Boo, Caspar, Carys and Stellan, Mateo - the offspring of Colin Firth and his Italian wife Livia - took home the crown in the coolest baby name category. The little guy, born in August, is the couple's second child, while Colin also has a 12-year-old son, Will, with actress Meg Tilly. "Being a father is more like passionate love than I'd imagined," he said recently. "You have the same sense of being on the brink of being out of control, and of utter euphoria. It's what makes life most worth living - no question" http://www.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/specials/endofyearpoll2003/pagina_7_1.html

(Kimberly) Hey! . .what was I . .chopped liver??? I delivered my note in person Don't take it personally. This interview--at the Dorchester--took place somewhere around Oct 10, way before he laid eyes on you or received your note. Am positive (*snort*) he'd never have made a comment like that after seeing all those cardboard standups inside the LA premiere tent or seeing you and getting your note. ;-)))))))

Thanks, Josie. (Mari), Pfft! The fan base is now a phan-tom base.;-) Clap, clap! COLIN FIRTH AND LIVIA GIUGGIOLI'S SON MATEO Why do they keep mispelling his name? It's Matteo. (Karen), Exactly, but did LO suffer comparisons to Gielgud because of his looks, i.e., was Gielgud taken more seriously as an actor than Larry because he was a heartthrob? Since you're OT, I will add that I always thought LO ot be more handsome than Gielgud. Tress, I'm still waiting for that rumour. :-)

Final weekend numbers for GWAPE: $210,348 (up 11.4%) on 26 screens, for an average of $8,090 (v.g.) and a total so far of $865,240. From the new issue (January 12) of People mag: Swab Story Scarlett Johansson says that her Girl With A Pearl Earring co-star Colin Firth gleefully poked fun at her costume, especially since her head was wrapped tightly in a white scarf for the drama. "Colin kept saying I looked like a peeled egg," says Johansson, 19, who retaliated by drawing caricatures of the wig-wearing Firth with big hair. "He also said I looked like a Q-Tip. He'd stick little Q-Tips with happy faces on them up on our makeup mirror." Pic of SJ. Also, an article on Renee Zellwegger, accompanied by cute pic of her and Colin (called one of "Britain's leading men") on TEOR set--a variation of one we've seen.

(Moon) Tress, I'm still waiting for that rumour. :-) Check your e-mail. I don't wanna to be the one spreading the rumors...I just heard somethin' different, that's all...no proof. I'm sure it is only a matter of time before Hello or Now catch him 'in the wild'...

(Moon) Tress, I'm still waiting for that rumour. :-) Having just spent the weekend in central London with my DH and 2 younger boys, I had been thinking that it wasn't the healthiest environment in which to raise children. Maybe he's opted for country living and commuting to the city? BTW, loads of posters of GWAPE at the Tube stations. (Only one week to go!)

Well where oh where do I begin. First off, Karen that random gallery--whew! I waited days to see it. Thank you. Dorine, Tress and Evelyn ditto on the comments about the tub, the knees, the purple, and that phallic wine bottle. Oh how I've missed this place. It's good to be back. Josie great article. I think Ciara needs to come on board. She even got him to speak Italian. I agree that is a sponge me down moment. Thanks to all for everything. It will take me days to catch up. Just wanted to tell all of you that some of the best parts of my 9 days in London was seeing all the red double decker buses with the LA posters plasterd from one end to the the other, and the GWAPE posters. Crikey! I happend to be in the tube station at Green Park on Saturday. There is one steep escalator in there and lo and behold a GWAPE poster that was almost the length of the wall from ceiling to floor. As you ride up the escalator it just looms out at you. I tripped getting off because I was staring back at it on my way up. Also took another look on the way down then had to go up again. Also, at another stop the posters were in a row spaced about 5 feet apart and they even went around a bend. Each one was different with different members of the cast with different captions...Don't get caught in his web...another read Everyone gets caught in his world and so on. Almost like you had to keep moving on to read what came next. In several coffee shops they were giving out post cards with the poster on the front and an entry form on back for a trip to Denmark...no ODB just a trip to Denmark. I saw LA while I was there and GWAPE posters were outside for the coming attraction. Later that night, as I was leaving a girl was taping a notice on the poster that Tracy Chevalier would be doing a Q&A there in January. I'm not sure of the exact date, but it's at the Curzon Theater on Curzon Street Mayfair.I asked her if any cast members were attending, found myself winking like you know who I mean. I think she thought I was just another nutty American, but she did say, winking back, that she wasn't sure at the moment. (Evelyn)"He is that peculiarly British phenomenon, PMT: Posh Male Totty." ODB, PMT , LOL;-) but an AFGPMT;-) (Evelyn)Now let's find the one coming down the stairs barefooted.... This I gotta see...I'll go over to Cootie world, eh firthology and see if it has surfaced;-)

Welcome back, Linda. Since they probably fingerprinted you at Customs, that should provide adequate protection as well for the cooties at Firthology. ;-D Have fun over there. Antonella sent me some info about a GWAPE contest over at the The Times site: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/filmfirst where you win a trip to Amsterdam if you can answer the question: Who plays Johannes Vermeer in GWAPE? Put on your thinking caps and enter. Sorry, you don't win the said actor. ;-)