So I finally saw Bridget Jones’s Diary last week, hard on the heels of reading the second book in the series, and discovered that the film was a blend of both books. I think what might have happened was that Helen Fielding, who co-authored the script (love it when they actually get the author to work on the film) was writing the second book while coming up with a couple of key scenes for the film, and ended up using similar versions in both movie and new book, never dreaming that a second film might be made.

Clicking on Bill’s link to Bridget Jones today, I discovered that they’re making a film based on the second book.

Er?

This should be interesting. How they’re going to top Colin Firth and Hugh Grant pounding each other and crashing through windows on a snowy street, I truly do not know.

The other wonderful bit of meta-fiction, Bridget’s obssession with Pride & Prejudice‘s Mr Darcy and Colin Firth, was by necessity disposed of in the first film, since, well Colin Firth was in it, providing fans of the book with a deliriously smug in-joke. (And heaven forbid we mention Jane Austen in a pop film. Pride and What? Good Lord, no, we might lose the audience!) The second book has Bridget actually interviewing Firth in Italy. However, and I quote (although I have cleaned up the spelling and the punctuation), Colin Firth has suggested that the scene in which Bridget interviews, er… Colin Firth may not appear in the sequel. Firth said in a recent interview, “He won’t be there, he’ll become George Clooney or something.” This may not have quite the same effect as the original way Fielding intended but since Firth is not in the scene maybe they’ll simply hope the audience doesn’t notice the remarkable resemblance.”

The statement made me laugh. Probably not for the right reasons, but I laughed.