SOURCE: “Singular Woman; A Huge Hit in England, Helen Fielding's Bridget Brings Her Angst to America,” in People, Vol. 49, No. 24, June 22, 1998, p. 199.

In the following interview, Biddle, O'Neill and Fielding discuss the similarities between Bridget Jones and her creator.

6 P.M. Just returned from interview with Helen Fielding. She's the author of that hit British novel Bridget Jones's Diary, the journal of a neurotic Londoner who's so obsessed with losing weight and quitting smoking and drinking that she records her daily intake. So we're in Fielding's cluttered office on London's Portobello Road, and conversation turns to the gym. I admit I never go. She shoots dirty look and asks why I'm so slim. “Metabolism,” I mutter, aware that's girl-talk equivalent of living off billion-dollar inheritance. She hisses: “Bitch from hell!” Then cracks up laughing.

Bridget Jones might have said it just so. But Helen Fielding wants to get...