Bridget Jones fans in a tizzy over Darcy’s death
TONY WONG
TELEVISION REPORTER Don’t look for Colin Firth to play dashing love interest Mark Darcy in the next Bridget Jones movie.
It’s not that he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t have a choice.
Helen Fielding, the author of the popular Bridget Jones series has killed off Bridget’s love interest in her third novel that is due in Canadian stores Oct. 15.
Excerpts of Fielding’s book Mad About The Boy were published in the Sunday Times Magazine, revealing that Bridget is now a widowed mother of two.
“As a Bridget Jones fan, I was surprised and dismayed initially when I first read that he died,” says Nicola Makoway, publicity director for Random House of Canada. “And then I read on, and it’s vintage Bridget Jones. Her story goes on and fans will not be disappointed.”
But Twitter and online reaction has been swift since news of Darcy’s literary death. “I can’t handle any more deaths. First Walter White ( Breaking Bad) and now Mr. Darcy,” one Canadian fan tweeted. “Killing Darcy off? No, I refuse to believe it. My whole Bridget Jones experience shall be ruined.” said another. Canadian fans can tell Fielding how they feel in person. The Star has learned that Fielding will answer to her Canadian readers in an appearance in Toronto on Oct. 22 at Indigo in the Manulife Centre at a book signing. Bridget Jones’s Diary Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. The third book picks up with Bridget at 51, raising two children, Mabel and Billy. Darcy has been dead for five years, but the precise cause of his death was not revealed in the published excerpt.