Bridget is back

“To Bridget, who cannot cook, but who we love...just as she is,” toasted her friends in the last movie.

Five years on and still unable to cook, Bridget Jones is back, in the third movie installment. And this time around, the long-struggling, ever-optimistic romantic is trying for a baby.

Expect to see svelte actress Renee Zellweger stuffing her face to bulk up for the role next year, although if the weight gain for the last movie is anything to go by, binge-eating doesn't come naturally to her.

In an interview for Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason she told reporters: “I had a lot of help to get there. Somebody else doing the math and putting the plate in front of me and saying, 'Here, eat this'. And ultimately, it worked out.”

Yorkshire-born author Helen Fielding, whose books inspired the first two movies, is believed to be involved once again. Ironically, Fielding's own eight-year relationship with the father of her children reportedly ended this year.

Speaking about the popularity of her books and columns, Fielding said: “There are so many advertisements now telling people they need to look a certain way and have this perfect life. They feel they should be getting up at six in the morning and going to the gym, then doing a full day’s work and coming back late and have to feed 12 people for dinner. It’s a modern disease. This is how Bridget Jones was born, and how she became so popular because she represented something every woman could relate to.”

This time the film is set to be based on a series of columns she wrote for the Independent in 2005. It's unclear at this stage whether Zellweger will be joined by her previous co-stars Hugh Grant and Colin Firth.

Hollywood loves a good sequel and it's no wonder producers are keen to try and rekindle the success of the first two films, five years on. But are we ready for the knocks and knickers all over again? Bouquet in hand and man on arm, we left Bridget in a very happy place at the end of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. On the other hand, it could be a catch up with an old friend. Or perhaps a counsellor. The Bridget Jones movies are after all, a form of self-help on the big screen.

British and American women are the most likely candidates to be found crying into a tub of Hagen Daz according to research about emotional eating; something Bridget knows only too well.

CEO of market research company Synovate UK, Jill Telford, said: "There is a reason Bridget Jones was – and still is – so popular. It perfectly captures the ongoing battle that British women have with food and mood. The knee jerk reaction to bad news, or even boredom, is often a cup of tea and something sweet to wash it down. Similarly, a bad day can be made a whole lot better with a hefty glass or two of chardonnay in the evening.”

Whether it's weight issues, being single, heartbroken, struggling at work or needing a new start – Bridget Jones has seen and been through it all. Zany, scatty and a mess, yet adorably funny and incredibly genuine, as Fielding once said: “women can’t have it all”, but we can always have more Bridget.

The third Bridget Jones movie is slated to start production in late 2010. Are you ready for more Bridget? Rant below.