Helen Fielding and Renée Zellweger gather in Leicester Square as a new bronze marks 30 years of the diary-writing everywoman who redefined the romcom heroine
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ridget Jones, Britain’s best-loved and most hapless romcom heroine, stands in a creased miniskirt and gaping cardie in the centre of London, clutching her diary and a pen. Alcohol units: 0, cigarettes: 0, calories: 0, weight: 31 stone – and, according to the actor Sally Phillips, “no intention of losing any of it”.
Phillips was in Leicester Square on Monday morning to unveil a life-size bronze of the comedy character, alongside Helen Fielding – who first cooked her up in a newspaper column 30 years ago, and whose novels have now been translated into more than 40 languages – and Renée Zellweger, star of the four Bridget Jones films (with a combined box office of $900m (£683m)).
The statue joins the likes of Paddington, Harry Potter and Charlie Chaplin as part of Westminster council’s Scenes in the Square scheme to further cement the location’s credentials as a cinema hub. It is home to four multiplexes and the setting of most of London’s red-carpet premieres.
