The smile is very similar to that of a proud mother or grandmother who enjoys watching her little ones play in the park.
How time flies, he thinks. How big my babies have become.
Anyone passing through the crowds of people on Hampstead Heath, north London, this week would not have looked twice at the radiant middle-aged woman, in wellies and sunglasses, chatting on the sidelines of the group.
The scene was captured in a series of paparazzi photographs, as Bridget Jones’ fourth and final film, Mad About The Boy, began filming.
But eagle-eyed observers soon realized that the woman, in a cream turtleneck, black jeans and not-so-starry Ray Ban sunglasses, was actually billionaire author and Bridget creator Helen Fielding. .
Anyone passing through the crowds of people on Hampstead Heath, north London, wouldn’t have looked twice at the radiant middle-aged woman, but eagle-eyed observers would have spotted Helen Fielding (right) and Renee Zellweger ( left) in the set. of the new Bridget Jones
According to sources working on the film, it was “a bit of a surprise” when she appeared.
She, they say, “went largely unnoticed,” despite her VIP status.
The only clue that she was “someone” was the cord around her neck.
Viewers say Helen, now 66, chatted and laughed with Renee Zellweger, who reprises the role of Bridget, in Hampstead, where much of the film takes place, and conveniently close to Helen’s Georgian house.
In the film, Bridget (the city’s former Chardonnay-drinking, chain-smoking, calorie-counting thirtysomething) is now a middle-aged woman, a single mother of two, following the death of her beloved Mark Darcy, and living in the opulent enclave of “delicious mummies”.
A Bridget Jones source tells me: ‘Helen didn’t stop smiling, she loved being there to watch Bridget.
“She didn’t think much of it, she just put herself in a good position to observe what was happening.”
‘It was Renee’s first time filming with the kids, so it was a special moment for Helen. It’s the first time there are scenes of her being a mother, a really lovely part of the script, so she wanted to be there to witness it. She seemed enormously proud.
Some might say this was art imitating real life, as Helen was also in Hampstead, living her life as a single mother.
Before that, it seemed that, like Bridget, Helen had found a belated “happily ever after.”
She had experienced a series of unhappy romances in her 30s, and once commented that she had had more than one Daniel Cleaver, the bad boy played by Hugh Grant in Bridget Jones, in her life.
While single and living in Notting Hill, Helen dated television producer John Lloyd and war photographer Roger Hutchings.
Like Bridget, Yorkshire-born Helen, who attended St Anne’s College, Oxford, where she briefly dated Four Weddings And A Funeral director Richard Curtis, became single again in middle age after splitting in 2009 from her long-time partner, Kevin Curran, a television executive on The Simpsons.
She had abandoned London for the bright lights of Los Angeles in 2000 after meeting Curran when she was on a Bridget Jones publicity tour in Los Angeles.
The Bridget Jones series grew out of a column Helen Fielding wrote for the Independent. Pictured: Zellweger in the original Bridget Jones’ diary.
They literally met in the lobby of their hotel, fell in love, and moved in together.
Curran was a “big deal” in Hollywood circles for his work on The Simpsons, winning three Emmy Awards for Best Animated Program.
In the 1980s, he won three awards for his work on the Late Show.
He later wrote and produced the hit comedies Unhappily Ever After and Married… With Children.
In 2001, Renee Zellweger brought Bridget, played by Helen Fielding, to life on the big screen in a blockbuster film that earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
As one of Los Angeles’ golden couples, they lived in a gated mansion in the affluent Hollywood Hills, around the corner from celebrities like Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry and Jack Nicholson.
The couple had two children: Dashiell, born in February 2004, and Romy, born in July 2006.
Curran proposed while Helen was pregnant with their second baby, but they never married.
She said she enjoyed being engaged too much to mess it up.
Speaking about the proposal, Helen said at the time: ‘It was a surprise. (Kevin) said he had bought me a gift, but I thought it was a slow cooker because he had been talking about it.’
Helen Fielding experienced a series of unhappy romances in her 30s, and once commented that she had had more than one Daniel Cleaver, the bad boy played by Hugh Grant in Bridget Jones, in her life.
Three years later, however, the couple quietly went their separate ways and never revealed the reason for their separation.
He returned to London and the couple remained close friends. In 2016, the family’s life was turned upside down when Curran tragically died, aged 59, from cancer.
The Bridget Jones series grew out of a column Helen wrote for the Independent newspaper.
It was a great success and gave rise to the first book in 1996.
Based on Helen’s own life, Bridget worked in the media and lived alone in west London, and records her ill-fated attempts at self-improvement in her diary.
I wanted to eat, smoke and drink less, have thinner thighs and a perfect boyfriend.
Bridget Jones’s Diary became a global phenomenon.
In 2001, Renée Zellweger brought Bridget to life on the big screen in a blockbuster film that earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
The second book in the series, Bridget Jones, The Edge Of Reason, was published in 1999 and was adapted into a film in 2004.
The third installment, Bridget Jones’s Baby, was released in theaters in 2016.
Next year’s film will find Bridget around 50, still quirky, but now hooked on social media and dating apps.
Speaking about her character’s coming of age, Helen said: “She’s older, so in the same way I was thinking about being a 30-something single woman in Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, now I’m thinking about being elderly”. . . and yes, looking at motherhood.
‘While Bridget was trying to be a better girl/sex goddess, be thinner and eat less, now she’s basically trying not to lose the kids while checking out her Twitter followers.
‘Motherhood is undoubtedly a rich vein of comedy. But it keeps the children alive throughout the book; otherwise that would ruin everything.’
Helen is said to be “thrilled” that Bridget is ending her life on a high. While no one working on the new film wants to reveal the ending, it can be revealed that Bridget is involved with three men.
After the death of her husband, human rights lawyer Mark Darcy (Colin Firth in the films), there is no shortage of male attention.
The fourth and final Bridget Jones film, based on the final book in Helen Fielding’s series, Mad About The Boy, has begun filming.
There’s a handsome young gardener called Rockstar, played by One Day heartthrob Leo Woodall, Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver makes a welcome appearance and PE teacher Mr Walker, played by 12 Years a Slave actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor.
“The script is absolutely joyful,” says a member of the team working on the film.
‘Bridget has some final adventures with this scenario and will be seen having fun, but there will be a sensible ending that will warm the hearts of her fans.
‘Helen has given her daughter the perfect ending, two children and a lovely and quite normal boyfriend. That’s how she wanted it.
As for Helen, her ring finger was still bare as she hung out on Hampstead Heath this week with a friend.
While it’s unknown if she has a man in her life, she can’t stop smiling, all thanks to Bridget.
“There was no pain on his face, just a lot of joy,” a film source said.
And with the film opening on February 14 next year, Bridget’s latest outing is the best Valentine’s gift Helen could have asked for.