Brit Pack: Renee Zellweger

The writers have acted as each other's informal advisers: Fielding suggested Four Weddings have a funeral instead of a honeymoon. In turn, Curtis read the manuscript for BJD "a nauseating number of times."

Before Curtis took a crack at the script, however, Fielding relinquished her draft to Andrew Davies, screenwriter for (but of course!) Pride and Prejudice, who played up the Mr. Darcy in Mark Darcy. "I made it a condition that Helen and I have one night out in which we'd go to all Bridget's haunts," says Davies. "We didn't do quite as drunken an evening—we're both a bit more sober in our habits. But I started work in fine fettle."

Meanwhile, Working Title sought a director. "We met with hundreds," says producer Eric Fellner. "But Helen always wanted Sharon—she's a character in the book. So it seemed very obvious." The April 1998 coup—when Maguire signed on as director—was major: Until then she'd only directed BBC documentaries and commercials. "It was very important to have a woman who knows the world of Bridget Jones—and who's funny," Fielding says.

Maguire had her own priorities, namely for Hugh Grant to play Bridget's roguish boss, Daniel Cleaver. "I knew he had this blistering humor—I wanted him to play this sexy bastard," says the director. "I'd ring him regularly. He nicknamed me Stalker Maguire." Thanks in part to Curtis, Grant, who starred in Four Weddings and Hill, finally acquiesced—despite the fact that the BJD novel takes a nice jab at his Divine Brown misadventure. "It obviously didn't bother him," Maguire says. "He still wanted to do the part."

As did Firth, though he found Mark Darcy trickier to pull off than Austen's creation. "In 1810 you expect to find a guy like that scowling in the corner," he says. "In 2001 he's really a prick. Plus he's got a much worse dress sense—and a devilish rival [Grant] with far too much screen time, in my opinion."

With the cast finalized by April 2000, Curtis wrapped the script into one rosy package, chatting regularly with the director and author (not difficult, since Maguire and Fielding are godmothers to the two Curtis children). Curtis' version fitted Firth with a soaking shirt in one scene—a nod to his wet spot in P and P—and added a fracas between the leading men. "Hugh Grant and Colin Firth slugging it out?" laughs Maguire. "We rather fell in love with the idea."

With Diary now safely deposited in theaters—it raked in $10.7 million its opening weekend, not to mention critical raves—Fielding, Maguire, and Curtis are looking forward to "talking about anything other than Bridget," says Maguire. "Like the fact that we've got children and godchildren. And we'll talk about paying off the debt, or movies. Or mutual people we know." A category destined to keep the conversation going quite a while indeed.