At Moon's insistence, I crashed attended the launch party last night. Congratulations, Mark! You have now reach official groupiness. :-D It looks like HBC wants to be Bridget. (Laura), WHAT are kitten heels? You want to go buy them? Check the Victoria Secret's catalog, I just got mine in the mail. ;-)

BTW, Mark, does your wife know you kind of follow Bridget around?

I am not the person who wrote a letter to the editor of the Independent saying: "Dear Sir, I would quite like to shag Bridget Jones. Can you give me her phone number, please? Yours..." HF read this letter out in her speech and said she thought the funniest bit was the quite. My wife is staggered at the news that I crashed a party. I had better lie low in my stalking activities for a while. Laura, I got into trouble on fashion items before. I will wait for Allison to define kitten heels, and then see if that is what I meant.

Bravo Mark! Excellent report. I am awed by your initiative. Further reading in the book suggests that she has mixed the best stuff from the articles with new material Great. I wondered how this would be, as all of us hadn't read the original Independent columns on which the first book was based. Therefore, as a book, it was new and fresh for us. She looked great in a sparkly black dress and classic Bridget kitten heels Bet she's cringing over the picture used on the ES online. Could they have used a more unflattering picture? :-o I had better lie low in my stalking activities for a while. Does this mean you will have to cancel your date with HB-C...now that she is available? ;-D Didn't that kitten heels get answered a long time ago? Would seem they wouldn't be in style anymore? ;-D

Hello all! I'm back! I have a lot to catch up on. Quick questions, anyone out in London get the sequel to Briget Jone's Diary, The Edge of Reason? I read that it was being released on the 17th or 18th of this month. The book can be ordered through Amazon.uk but I'm hoping it will be relased here in NY very soon. Bye, Nancy

Let's hear it for MarkG from Horse and Hound Magazine! *rousing cheers and applause*

Nancy, I don't think the sequel will be released here all that soon. Remember, the paperback was only released here this June. We might have a significant wait in store.

but you still haven't explained to me what a kitten heel is. Is it a spiked heel? what????

As I have used it, a kitten heel is a low spiked heel, typically on a backless shoe. Sorry if incorrect.

Wonder if the shoes have their origin in the classic Ann-Margret film "Kitten with a Whip"? ;-D

Mark...I'm impressed...*clap,clap*. You better quit hangin' around with pushy Americans Did we consider HBC for Bridget? CF would not have been able to attend due to 3 DOR.

But for some reason H B-C is a VERY WELL-KNOWN name. Why does HF still say she wants an unknown? I think I'll be 40 by the time the movie is made!

Mark, first you bunk off work, now you're gate-crashing parties! I blame it all on Evelyn :-) I'm most impressed! H B-C, well, she was the original front-runner, before names such as Gwyneth P, Kate W, Cate B and (whisper it) Ginger Spice were thrown into the hat. I actually think, on balance, and assuming that Bridget's weight problem is more in the mind, that she's the best candidate. I saw her play a BJ-type comic role in something co-starring Rik Mayall, and she was very convincing. She's the right thirty-something age, and, if life has to mirror art, is currently a singleton, having (according to the purportedly non-tabloid Times!) been dumped by KB. Can also see her working well with CF! Get my copy of the sequel tomorrow. Some reviews have not been kind....but I find it better to ignore all reviews!

PS.....I agree with Laura, they should get a move on, and actually MAKE this movie. Why all the agonising about the screenplay? I'd have been perfectly happy if they had just taken all the dialogue, situations, and characters straight from the book. Why re-invent the wheel?

and to think that H B-C was dumped for Alicia Silverstone! isn't KB old enough to be her father?

No! Really? Where's the Inquirer when you need it! ;-D

I'll take HBC over CB anyday. Where did you hear about Alicia Silverstone?

From the 19 November Evening Standard: MEN JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN - WHICH IS WHY BRIDGET JONES CAN'T GET ONE JULIE BURCHILL wishes it to be known that she's never had any problem having relationships with men. But she's worked out why that fictional thirtysomething does - Briar pipe and monocle notwithstanding, I consider myself to be quite a stereotypically feminine woman in many ways. I hate sports, pubs and violence; I love soap operas, drinks with tiny umbrellas in and photographical representations of fluffy ickle kittens and puppies. Just once in a while, though, some cultural phenomenon comes along which makes me question just how much I have in common with my sisters. If I live to be 100, I will never understand why women in their millions go weak at the thought of Friends, Brad Pitt or being on the receiving end of cunnilingus. And then there's Bridget Jones, whose Diary - as told to the journalist Helen Fielding - has been the publishing event of the decade. Published in 1997 and going on to sell more than a million copies, as well as spawning a raft of damp imitators ('Chick Lit'), it is now in development as a film, with every hot young babe in Hollywood fighting over the awesome task of bringing passion and purpose to a character who has slightly less substance than a paper dressing-doll. And a sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edg of Reason, is published. For anyone who has been living in an underwater cave with King Neptune for the past three years, Bridget Jones is a single woman in her thirties with a job in the media and a burning desire to get married and have children. However, she can't find a man. This is where I have a problem with the whole thing. In my experience, it is impossible not to have a relationship with a man. I am neither loyal, beautiful nor rich (though I am one hell of a lot of fun, which, at the end of the day, seems to work better than being a size 10, or a Cordon Bleu cook, or anything), but apart from six months when I was trying to be a lesbian, I have been in steady relationships with men since I was 18, with not a week off for good behaviour. And when there was dumping to be done, it was always me who did it. MEN WANT WOMEN MORE THAN WOMEN WANT MEN. This is simply a fact. This is why men pay for sex and women don't; why married men, followed by single women, married women and single men, are the most physically and mentally he lthy members of any society; why women instigate two out of three of all divorces; why the one thing the sociologists can agree on is that, as we go into the next century, more and more living-alone women will thrive and men will suffer. I really believe that the only two reasons why a woman has to be without a man is a) if she doesn't want one, or b) if she's a bore. Feminism or the alleged man shortage have nothing to do with it. Some people would have it that BJ (and given her slavish attitude to men, were any initials ever more appropriate?) is satire. Well, I don't want to get so personal so quickly - oh, go on, then - but the first time I met Helen Fielding, at a birthday party on a Hampstead roof, I was about to tell her how much I liked her journalism (she really was a very good, witty journalist), when she asked me if it was true I had two children. I said yes, I'd had them both in my twenties. She asked if I was married; I said I'd been married twice, in my twenties. Her face took on a look of absolute molten envy, and right there and then, in front of her boyfriend and my husband, she actually started talking about her biological clock! I'd never have believed women actually did that! In a highly interesting and ironic twist, Fielding's then-boyfriend (reputed to be the model for the Diary's callous love-object Daniel Cleaver, a notorious 'commitment-phobe') would subsequently go out with my ex-girlfriend (keep up) for two years, and prove himself to be anything but. That's one of the nice things you discover about men as you get older; they'll take a man-hating, theoretical-lesbian, militant feminist over a calorie-counting, self-help-book-reading man-pleaser any time, for the simple reason that they're more fun. 'Read it for its style,' pretentious young New York bohemians used to say to their impressionable girlfriends of the Bible; it is impossible, to put it mildly, to imagine anyone saying this about Bridget Jones books. Made up completely out of diary entries, their strange telegrammish style sounds after a while like a racist doing an impersonation of an Indian: 'Is very, very good bargain!' Every time the telephone or doorbell goes, Bridget shouts 'Gaaah!' On the rare occasions she has sex with the priggis hero Mark Darcy, this is signified by 'Mmm, Mmmm.' In order to show us that she is a 'proper' novelist, Fielding occasionally breaks away from the Vale of Tears that is Bridget's private life to have her incarcerated in a Thai jail for inadvertent drug-smuggling, or make her the target of a mystery madman's bullet. There are one or two episodes which would make good TV sketches - Bridget interviewing Colin Firth, supposedly about Fever Pitch, but not able to stop herself from drooling on about the Wet Scene in Pride and Prejudice, or Bridget going to lay flowers at Kensington Palace when Diana dies, but being too late for flowers so leaving a copy of Vogue and a packet of Silk Cut instead. Which, over the space of 422 pages, is as anorectic a ration as Bridget herself could desire. To sum up, in the manner of this book: 'Good jokes, 2, reasonable sequels, 0, putative sales 1,000,000 plus.'

Excerpt from book (from The Times) 3 a.m. Don't know what I would have done without the girls yesterday. Called them instantly after Mark drove off, and they were round within fifteen minutes, never once saying 'I told you so.' When Shazzer bustled in with armfuls of bottles and carrier bags, barking, 'Has he rung?' was like being in ER when Dr Greene arrives. 'No,' said Jude, popping a cigarette in my mouth as if it were a thermometer. 'Only a matter of time,' said Shaz brightly, unpacking a bottle of Chardonnay, three pizzas, two tubs of H�agen-Daaz Pralines and Cream and a packet of fun-sized Twixes. 'Yup,' said Jude, putting the Pride and Prejudice tape on top of the video, together with Through Love and Loss to Self-Esteem, The Five Stages of Dating Workbook, and How to Heal the Hurt by Hating. 'He'll be back.' 'Do you think I should call him?' I said. 'No!' yelled Shaz. 'Have you gone out of your mind?' bellowed Jude. 'He's being a Martian rubber band. The last thing you must do is call him.' 'I know,' I said huffily. I mean surely she didn't think I was that badly read. 'You let him go back to his cave and feel his attraction, and you move back from Exclusivity to Uncertainty.' 'But what if he . . . ?' 'You'd better unplug it, Shaz,' sighed Jude. 'Otherwise she'll spend the whole night waiting for him to ring instead of working on her self-esteem.' 'Noooo!' I cried, feeling like they were going to cut my ear off. 'Anyway,' said Shaz brightly, pulling the phone out of the wall with a click, 'it'll do him good.' Two hours later was feeling quite confused.

Now the review from The Times. Seems unanimous. Best part of whole book is Bridget's interview with Colin! :-D ********* Bridget Jones was a true Nineties heroine. But the follow-up to her bestselling Diary is about as appealing as last night's ashtray, says Lottie Moggach Not v.g. at all Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary was a good book. Bridget exemplified the feelings many modern women felt guilty about; that, despite being supposedly independent and career-minded, they secretly yearned for a man to sweep them off their feet. She relentlessly aired insecurities about her looks, which we previously thought best to keep behind a locked bathroom door. She was endearing in her honesty; it's fun reading about people who seem to have it all, but are really in a mess. The book was amusing and palatable. You couldn't blame its author for the fact that a worrying number of women did more than just relate to and laugh at Bridget Jones; they pronounced themselves to be her living embodiment. Or that the huge success of the book has led to hundreds of poor, lurid spin-offs - Straight Talking; Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married; The Trials of Tiffany Trott. Fielding, obviously an intelligent woman, must be bemused by what she has started. So, in writing a sequel, she had a golden opportunity for some corrective action. Bridget Jones could get a life. And the title, The Edge of Reason, does indeed suggest something a little darker. However, if this book is meant to represent a step towards sense and intelligence for Bridget Jones, it is merely a small teeter in Agent Provocateur mules and a size-too-small pencil skirt, before collapsing on the floor. The form is the same as the first. Calories, Chardonnay, cigarettes. Lusting over Mark Darcy. Shrieking and swooning with her friends Shaz and Jude. The country may have changed but Bridget hasn't; her response to the 1997 election is that Cherie Booth is fantastic because "she too would probably not fit into tiny bikinis in communal changing rooms". There is zero character development. Bridget's self-absorption is unchallenged and complete. The nearest she gets to a healthy perspective on life is a momen when, in despair because Darcy is getting off with someone else, she sits by a river and thinks, "perhaps none of this matters, because there'll always be nature." This, though, is just a throwaway comment. Towards the end, there is an unconvincing plot twist. On a girl's holiday to Thailand, Bridget gets duped into being a drugs mule and ends up in prison facing ten years. Extraordinarily, Thai jail sounds rather a hoot. Bridget ends up, by popular demand, performing Like a Virgin, wearing a Wonderbra and sarong and using a Tampax as a microphone. And, of course, being fed on rice and water is very good for slimming. Because this book fails to go anywhere, all the aspects that were original and lively about the first are now irritating and tired. The italicised statistics at the beginning. Sentences without prepositions. Bridget's distressed seagull cries of "Gaaah!". The clubby name-checking of the west London media lifestyle. Second time around, the minor characters seem like clich�s rather than caricatures. Gaaah. The more the book sits on your stomach, the more queasy you feel; as if you've gorged on wine, chocolate and pizza at the same rate as Bridget does. The bits which do make you smile (notably when Bridget, trying to forge a career as a journalist, disastrously interviews the actor Colin Firth), quickly fade into insignificance. The morals of this story are being generally self-absorbed, shallow and ignorant. For example, Bridget doesn't know where Germany is; she takes a stranger's bag on to a plane and thinks that a bullet is, in fact, a lipstick (another incredible plot twist, although this is passed off as kooky and charming rather than basic stupidity); and she thinks living her life according to Californian psychobabble is good. Salman Rushdie may consider Bridget Jones to be a "brilliant comic creation", but I suspect that other men will think, understandably, that this confirms a view of women as silly, trivial, desperate creatures. It's bad luck that this sequel has come out around the same time as Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole - The Cappuccino Years; it suffers heavily in comparison. Adrian Mole really is a brilliant comic creation, and Townsend's satire much sharper. Every sentence is witty and well thought out, and the whole has reverberations beyond itself. But whatever reviewers say, The Edge of Reason will sell by the truckload. You just can't account for taste.

Hmmm, saw the Lottie Moggach interview (LM is a novelist, but not a best-selling one like Helen). Julie Burchill is a nototoriously "acid" writer, whom most people avoid like the plague. I thought the personal comments about Helen ("her face took on a look of molten envvy...biological clock" and particularly the fact that Helen's then boy friend switched allegiancies to Burchill's ex-girl friend) are way, way out of order. Cruel and unnecessary. Typical Burchill slum standard. As I've said, I'll collect my copy today (Made the mistake of ordering from local bookshop who seem to operate 24 hours behind the rest of the world!). From the extracts, a lot of it seems to be re-cycled from HF's old stuff. The Colin interview must, I'm sure, be the Independent "interview". But as the Independent only has a readership of 300,000, going down daily, most people would not have seen this. And it's too good to waste. I expect HF to suffer from the success-envy syndrome. It seems to me that in the UK that once you've been terribly successful, your subsequenrt efforts are always ridiculed. It's "knock-em off the pedestal" time. Think CF also suffered from this!

A sophomore slump has become so expected it's almost pre-destined. And as for Burchill - she indeed sounds like a nasty piece of work. What an ego! Just begging to be brought down a few pegs. I'd like to see Helen do the honors. Still, JB was funny at times. Mark, loved your on-the-spot reporting yet again. If we can do anything for you...come up with bail money, intermediate between you and your dear wife...please let us know.

Have skim-read the book and, shallow though I may be, I like it ...a lot! Mark Darcy is in evidence throughout, and CF as himself also puts in an appearance (very funny). Will now read properly!

Couldn't exactly call this the sophmore slump, BJD was her sophmore book! Perhaps its the growing pains for being a junior;) (Well, I thought it was funny!) Still want to read, and who cares if jealous non-bestselling authors condem a book. That's THEIR problem! so, ha!

Two articles in the Sunday Times about Bridget. http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/Sunday-Times/frontpage.html?999 An interview with Helen, using a Bridget-style setup, repeating many of her standard answers, including Mark's fav. I won't copy the entire thing here. Go to: News Review, "Me and Ms. Jones" Differences between this book and the last one: many (obviously have not simply copied it out). The Edge of Reason (very clever sounding, non?) starts where the last one left off, with Bridget in bed with Mark Darcy and about to discover what happens when you have a man, not as a fantasy in your head, but actually in your flat and he thinks washing up means twiddling one fork under the tap then waiting to be praised for being a New Man. The plot is more dramatic - Bridget goes to Thailand and ends up being banged in jail for alleged drug smuggling - but it is also about her internal state of mind. She starts off using self-help books in the same pick-and-mix way that she once used diets, hopping between the Road Less Travelled and Buddhism Made Simple in the same way that she used to vacillate between the Scarsdale and the F-plan. Number of actresses cast in the part of Bridget in the movie: 0. The film is being made by Working Title and will be shot next year, but we're still at the script stage with quite a few of us involved in writing it. I keep seeing girls who I think would be perfect for the part; my favourite was a girl in the gym who was sitting on a machine for really quite a long time reading a magazine and not exercising at all. I nearly walked up and offered her the part. Plans to start work on new novel immediately: 0. ********* But I must cut and paste the entire Review! It describes in quite a bit of detail the Persuasion angle: Keeping up with the Jones by LYNNE TRUSS There is no escaping recognition humour these days. Satire is struggling, wit is on the wane, but recognition humour arrives by dumper-truck. Everywhere you look, there is someone saying "What about dandruff then?" and waiting for applause. So, while the publication of a follow-up Bridget Jones volume - albeit modestly arriving in the shops without fanfare - might look primarily like a cynical way of making an enormous amount of guaranteed money before Christmas (and I do hope Picador realises how easily heir intentions have been penetrated), for the author of such a sequel, there are a number of risks. How many times can you define the comic zeitgeist? Bridget Jones's Diary (1996) was always funnier and more acute than its calorie-fixated reputation presented it as, but hasn't the world moved on a bit since the diary's heyday three years ago? Aren't the mating habits of ditsy urban "Singletons" a bit old hat? Good grief, think how quickly everyone got tired of Friends. Moreover, there was a formal problem for Helen Fielding to overcome. Bridget Jones's Diary ended with a heavily underlined Pride and Prejudice romantic conclusion. After disliking and distrusting him for all the wrong reasons (remote behaviour, superior family connections, big house), Bridget had finally recognised the true worth of her very own Mr Darcy - conveniently Mr Darcy was his actual name, to avoid ambiguity - and acquired him at Christmas 1996 as (famously) "Nice boyfriends 1". "Where can go fro here? Where? Where? GAAAH!" Fielding must have asked herself, in Bridget Jones-type feverish prose, as she surveyed her narrative options. Well, the excellent news is that Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is - apart from being set without hiatus in 1997, about which truly nobody cares any more - funnier and more accomplished than the original diary, and in fact takes recognition humour into a new dimension. First, there is the everyday dandruffy stuff at which Fielding excels, in any case: Bridget wrestles with "mad" hair, buys "scary pants" in Marks & Spencer, dials 1471 18 times to keep making sure she hasn't gone inexplicably deaf (who h sn't done this?), and has a mother who takes her to have her colours done in Debenhams and says things such as, "She's a spring or I'm a tin of pears". I loved Bridget's married friend Magda, forever addressing her small children while on the phone to her mates. "Bridget hi!" says Magda, memorably. "I was just ringing to say in the potty." Then there is the nice, warmfeeling derived from simply meeting Bridget again, because unlike other fictional diary writers in the same league (Pooter; Adrian Mole; Private Eye's John Major), she breaks free of the restrictive faux-naif tradition and is therefore robust and entertainingly good company. And finally, there is an exceptionally nice, warm feeling when you realise that having exhausted the plot of Pride and Prejudice, Fielding has simply refused to be defeated. Instead she has continued wanton y nicking ideas from Jane Austen and not minding at all who knows it. True, Anne Elliot in Persuasion never got into comical difficulties at a Thai airport, as Jones does. True, she never worked in a television production office littered with "an inflatable sheep with a hole in its bottom, a blow-up of Claudia Schiffer wearing Madeleine Albright's head, and a large cardboard sign saying 'LESBIANS! Out! Out! Out!' ", or wished her child-bearing friends wouldn't casually launch into anecdotes of "slashing, stitchings and effusions of blood, poison, newts and God knows what as if making light and delightful social chit-chat". But she did watch in silent agony while her former boyfriend (Captain Wentworth) appeared to love another, having weakly been persuaded against him by well-meaning friends. And that's the plot - in skeletal form - of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. The language is different, of course, but there are parallel incidents in heaps. Remember when Anne Elliot momentously confesses in Chapter 23 of Persuasion that "All the privilege I claim for my own sex . . . is that of loving longest, when existence or whe love is gone"? Here is Bridget Jones in the same situation: "If you love someone, it's pretty hard to get them out of your system when they bugger off." See? It's the same really. Is Bridget's former boyfriend eavesdropping when she makes this sorrowful announcement, perhaps? He is! He is! Does he wordlessly scribble a note, like Captain Wentworth? He does! He does! The theme of persuasion also gives the book an underlying seriousness, although naturally I hesitate to mention it. Bridget has no meddling Lady Russell to spoil her life, but she has the modern, comic equivalent which is, in its results, quite as bad - a set of loyal single mates (Jude and Shazzer), who are all addicted to 37 varieties of self-help books about Getting the Love You Want or Keeping the Love You Find and consider it their duty to gang up against any invading man from Mars. "There is nothing a man finds more attractive than a woman who is in love with him," warns Jude at one point. "Says who?" asks Shaz. At which Jude has to confess the flimsiness of the authority on this occasion. "The baroness in The Sound of Music," she says, sheepishly. The point is that boyfriends threaten the group. "Oh God," Jones records in her diary, "Feel guilty with Jude and Sharon now I have a boyfriend, almost like traitorous double-crossing side-switching guerrilla." But she is not just the victim here; in fact, she is equally determined to prise Jude away from her fianc� Vile Richard, because "a) He is mad. b) He is vile. Vile by name and vile by nature. c) Is intolerable to have to dress up as pink puffball and walk down aisle with everybody watching." This s ems fair enough. Especially the spectre of the bridesmaid outfit. Yet, after a rift with Jude, Bridget is strolling on Hampstead Heath when "eye caught by a happy-looking couple" and she receives a sharp lesson in meddling that is really quite like an epiphany bit out of Emma or something. "She on her back with her head on his stomach, him smiling, and stroking her hair while he talked. Something about them looked familiar. As I got closer, I saw that it was Jude and Vile Richard . . . Suddenly Jude burst out laughing at something Vile Richard had said. She looked really happy." Personally, I still balk a little at Fielding's defiantly unrealistic attitude to the business of actually writing a diary. Bridget makes entries when frantically busy, or in jail ("11.02pm. Am wearing leg irons!"), or in the back of a minicab when late for the airport. One thinks of another Fielding 250 years ago (Henry, in Shamela) parodying the Pamela epistolary fad of present-tense writing with his heroine scribbling the unforgettable "Odsbobs! I hear him coming in at the door!" But Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is a glorious read, and there is a laugh on every page, and just in case you were wondering, our heroine has still not finished The Famished Road by Ben Okri. Oh Bridget Jones, you are moi.

One good review. Thanks for the print out, Karen! I was not able to get to Ms Jones article, tant pis! I hope that our dear friends who are reading the book post the message CF leaves on Bridget's recorder.

Have to say that the bad reviews are totally unjustified, as are the personal attacks on HF,...there seems to be a HF/BJ backlash. It made me laugh...it's a funny book ...why do female reviewers seem to think it should be making serious statements. Here's the main CF bit.. much edited: 10am Colin Firth hasn't rung. 10.03 Still hasn't rung 10.07 Wonder if it's too early to wake Jude and Shazzer up? May be he is waiting til his girlfriend has gone out shopping to ring me. 5pm Flat looks like bomb has hit it, due to Mr Darcy stakeout : sprawled all over sitting room like in Thelma and Louise when Thelma's house is taken over by police and Harvey Keitel is waiting for them to ring with tape recorders whirring in the background..... 6.15 Still has not rung. Maybe girl friend has just refused to go out shopping. Maybe they have just been having sex all weekend and sending out for Italian icecream and laughing at me behind my back. (They go out..return after 14 minutes..answer phone is flashing..) Tremulously as though it was an unexploded bomb, Shazzer reached forward and pressed ANSWER PLAY. "Hello Bridget, this is Colin Firth" We all jumped a foot backwards. It was Mr Darcy. The same posh, deep can't be bothered voice that he proposed to Elizabeth Bennet in on the BBC. Me. Mr Darcy said Bridget. On my answerphone. "I gather you're coming to Rome to interview me on Monday" he went on. I was calling to arrange somewhere to meet. There's a square called the Piazza Navona, sort of easy place to find in a taxi. I'll meet you 4.30 by the fountain. Have a safe journey" 1471, 1471" gabbled Jude. "Get the tape out... "Call him back" screamed Sharon like an SS torturer. "Call him back and ask him to meet you in the fountain. OhmyGod." (Then Tom rings with a message making fun of Mr Darcy..) "Shut up Tom!" But it was too late. My answerphone recording of Mr Darcy saying the word Bridget and asking me to meet him in Rome by the fountain has been lost for ever. And there is nothing anyone in the world will be able to do about it. Nothing,nothing. Nice! I like it. Ignore the anti-BJ critics. The sequel isn't perfect, but it's fun. There's another reference somewhere to CF as being "really nice". Helen gives him good PR!

Thanks, Bethan. You have certainly whetted my appetite.

That was hysterical, Bethan. Loved it. "meet in in the fountain" Hoping for a wet interview. :-D Also loved their conclusions about him and Livia laughing at her behind her back. Too much. Can't wait to read.

Review in The Observer: http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/Print/0,3858,3932818,00.html Again, talks about the Bridget-CF Interview being a highlight. Pam goes to Kenya and brings back a tribal warrior too. ;-D

I will wait for Allison to define kitten heels, I have not been to this topic for a while and now I have to confess to failure. Whilst Mark is crashing launch parties and Bethan and Karen are copying out vast tracts from books and press, I have to confess that I have no idea what a kitten heel is. It sounds rather 1950'ish! Have reall yen joyed all the extracts. Will definitely put it on my Christmas list!

Cannot let the Julie Burchill comments pass unstabbed. Possibly HF only started talking about her own personal problems because she felt embarrassed (in a Bridget-like way) that an innocent question had revealed JB's inability to have any kind of satisfactory personal life. 2 failed marriages in her twenties, children, lesbian relationships, back to straight.... And possibly the fact that JB finds it so easy to land a man all the time is that she doesn't know how to form a functional relationship with a man (or indeed a woman) and has no standards. Uh-oh, I'm getting a little defensive about my sex here. Back to the book - later in the evening that Shazzer and Jude bring round the videos, an emotional crisis for Bridget has them shouting: "Quick - put on the tape - fast forward to the wet shirt ... now ... now!" I thought that might find some approval here. I take it everyone read the BJ interview with CF when it weas available (on Lisbeth's timeline, I think) last year? In a sense, HF has provided some cement for all the best bits from articles that were in the Telegraph (though I'm only halfway through the book) but done it very well. Given the book's concentration on CF, and the fact that HF told Laura last year that she had visited this board, it's all too easy to believe that HF is lurking out there somewhere (or contributing under a false name ...???)

OK, Mark, I confess, NOT! Thanks for all the postings and the reviews. I can only imagine her to be stressing the CF thing to 1. Convince him to do Mark Darcy. 2. Convince the film producers to get him to be Mark Darcy. 3. To let everyone know that no matter who gets the part, he is Mark Darcy. So Helen, if you are reading this, give us a sign.

3. To let everyone know that no matter who gets the part, he is Mark Darcy. Definitely, this is the one. HF thanks CF, right up front, for being her inspiration. Doubt she comes here anymore. The reason was curiosity at our responses to her columns. Since she writes those no longer... About that JB article. I'm constantly amazed at the differences between what can be published in the UK and here. And didn't you say your libel laws were easier to prosecute under than ours...wait, that came from the UK Politically Incorrect show. Oh well...I thought the anti-Bridget and Ally bashing contingents had had their says and we've moved on.

After this book, if CF doesn't take the role, I feel sorry for any guy who does.Blatantly second choice...and everyone will compare him to CF... and moan...!

I shouldn't say this, but if Colin appears as himself giving an interview, does this mean he will not appear as Mark Darcy? Unfortunately, this seems very logical to me :'-( Mark, congratulations on crashing the party (I never thought I would say such words :-P) Everybody, you are a great read evenwhen I have no time and must rush through the posts.

Ditto to all the Julie Burchill comments made. When a reviewer makes the review all about herself (to which I say in earnest: Who cares?), it diminishes the content of the review. Thanks for taking the time to find and post the reviews, Karen. And a big thanks to Bethan for posting the excerpt. Maybe they have just been having sex all weekend and sending out for Italian icecream and laughing at me behind my back. Fielding certainly hasn't lost her touch! I'll be buying when it comes to our friendly shores. Hey, if CF doesn't play Mark (too busy with Flashman miniseries), maybe he'll play himself in a cameo...

Or perhaps he will play Mark AND himself....that would be interesting.

OR better yet, Jonathon Firth plays Colin Firth and Colin Firth plays Mark Darcy. Get the best of both worlds;)

(Gi) if Colin appears as himself giving an interview, does this mean he will not appear as Mark Darcy? that was my first thought as well... but i like Laura's idea!!! :) Mark- congrats on your sucessfully crashing the party!!!! And you didnt get caught!!! I'm so impressed - i crashed a wedding about 2 months ago, and was caught by the bride and groom (who thankfully were very gracious and invited me to stay even thought we had never met before in my life) *blushing* The sequel is sounding wonderful... dont know if i'll be able to wait for it to be released here in the states, might have to order it and pay the horrid postage. Thanks for the excerpts and interviews, Karen and Bethan!!! :)

The new book sounds like a hoot. Thanks Bethan, Mark, and Karen for the excerpts, interviews, etc. Surfing around a bit, I found a reference to a recent "live interview" with Helen in which she said, "We are still working on the new script. IT WILL BE MAINLY BASED ON THE FIRST BOOK." It hasn't been cast yet."

I'm waiting for Mark to give an erudite, well-considered review, as per SLOW, before I chip in with what will undoubtably be an inferior version! But, in the meantime, I must have my say. I've been dipping into the book all weekend, reading backwards, forwards, from the middle (not how one is supposed to read a book, I know!) And the more I read it, the more I like it, and I just cannot understand some of the uncharitable reviews. It's made me smile...a lot...and frequently hoot with laughter! It's quite sweetly romantic - happy endings all round, Bridget and Mark, Jude and Vile Richard, Bridget's parents, Mark's parents, Magda and Jeremy, even Shazzer. Although Rebecca gets stuck with Giles (Mark's boring colleague), Tom seems to be developing a fancy for Mark Darcy, and Geoffrey (of Una and Geoffrey) turns out to be, as Bri get's mum comments, "one of those homos -but "bi", so it's okay" :-) Other snippets. Some of the episodes are familiar (taken from the Telegraph columns). Gary the builder is back, though with a slightly different persona, Daniel appears and is punched on the nose by Mark Darcy, some Persuasion parallels, including Rebecca jumping off a bridge and being rescued by Mark and Fat Giles. Mark Darcy wears Newcastle United boxer shorts, wears a towel (twice), gets detained by the police (twice) and admits to sleeping (once)with Rebecca "I mean one's only human. I was a guest. It seemed only polite". Pam goes to Africa and brings back a Masai tribesman. Also invites round Elaine Darcy and Admiral Darcy (MD's parents) to tell them off re. Mark's supposed behaviour to Bridget. Colin (Bridget's dad) takes to drink. Colin (Firth) makes several indirect appearances (at one point Bridget surmises that Rebecca is going out with Colin Firth). Richard Finch takes to snorting coke. Bridget gets a good job with Cinnamon Productions, makers of the programme "Blind Snog". Mark Darcy goes down on his knees to propose, sort of. Read the book...only 422 pages!

(Bethan) before I chip in with what will undoubtably be an inferior version! Ah... do not sell yourself short. I've been laughing *with* your inferior version. Now, why is reading this book from page 1 to page 422 not desirable? ;-D happy endings all round Uhmmm... almost seemed like Helen was going to pull the rug out from under us. She intimated that Bridget-Mark was not going to be the fairy tale ending, i.e., life is not like that. (bummer, to bring in reality!) ;-D Daniel appears and is punched on the nose by Mark Darcy Yes! Mark Darcy wears Newcastle United boxer shorts Yes! Yes! ...wears a towel (twice) Hoorah!! yes yes yes!! (HF listens to her fans) admits to sleeping (once)with Rebecca "I mean one's only human. I was a guest. It seemed only polite". V. convincing barrister-like argument. ;-D Another article in The Telegraph called, "How Mr Darcy Manages to Turn up in Persuasion": http://www.booksonline.co.uk:80/booksol?ac=002136006238665&rtmo=fafsvlss&atmo=mmmmmH9R&pg=/99/11/20/bobrig20.html

Interesting that the Telegraph picked up on the Persuasion parallels. They're there, but you have to look for them. Mark Darcy writes a letter to BJ to tell her of his true feelings, but unfortunately gives her the wrong note..a handwritten copy of Rudyard Kipling's poem "If". Which BJ thinks is the equivalent of a self-help book. Shazzer/Jude take on the Lady Russell role, phoning up Bridget to give her advice on her relationship with Mark, even when Mark is there. "'E's 'ere" I hissed clenched-teethedly. (on phone) !It's all right" said Mark, nodding reassuringly. "I realise I'm here. I don't think it's the sort of thing we should be keeping from each other". Jude goes too far and precipitates major break-up... While I was staring, Mark pulled the piece of paper off the fax, looked at it and handed it over. It was a scrawled note from Jude saying "Who needs Mark Darcy when �9.99 plus P&P will buy you one of these", on top of an advert for a vibrator with a tongue.

LOL! Thanks Bethan, for your enjoyable report. And you Karen, for the article.

Bethan, I don't think I can top your review. And my "erudition" sadly does not extend to having read Persuasion. Shame on me! However, I am delighted if HF has constructed a second conceit based on JA, because I think it introduces a level of art into the humour. I am still only halfway through (reading the book in the old-fashioned manner of start to finish), and fighting with my DW for the book at all times. However, I can say that I think overall the book is tighter and funnier than the first, although maybe a little more two-dimensional and harsh. Bridget's character infuriates some (including my wife and many reviewers) who want her to be a more plausible person rather than a monstrous magnification of certain insecurities and sensibilities. If she is too feckless to look after herself, she earns sympathy and derision in equal measure, and you hope that Mark Darcy will eventually give her the commitment that she craves but hardly deserves. Although it's easy to see why she is reviled by some feminists. The appearance of Colin Firth in the book (often referred to by BJ as Mr Darcy) right next to Mark Darcy, almost seems incestuous at times, but the cast of characters provides enough rich farce to carry the whole project along almost seamlessly. Subjectively, of course, I think it's fantastically good and well-written. Note how many critics deride the style but still imitate it: "Laughs 26 (v.g.), sympathetic characters 0" harhar! Love the idea of CF playing both Mark Darcy and himself in the film or a sequel!

Reviewers get too caught up in character analysis. I like it purely for HF's humor: It was a scrawled note from Jude saying "Who needs Mark Darcy when �9.99 plus P&P will buy you one of these..." LOL.

Another article in the Evening Standard; can't remember if this was already posted, but is critical. Thinks Bridget is too old (40) to be acting in this way anymore. Pfft!! Stereotypes re: age. Reviewer should be hung up by his toenails. ;-D http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/html/lifestyle/books/top_direct.html

MY BOOK CAME!!! I HAVE IT. Okay, sorry, I needed something to be excited over!!! WooHoo! (Now if I wasn't at work, sigh...) v.g! yessssssssssss!!!!!!!!

Bridget isn't 40! She's on the cusp of thirty surely. And the book is, putting it simply, very funny and an entertaining read. (And a book that can be dipped into at random!) It's certainly worth ordering and paying the extra postage charges!! I don't understand why reviewers are trying to take it so seriously and attacking it, unless great success can only be topped by failure. Sour grapes! I hope Helen's friends are supporting her! :-) Thanks Mark, for your supporting views!

It's certainly worth ordering and paying the extra postage charges!! ] Yep, yep, yep, Rebecca will play her Pokemon game on her brand new color game boy, while mom digs into BJ. OH BOY do I EVER need, BJ right now!!!!!

Thank you Bethan for all the blurbs,Karen for the media reviews, and Mark for your comments from the male perspective....what does YDW think of the book? OK Laura...go to it! We are eagerly awaiting what the BJ Topic Host has to say.

I've been so entertained by your reviews, excerpts and other posts! Thank you all very much. Can the book make me laugh more than you already managed? I'm working on my shopping list for January :-)

Laura, what site did you order your book from? Do only the British-based sites have it in stock?

Esbee, you have to go to amazon.co.uk or waterstones.co.uk Can't buy it in the US. Shipping is a !@#$% argh

Evelyn, yeah, me too! Esbee, it was ordered thru amazon.co.uk last week (Tuesday to be exact, and was airmailed to me. Received today!). n.b, eh?

For two books w/ shipping it was 28lbs. If I remember correctly, I deleted the shipping info that Lynn sent me.

Thanks Laura and Karen :)

Okay, it's a fast read and I must say that most of it is what we read online, with more filler in it. I'm finding Shaz and Jude to be extremely annoying and Magda with her children while interacting with Bridge is also annoying. Just up to the part where Rebecca has invited Mark and Bridge to her house and Bridge was caught snoggin with whippersnapper(nephew). Anyway, that's all so far!

ooooh, towel bit coming up shortly... ;-D

Yeah, but it was anti-climactic as I already knew WORD FOR WORD what happened! Right now I'm up to the Persuasion chapter (v. beginning). Mother is still annoying and dad is on drugs;) (not really, just walking around in a haze!)

From The Independent: It's business as usual in Bridget Jones land Louisa Young Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding (Picador, �12.99) SOME PEOPLE think it a good thing to criticise a novel for what it's not. It's not great literature, for example, or it's not a truly academic work, or it's not as searing/haunting/stringent as this or that � and its heroine is not a good example of how a modern, independent woman should be. All of which is absolutely true of Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason (follow-up to Bridget Jones's Diary, international best-seller, public icon and spawner of backlash), and all of which is utterly beside the point. Bridget Jones is what it/she is: funny. I find Bridget, as well as funny, simultaneously reassuring and a pain. She's a pain because I (along with 90 per cent of women in this country � yes, I do mean you, and nothing Camille Paglia can say will change my view on this) have had those telephone/chardonnay/boyfriend moments, and I don't care to be reminded of them or of myself at the time. She's reassuring because even though she hasn't grown up, I have. I can look back and laugh, like a drain, and hollowly. And that is what Bridget Jones is for. She's for laughing kind of at and kind of with. She's no role model � she never was. She's a scapegoat, a there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-all-of-us-except-of-course-Julie-Burchill-who-is-much-too-grand. Our story takes up with Bridget listing her blessings: "9st 3 (total fat groove), boyfriends 1 (hurrah!), shags 3 (hurrah!), calories 2,100, calories used up by shags 600, so total calories 1,500 (exemplary)." So from the beginning we know that it's business as usual in Bridget-land. Bridget has a job in television, a flat of her own, a lovely human rights lawyer boyfriend who owns a huge house in Holland Park, some corking girlfriends, lots of Voyage cardigans and lovely little slippy dresses from Agn�s B, breakfast and dinner in groovy Notting Hill hangouts, weekends in the country, holidays in exotic Far East locations. Sounds all right, doesn't it? Unfortunately for her (though not for Helen Fielding, or really for the reader) Bridget still hasn't cottoned on to the simple truth that, no matter what your blessings, the key to a modern girl's happiness is not to care how much she weighs. Without knowing this, she will never be happy. But if she were happy, would she amuse us? I suspect not, vultures that we are. What's good for Bridget the Best-Seller is sad for Bridget the Girl. No matter what happens to Bridget, she doesn't learn. She lets her girlfriends make her chuck the lovely boyfriend; she carries someone else's bag through customs in Thailand; she gives a builder �3,500 in cash � but none of this matters because plot is irrelevant in these books. Even more so than in most novels, if anyone behaved in even a slightly realistic or reasonable manner there would be no story. Bridget and her true love both manage to think that the other has chucked them, and don't bother to check. They are sent wheeling to and fro by classic devices such as a mislaid love note, overhearing a chat behind a hedge, and the heroine's being forced by circumstance to stay in the love object's home. The role of the usual 19th-century storm-induced influenza is played here by one of the most unconvincing death-threats � no, the most unconvincing death threat � I've ever read. And also, of course, one of the funniest. No, the funniest. A bullet arrives in the post with her name engraved on it. She thinks it's a promotional lipstick. Attagirl! In an attempt to win the happiness that will render her either fictionally obsolete or, at least, much more difficult to write about amusingly, Bridget has been reading self-help books. Fielding has a field day with them; Bridget, of course, learns nothing. Still, at the end of this book there is a shaft of light. For a moment, she seems to be going to treat her young man as a human being. It's curiously heartwarming. I don't feel that Bridget is letting the sisterhood down by wanting to love and be loved on a day-to-day basis, and I would like her to be happy, because she's a nice girl. She may not prove to be quite so funny any more, but I bet she has other fascinating qualities waiting to emerge in her maturity. Funniness is not everything. Whoops. It's that "not" word again.

Evelyn found this: IT'S HELENA-BONHAM CARTER!!! Article in Saturday's Times about the true purpose of BJD. But the best thing is a picture of HB-C (captioned "tipped to play Bridget") and the final paragraph: "The film of the book should be with us next year: another chance for women to explain themselves to men. And with Helena Bonham Carter playing BJ, there shouldn't be any difficulty persuading Mr Right to take a seat in the stalls." To the article: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/11/27/x-timwekwek02008.html?999

Somehow, I just always pictured BJ as a blonde... hmmmm... But I can deal with H B-C. (However, I cannot picture CF as MD now?) Okay, finished BJ: The Edge of Reason. And to give you my honest opinion... It was okay, not great (but, yeah, I was glued, only to find out how BJ would get out of any trouble she got into!) And whatever HF did to Gary the Builder is ridiculous, but I won't spoil it. Will add that the Persuasion aspect of it, was glaringly obvious. Yeah, Rebecca takes a spill, but she's not the injured party in the sense that Louisa Musgrove was. There is another character. Shaz is still crazy as always (and still iving Jude and Bridge bad advice at the same time! {um, hasn't she heard, practice what you preach?}) Mark Darcy is in quite a bit of it, but he's not really explored. She really could've had fun with this character of hers, but she lets us down (again), by not really going into much detail about why he does what he does (taking the Fitzwilliam Darcy persona a bit too far, perhaps? remember, JMHO;)) Again, Mom and Dad are just completely nuts, and no wonder why Bridge is a bit daft. Only Bridge could go to Thailand (during monsoon season, no less), and get into a bit of a squiff. She's gullible, vulnerable and sometimes just plain stupid. (she counts how many minutes she HAS NOT HAD SEX! and she does the math! {on calculator, of course}. I wonder how good Mark Darcy and Bridget Jones are for each other, as they clearly still haven't figured out how to communicate with each other.

Just started to read "The Edge of Reason" and got through a couple of chapters and to tell you the truth, I'm not liking it as much as BJD. I guess the excitement died down a little. But, I saw that Helen Fielding acknowledged a bunch of people and Colin Firth's name was mentioned (hurray!!)

It is getting a little wearing. I'm only in March but I've wanted to ring her neck, let's see, about 60 times now. Still, there's enough to make me crack up and want to read more. For my own curiousity, does anyone know which Kevin Curran it is that Helen gives a special acknowlegement to? Not a new boyfriend, is he? There's a professional tennis player from England or South Africa (forget which) who was around in the 80s - made it to the finals of Wimbledon one year - name of Kevin Curran.

Don't read it all at once...pick up, put down. Read it in short bursts. It's sold nearly 50,000 in hardback in just under 2 weeks, which is excellent in terms of UK book sales.

Seems it�s expected to be a big hit over here too, I bought it two weeks ago, scooping it from a huge heap in the best place of shop. Btw I like it so far, I�m on page 296 and have tittered aloud about 20 times. Did somebody say that feminists don�t like it?? I think this is a seriously feministic oeuvre :-D

It's sold nearly 50,000 in hardback in just under 2 weeks, which is excellent in terms of UK book sales. ] And I wonder how much flew out of the UK and into the US:)

Nice review by the Financial Times (4/12) BRIDGET JONES: Still chasing Mr Darcy By Susanna Rustin The diary, by definition, is the most self-conscious of forms, and famous diarists cannot help but be aware of each other. Thus Adrian Mole, aged 30 in Sue Townsend's latest novel, wonders enviously and without irony how Bridget Jones got her diaries published. Helen Fielding is quick to return the compliment: "Hurrah! The wilderness years are over" trumpets Bridget in the opening fanfare to The Edge of Reason. The phrase is borrowed from Mole, but to Bridget, for whose unmarried thirtysomething persona Fielding coined the term singleton, wilderness denotes a specific lack: 1996's bestselling Bridget Jones's Diary achieved closure with its heroine's acquisition of "boyfriends 1" - as she reminds her new diary at the outset. Now chronic insecurity, combined with pride and neurotic game playing, ensure that romantic bliss with Mr Darcy is shortlived. A series of farcical faux pas - saucy Valentines, botched snogs, filthy faxes - brings about the communication breakdown without which Bridget's love life would have no plot. Her infuriatingly unhelpful friends Shazzer and Jude heap coals on the fires of misunderstanding, until Bridget watches her handsome prince retreat into the clutches of the Other Woman. Back in the wilderness, Bridget resolves to cultivate the inner poise which her library of self-help books values above all else: "Am woman of world with career", "Am going to be top-flight journalist", she announces, before embarking on a journey to Rome. There, she conducts a ludicrous interview with actor Colin Firth, ostensibly pegged to his forthcoming film Fever Pitch, but in fact entirely taken up with his role in the BBC's adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Even when ostensibly focusing on a career move, Bridget is ruled by romantic fantasies, with the result that her accident-prone working life is never more than a diverting sub-plot. In Jane Austen's day, of course, marriage to Mr Darcy was all a girl could hope for, and Fielding was loudly criticised, first time around, for seeming to perpetuate the vain, self-obsessed, boy-crazy mentality of the sillier Miss Bennets. Certainly, Bridget Jones is no Elizabeth; although she has something of the self-contained dignity of Anne Elliot, whose plight in Austen's Persuasion is the model for the particular torments inflicted here. Publicly, she does retain her composure. And, finally, she lea ns from her mistakes. Two house parties hosted by arch-rival Rebecca provide some of Fielding's finest comic moments, as she works her devious, self-serving caricature to the bone. Bridget's mother is on memorably wild form, bringing a Kikuyu tribesman home from a holiday in Kenya and embarrassing her only daughter at every twist and turn. Magda's daughter Constance lives up to her name deliciously when, at her third birthday party, she makes her preference for honest Bridget over sycophantic Rebecca absolutely clear. Darcy ha dly puts a foot wrong. He has wit - "dating war command" is his shorthand for Bridget's dubious line in advice - as well as brains, looks and money. And he does a smooth line in rescues. I must admit to being taken aback to learn that Fielding's character is getting on for 40, and would bet money that the actress who plays her in the forthcoming film will be nearer 30. I laughed at the original Diary more, but for a sequel this holds up well. Helen Fielding is very clever and entertaining, and Bridget Jones has made her rich. Muddled-up and emotionally immature, Bridget is no role model; but since when did we look to satire for those?

Good level-headed review....BJ not to be taken seriously.... The reviewer and I see eye to eye on Shazzer and Jude.."Her infuriatingly unhelpful friends Shazzer and Jude heap coals on the fires of misunderstanding,..."The friends from hell!

I haven't read this book, but thought that those of you on this board might be interested to know that the actresses currently touted in the running to play Bridget are: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslett, Rachel Weisz and Emily Watson.

Thanks, Cheryl1B, where did you get this info? And what happened to HB-C?

OK, you guys got me to read this, and I started laughing aloud on page 1. But--a bit of translation please. What is f***wittage? An action, a condition, a person who behaves in a certain way? Despite the frequency of its use in the text, I'm still not clear on exactly what it means. Thanks to the idiomatic Britspeakers.

You've heard of half-wits and dim-wits, I'm sure. This is a term that HF was accused of inventing, but I'm not sure but what NH thought of it first. It is the condition of having ... um ... what was the Portugese expression? ... tomatoes? ... for brains. Let Gi translate. An moral adolescent. A commitment - phobe. (Mind you, all of this is taken out of context...I don't think it's in the dictionary yet ... But it will be. *Hee hee*!)

I think H B-C is still in the frame, at least according to UK sources! but I've never known there be so much conjecture about who takes on a role. I mean, Cameron Diaz playing BJ and H B-C playing her, there's quite a difference. Ditto Kate Winslett. There was some news on one of our radio arts programmes yesterday. The sequel to BJD has book sales totalling �1 million, excluding online orders. It will be available in the US (and worldwide) from the first week of March. The news broadcaster said that the timing was expected to coincide with the start of the production of the movie. The movie is expected to stay true to the first book, with the same characters appearing. No casting has been announced as yet. Mind you as CF seems to dominate the Seque , as himself, as himself playing Darcy, and (IMHO) as Mark Darcy (broad shoulders and bald patch!), he seem to be the obvious choice! BTW, I like the sequel, particularly the bits that hadn't appeared in serial form in the Telegraph. It's the sort of book that can be dipped into, and still be funny. Although, I'm not sure if it's the sort of book to read through in one sitting!

The book grew on me. I've concluded I like Bridget better when desperately single rather than desperately coupled. Huge laughs in any chapter with Rebecca and Colin Firth. Loved the subplot(?) with Mum's new houseguest. Cymbeline, did you read the first diary? Cameron Diaz as Bridget blows my mind. Throwing names out like this can only mean they're trying to keep generating interest in this very old project.

I agree with Heide about the names. Just for buzz in the US. I'd go with the report in The Times about HB-C. Sounded pretty firm to me.

Will they dye HB-C's hair? I don't picture BJ as a brunette. Rebecca, yes, not BJ.

Rebecca is, as I recall, specifically mentioned as a v. tall blonde with the long lion's mane of hair, as was the American woman who was sun bathing in the nude on Daniel's rooftop. For contrast, BJ should be a brunette IMO. The blondes make her feel inferior.

(KJArt) It is the condition of having ... um ... what was the Portugese expression? ... tomatoes for brains? Ah. So would that be someone who thinks with his you-know-what and gets himself and other people into trouble b/c of that or simply refuses to think of women other than as Clarissa's Lovelace thought of them and so makes them miserable? Heide, the first diary is what I'm reading.

The casting information came from "Entertainment Weekly Online". Those 4 actresses are considered the front runners, as of this point the film is still uncast.

Re: the brunette vs. blonde issue. Funny how I also imagined BJ as a blonde... Well, not a California type blonde, but very light brown hair (or very dark blond hair, whichever). Also, ever since someone suggested Catherine Zeta-Jones might play Rebecca, she had turned brunette in my mind. Otherwise, is she old enough for Sharon Stone?

Daniel's Valentine's Card in the original diary was "to the dusky beauty" which (together with the cover art) always made me think of Bridget as brunette. Of course HF (blonde herself) is careful to say almost nothing specific about Bridget's looks.

(Gi), Also, ever since someone suggested Catherine Zeta-Jones might play Rebecca, she had turned brunette in my mind. That was me! Rebecca must be sultry. I thought it would play better that way, BJ the blond in the little bunny outfit, etc. Also stressing the opposite attraction to the dark haired MD, to Daniel, the blond. HB-C would be a perfect Shazz. I just saw a picture of a very brunette Cameron Diaz in a mag. I wonder if auditions are going on now?

It's the other way around. HF has set up all Bridget's rivals as Nordic princesses and Bridget by default must be a regular type, i.e., brunette. Sultry can be done with either hair color (Kim Basinger's Veronica Lake character in LA Confidential most immmediately comes to mind). However, Bridget must be a brunette who envies blondes (who have more fun!) and their image, which makes Bridget feel insecure about herself. ;-)

I prefer Veronica Lake to KB doing sultry. I know that in the BJD, it is the other way round, but that is how I imagine it. ;-)

I don't think HF knows either, because in the second book, Rebecca is blonde again. I remember she describing her as being brunette, but BJ looks at her long legs and long swinging blonde hair. Perhaps, Rebecca colored her hair? :)

Rebecca was always blonde. Mark was referring to Bridget being described as dusky. The issue is getting totally confused. ;-)

Do not make yourself uneasy, Karen, we perfectly understand HF choices, we just chose to imagine otherwise. ;-D I guess Gwynnie will be going for the part of Rebecca. ;-)

I guess Gwynnie will be going for the part of Rebecca. ;-) Why? I just saw her on TV yesterday (?) at the Ripley premiere and she's dark haired! ;-)

Oh, No! They are all auditioning for Bridget!

Oon the book cove,r BJ looks like a brunette and (don't shoot me!) she also reminds me of Meg Tilly. :-) On hair colouring, and quite irrelevantly, caught a glimpse of Joe Fiennes on TV, and he is now blonde with blonde designer stubble!

No!!!! (also quite irrelvantly...unless he's auditioning for Rebecca)

LOL, Karen! He might be auditioning for Daniel. ;-)

My Studio Exec. friend in Hollywood sent me this: The auditions for Rebecca have begun. ;-)

I KNEW she described Rebecca with dark hair, but in the new book, Rebecca is now blonde! From the Telegraph Bridget Jones's Diary Wednesday, March 25 Number of times driven past Mark Darcy's house: 2 (vg); no of times looked up Mark Darcy's name in phone book to prove still exists: 18 (poor); 1471-calls: 12 (better); phone calls from Mark: 0 (tragic) "But, you're not driving," I said. At which I caught Dad's eye in the rear view mirror, just as she yelled: "Mind that Fiesta! Hoot him!" "I'm afraid she thinks she is," he said. "Isn't that Mark?" said Una suddenly. "I thought he was working." "Where?" said Mum, bossily. With dumb horror I followed Una's pointing finger to where, Mark, dressed in his dark blue overcoat and a very white, undone shirt, looking so gorgeous, so lovely, was paying a taxi. As if in slow motion, I saw a figure emerging from the back of the cab: tall, slim with long dark hair, laughing up into his face and taking his arm. It was Rebecca.

(Bethan) she also reminds me of Meg Tilly LOL! Well, I do believe that's one name which heretofore hasn't been mentioned in the same sentence as the phrase 'Bridget Jones'.

(Laura screaming) I KNEW she described Rebecca with dark hair Argh!! What did you do? Run a global search engine through the Telegraph site? Toot toot!! ;-) Now, where oh where did I read she was blonde? (of course, it wasn't the sequel...been checking my mailbox to no avail) ;-)

I bought The Edge of Reason today and am delighted :-)