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Wednesday, 4 April, 2001, 09:34 GMT 10:34 UK

Bridget Jones fans set to txt


Hugh Grant and Renee Zellweger
Fans of the best-selling novel Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding will soon be able to commune with their heroine by mobile phone text message.

The chain-smoking, wine-swilling, singleton will send daily text message on the topics dear to her heart.

Expect calorie counts, relationship angst and tallies of glasses of chardonnay consumed.

BBC Singletons night presented by Mariella Frostrup
"For singletons like Bridget, the phone is becoming a major means of human contact," Bridget creator Fielding said.

"Texting allows followers to hear from Bridget more often than they hear from some of their own friends."

Life and loves

Finnish wireless entertainment publisher Riot Entertainment is launching the service in conjunction with Fielding on 13 April.

That is the day the film version of Bridget Jones's Diary - starring Renée Zellweger alongside Colin Firth and Hugh Grant as the love-interests, opens at cinemas across the UK.

Almost a billion mobile phone text messages are sent every month, according to the latest industry figures.

But sixty percent of text messages are sent by teenagers, while fans of Bridget Jones tend to be women in their late twenties or thirties.

But Riot Entertainment are confident that plenty of text messagers will sign up for updates on Bridget's life and loves.

Text message
Bridget Jones's appeal is that she is in a permanent state of disarray over some element of her life.

As Fielding points her particular brand of neurosis may tie in well with the obsessive nature of text messaging.

"You can be in communication with significant others anytime and anywhere - or not, which can be heartbreaking and obviously requires major analysis and discussion through further texting."

Bikini diet

Bridget Jones's Diary began as a series of newspaper columns, written by Helen Fielding, which were collated in a best-selling book.

Bridget Jones diary
The text messaging service is to include personality tests, an "Ask Bridget" service, Bridget Jones's Guide to Life and the expected discussion of dieting, dating, self-help and thigh circumference.

Riot Entertainment feel that such a service provides a further dimension to literary characters like Bridget Jones.

"Mobile is flexible, dynamic and has an immediacy which is not possible with any other medium," Riot-E chief executive Jan Wellmann said.

"Bridget can text others every day to report on the progress of her bikini diet or other urgent matters."


Related to this story:
Men, women and Bridget Jones (04 Apr 01 | Film) How Renée became Bridget (04 Apr 01 | Film) Bridget Jones star goes undercover (12 May 00 | Entertainment) Writers slated for 'Bridget Jones' novels (10 May 99 | Entertainment) An evening with Bridget Jones (12 Aug 98 | Entertainment) Phone poetry contest launched (29 Mar 01 | New Media) Text messaging nears a billion (21 Feb 01 | Business) WUBMV? messages set 2 soar (14 Feb 01 | UK) Renee's box-office cure (02 Sep 00 | Entertainment) Monday: Diary published in America. Am rich and famous (vg) (01 Jun 98 | Entertainment) Living life by txt msg (18 Dec 00 | Sci/Tech) Renée wins Bridget role (24 Feb 00 | Entertainment)


Internet links: Bridget Jones Diary - the movie | Bridget Jones Diary - the book | Riot Entertainment | Bridget Jones review - BBC Films Online |
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