Just watched this Film. Review coming later. Here is an incomplete list of things I noticed and researched and found out and found interesting (to me) :)

I should explain, some of the trivia about actors arose because I refer to actors as the character I see them first play, and hence if they appear in another film/tv program e.t.c, it is always "he played such and such, that's how I recognise him").

1) Natasha, Mark's friend, is played by the actress who played Miss Honey in Matilda - Embeth Davidtz

2) The actress who plays Bridget's Mother has the same surname as the character she plays - Gemma Jones as Mrs. Jones.

3) Gemma Jones plays Connie in Spooks.

4) Jim Broadbent, who plays Mr Jones - I recognised him from Harry Potter, (he will play Professor Slughorn) and Chronicles of Narnia - he plays professor Kirke. Ah, just found it on IMDB - the most obvious and eluding way I recognised him (his voice mainly) is because he played Percy the Park keeper, a program I used to love watching. Apparently he was also in Brambley Hedge as Basil!

5) Bridget Jones's Diary is based on a book of the same name, written by Helen Fielding. She wrote a sequel called Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (BJ2) from now on). Both have been made into films, and Helen also helped write the screenplay for them both.

6) Helen also helped produce Film 1.

7) The other screenwriters for BJ (Bridget Jones - this is an unfortunate acronym indeed) are Andrew Davies and Richard Curtis. This forms the basis for many many references and more trivia.

7a) Richard Curtis is a very well known screen writer, and has written, amongst others:
- Mr. Bean
- Blackadder
- The Vicar of Dibley
- Love Actually*
- Notting Hill*
- Four Weddings and a Funeral*

He was also fundamental presence in the MakePovertyHistory campaign.

*Significant links to BJ, as you can see below.

7b) High Grant who plays Daniel Cleaver, one of BJ's love interests, has significant links to Richard Curtis -
He plays roles in Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually and Notting Hill (as well as BJ and BJ2).

Working Title Films is the same production company for BJ, BJ2, Notting Hill, Love Actually, FW&AF, and Pride & Prejudice (BBC 2005 TV serial, not Film Version), another film which has very significant links to BJ - see Point 8.

7c) Curtis knew the novel's writer Helen Fielding. Indeed, he has credited her with saying that his original script for Four Weddings and a Funeral was too upbeat and needed the addition of a funeral.

7d) Love Actually, another romantic chick flick comedy same as BJ, was written and directed by Richard Curtis, and also stars Hugh Grant and Colin Firth.

8) The other screenwriter for BJ, Andrew Davies, helped write Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV serial) with Richard Curtis.

8a) Helen Fielding has stated in many interviews that her novel (BJ) was based upon both Jane Austen's work Pride and Prejudice and the popular 1995 BBC adaptation.

8b) This was also reflected in the decision to cast Colin Firth as Mark Darcy in BJ (Yes, the same surname is not coincidence), since he played the 'real' Mr Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. [From Wikipedia, this article]

# When Helen Fielding wrote the novel Bridget Jones's Diary, she based the character of Mark Darcy on Colin Firth's depiction of Mr. Darcy in "Pride and Prejudice" (1995). In addition to the inside-joke casting of Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, there are several other allusions to Jane Austen's story: Mark disparages Bridget to his mother within earshot of Bridget. In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy disparages Elizabeth to his friend Mr. Bingley within earshot of Elizabeth. Daniel Cleaver lies to Bridget about a dispute between him and Mark, claiming Mark stole his fiancée; in fact, it was the other way around. In Pride and Prejudice, it's a dispute between Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy, and Wickham lies about who's at fault. The Darcy in both stories fails to disabuse the heroine's misinformed notion until it's almost too late. Bridget works at Pemberley Press; Mr. Darcy lives at Pemberley estate.

# Both leading actors' names, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, are mentioned in the book of Bridget Jones's Diary. The first on "Tuesday 24 October" and the second on "Wednesday 16 August".

# Colin Firth is himself a featured character in the book's sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004).

# Aside from bearing a resemblance to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the film also features a number of veterans of Austen film adaptations. Writer Andrew Davies wrote the screenplay for "Pride and Prejudice" (1995) (mini), which starred Colin Firth and Crispin Bonham-Carter. Hugh Grant and 'Gemma Jones' both appeared in Sense and Sensibility (1995). And Embeth Davidtz can be seen in Mansfield Park (1999).

# When Bridget stops at a mall to see her mother, she begins the scene by saying (in a voice over) that, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that as soon as one part of your life starts looking up, another part falls to pieces." This is an update of the famous opening lines of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." [From IMDB Trivia page for BJ]

8c) There are elements of Four Weddings and a Funeral and even more so of Notting Hill. [From Wikipedia, this article]


Other trivia for BJ, from IMDB Triva Page:

~ Renée Zellweger gained a reported 25 lbs. to play Bridget Jones.

~ Renée Zellweger actually worked at a British publishing company for a month in preparation for the role. She adopted an alias as well as her posh accent and was apparently not recognized.

~ Renée Zellweger smoked herbal cigarettes rather than tobacco.

~ Director Sharon Maguire was the real-life inspiration for the character of Shazza in the novel. A friend of Helen Fielding's, her name also appears on the acknowledgements page of the book.

~ The film has different end-credits in different countries. In Europe, Australia and Latin America the credits show a montage of stills plus "interviews" about Bridget and Darcy with Daniel Cleaver, Mark Darcy's parents and Bridget's boss. In America, they show a young Bridget and Mark running around the backyard and paddling pool in a home video. The "interviews" can be found as the final deleted scene on the North American DVD, as well as the North American credits are found in the 'Deleted Scenes'-material on the European DVD.

~ While film goers were eager to see Hugh Grant play a character opposite to his usual type-cast, it is ironic that original author Helen Fielding describes him, in real life, as being more like Daniel Cleaver, than any of his "normal" roles.

~ In order to make her English accent seem more natural, Renée Zellweger retained it on set even while not shooting (Renée is American). Hugh Grant once noted that he did not hear her speak in an American accent until the wrap party, after the film was completed, where he heard her speak "in a very strange voice" that he soon found out was her own natural tone.

~ After discovering that Daniel is cheating on her, Bridget is watching TV at home. As she browses her channels, a film is shown. It is a scene from Fatal Attraction (1987).

~ While preparing for the role of Bridget, Renée Zellweger worked in a London office. On her desk in this office she kept a framed picture of then boyfriend Jim Carrey. Other office workers, who did not recognize her, found this to be odd, but never mentioned it to her for fear of embarrassing her.

Trivia collected from The Wikipedia Article:

# In the United Kingdom the film grossed a very impressive £41,692,598.
# In the United States the film made $71,500,556.
# The film has made $281,929,795 worldwide.
# Controversial author Salman Rushdie makes a cameo appearance as himself, with both Bridget and Daniel asking him for directions to the lavatory.
# Before the film came out a considerable amount of controversy surrounded the casting of the American Zellweger as what some saw as a quintessentially British heroine. However, her performance is widely considered to be of a high standard, including her English accent.
# Kate Winslet also auditioned for the part of Bridget and was almost considered for it, but eventually was dismissed since she was too young (25 at the time the auditions took place) to play Bridget.
# Renee Zellweger was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film.