Yesterday I had one of those moments of realization of how the actual world really works. And it was not a pleasant moment at all. I have read Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason many times but I never noticed what the real weight of Bridget was because my book is an english edition with stones and pounds and I didn't know the stone-pound or stone-kg conversion. Well, I made the conversion yesterday and she is around 130 pounds (5'5'' f)!!! What the heck?. She is supposed to be that "fat" girl in the films and she has an average weight, even an almost "skinny" weight by my standards . And this is the second book, and althought I haven't read the first one, she is supposed to have gained 10 pounds since the end of the first book!

This has changed somewhat my image of Bridget, because honestly with that weight how can she be that obssesed with her image? Many people would kill for stand in her shoes. I thought she was a chuby girl with problems of accepting herself, not a neurotic manipulated by the media to the point of thinking she is fat, fat, fat and she is going to explode as she says many times in the book. And what Renne Zellweger has said lately has made me still more angry. She is not going to gain weight if they make BJ3 because she has watched Supersize me and now she is frightened about the bad consequences of what she did before to gain the weight (aka stuffing herself with all the unhealthy food she could find). I have to ask, couldn't she just eat healthy and highly caloric food?. Because there's plenty of that food out there and I don't think she hasn't the money to buy it. And, so she didn't notice what that unhealthy food had done to her skin and her body until she watched Supersize me?. I thought Zellweger was smarter than that... . She thinks that gaining weight that way is unhealthy, but she hasn't voiced out loud her opinion about the way she has lost all that weight she gained (2 times) in just some weeks like she was in the biggest loser or something.

Honestly, if Hollywood is telling us that a 5'5'' woman, 130 pounds like Bridget is a fat woman I don't know where this puts the real average woman. Insanely fat maybe?. Anyway, I would prefer that to look like Zelweger did when she returned to her "natural" 110 pounds. I'm not surprised she deeply missed Bridget's boobs . (I hope that isn't considered celebrity bashing or something like that, that wasn't my intention at all.)

I thought I had seen an interview with Renee Zellwegger where she said she gained the weight by drinking calorie dense shakes along with her meals. I thought she had said she really didn't change her eating that much, just added in this weight gaining powder or whatever it was. But that was quite some time ago.

I think her issue with the weight gain/loss for a third movie is the rapid nature of the gain, not the method she would use to gain the weight.

Kara

Moke - You raise an excellent point about how utterly SKINNY conscious our media and especially hollywood are. Notice I didn't say HEALTH conscious but SKINNY conscious. The goal seems to be downright boney. Renee at 110 is a scary thought, and you know that's not her 'natural' weight ( or I doubt it).

Despite the ridiculousness of her being portrayed as the fat girl, I still say it's one of the most hilarious books I've ever read. And the author does a brilliant job of pointing out that the 'fat girl' thing is in Bridget's head more than anything else (everyone else - guys included- think she looks great), which is very realistic in my opinion. I was a thin and athletic high school student who weighed below 125 lbs (yes, naturally). I can remember when my weight surpassed 130, then 135, etc (gradually over the years) also feeling fat as it was a departure from how my body used to look and feel. In time, I've developed a more realistic and healthier body perception (notice my goal is now 135), but I do think lots of women struggle with Bridget's problem of feeling fat even when not. Does that make sense?

Claire, I can totally relate to what you're saying. I can look at pictures of myself and think I look decent, but then I stand in front of the mirror naked and am repulsed by the bulges and dimples and extra jiggle. I guess I can hide my imperfections with my clothes most of the time, but I still see them in my head.

Kara

That's what Zellweger said about her "diet" before playing the first film:

Renee, who was speaking in New York, recalled the overeating she had to do to gain weight for the first film in 2001.

"It sounds like heaven," she said. "For two days it's bliss and then you're full, OK? And you can then indulge all your fantasies about over-eating.

"Fantasies about non-stop chocolate consumption or your fantasies about ordering the pizza and the spaghetti and the garlic bread.

"Then after a week your glucose levels are going crazy. You're up and down and all over the place. It doesn't feel good, and no one wants to hear that, but it's the truth."

Then there is the dieting afterwards. "It was horrible," said Renee. "On one side it's fantastic because you get to go back to taking care of yourself, so you feel wonderful, but the first lap around the track I felt like I had a toddler on my back."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...#StartComments

But it's also right that when talking about Supersize me she did say:

"I had a panic attack with all the specialists talking about how bad this is for you, long term, putting on that much weight in short periods of time and they're all saying, 'You must stop this now or you're going to die'."

So maybe you are right tomandkara, and this time she is really worried about the rapid weight gain and not about overeating. But in the past she didn't seem to have the same opinion. Poor thing, for an actress her body is her work, so I suppose she has a lot of pressure to be skinny right after finishing filming BJ .

Sorry for double posting, I send only half of the post .

I know what you are trying to say walking2lose. Although I feel good about my aspect right know, I'm 10 kilos (20 pounds?) over what once was my normal weight. When I look at myself in the mirror I see many things I don't like, and that also happened when I was at the 100-110 range because our bodies are never perfect at any weight. But I don't feel fat, except the classical "fat days" where every woman on this planet feels fat . So of course I relate to Bridget in feeling that way sometimes... but the way she talks about herself in the book is sad. Maybe if I had first read the book knowing what she really weighted and then watched the films I wouldn't have the same opinion, but the Bridget played by Zelweger was always wearing unflatering clothes and they were focusing in her butt so much, that I really thought she was "fat" and not average. That's the reason when I discovered she was only "130 pounds" in the book and in the film that I felt a little surprised and dissapointed.

BTW, I love the book (that's the reason I have read it many times) and I would probably keep loving it. But it's like, discovering that Fitzwilliam Darcy from P&P was not grave and silent because of his character but because he had tooth ache. I would still admire the character, but I would feel cheated at the same time .