Force of Firth: Nicole Kidman sends for Britain's heart-throb He's the ideal husband for the millions of women who go to see his films, and to many of his leading ladies PAUL GALLAGHER (INDEPENDENT)

He is arguably Britain's greatest living heart-throb. Millions consider him their dream husband, and Nicole Kidman is no different. Unlike anyone else, the Oscar-winning actress is in a position to live her Colin Firth fantasy not just once, but twice.

No sooner had filming ended on the upcoming Second World War drama The Railway Man, in which they play a married couple, than cameras begin rolling in London this week on the pair's next project.

Kidman was the first to sign up to play the lead in Before I Go to Sleep, based on the S J Watson novel about a woman who wakes up every morning with no memory. She was followed by the Zero Dark Thirty star Mark Strong. But the Australian wanted only one man to play her on-screen husband, again.

Strong told The Independent on Sunday that he was looking forward to working with Firth and Kidman: "They're teaming up again. Colin plays Nicole's husband and I play her doctor. It's all being filmed in London."

Rowan Joffe, who wrote The American and 28 Weeks Later, has written the screenplay and is directing. Strong added: "It's a very, good script, a really good thriller. It's a nice one to do."

Before I Go to Sleep would have been the third Firth/Kidman movie if Firth hadn't dropped out of Chan-wook Park's English-language debut film Stoker, which previewed at last month's Sundance Film Festival. But Kidman was not to be denied a second time.

Since his breakthrough performance as Mr Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice almost 20 years ago, Firth has gone on to melt the hearts of a slew Hollywood's leading ladies. His eco-activism has earned him another set of swooning admirers.

Though he may be no George Clooney or Brad Pitt, Firth has utilized his old-school charm to turn himself into an unlikely sex symbol. Initially bemused at the "mass hysteria" that followed his emergence from that lake in clinging breeches, he has spoken of the difficulties in filming love scenes with some of the world's most beautiful women.

As charming off-screen as on, he famously got down on one knee for Meryl Streep at last year's Baftas, to pick up her Jimmy Choo stiletto after it fell off when The Iron Lady star climbed the stairs to collect her award for best actress. Streep gave her Mamma Mia! co-star a kiss on the lips for his act of chivalry, which enabled her to put the shoe back on before delivering her acceptance speech.

"That couldn't have gone worse," Streep joked. Millions of women begged to differ.

Cameron Diaz gushed about playing opposite Firth in last year's Coen brothers' comedy Gambit, while Renée Zellweger, Julianne Moore and Scarlett Johansson have all been equally besotted.

Helen Mirren even joked last month when receiving a star along the Hollywood Walk of Fame next to her fellow Brit: "I couldn't be prouder and more happy that I'm actually going to finally lie next to Colin Firth, something I've been wanting to do for a very long time."

Firth has laughed off claims in the past that he keeps falling for his leading ladies. The 52-year-old has a 22-year-old son, William, from his relationship with the Canadian actress Meg Tilly, whom he met on the set of Valmont. He briefly dated his Pride and Prejudice co-star Jennifer Ehle, before starting a relationship with Livia Giuggioli, an Italian documentary maker whom he met in Colombia in 1996 while filming the TV series Nostromo. They have two sons, Luca and Matteo.

READ WHAT OTHER LEADING LADIES HAVE TO SAY ABOUT COLIN:http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/force-of-firth-nicole-kidman-sends-for-britains-heartthrob-8478491.html

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Colin Firth and the BBC class of '95 voted best Pride and Prejudice cast (RADIO TIMES)

RadioTimes.com poll names Firth and Jennifer Ehle, from the TV adaptation of Jane Austen's 200-year-old novel, the ultimate Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet

Ellie Walker-Arnott
1:05 PM, 28 January 2013

In honour of the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, we asked RadioTimes.com readers to take part in our poll to decide the ultimate cast from TV and film adaptations of the beloved literary romance.

We wondered if the votes might provide a new pairing of Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, or perhaps match one Mr Bennet with another Mrs B. But as it turned out, you thought the BBC's 1995 TV series, adapted by Andrew Davies, had already ticked almost all the boxes!

Aside from the role of Jane Bennet – which saw Rosamund Pike from the 2005 movie version pip 1995's Susannah Harker to the post with an impressive 50% of the vote – readers opted for the 1995 cast members in all of the categories. So we think it's fair to pronounce the TV mini-series the best ever Pride and Prejudice adaptation.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hasKmDr1yrA

READ MORE: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-01-28/colin-firth-and-the-bbc-class-of-95-voted-best-pride-and-prejudice-cast

'Pride and Prejudice,' story that launched a thousand spinoffs, turns 200 By Bryony Jones, CNN

Are you a "Pride and Prejudice" fan? Which is your favorite adaptation of the book? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

London (CNN) -- It's a simple love story: Girl meets guy, it's hate at first sight, and then they fall in love. "Pride and Prejudice," the original rom-com, turns 200 today, with fans around the world celebrating the story that launched a whole industry.

The tale of feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet and her relationship with the haughty, brooding Darcy is the stuff of spinoffs aplenty: Even if you've never read the original, chances are you've seen one of its many remakes, from Bridget Jones to Bollywood, zombie thrillers to murder mysteries.

But Jane Austen's best-known and most-loved novel, first published on January 28, 1813, and viewed by the author as her "own darling child" wasn't an immediate hit.

"It was very well received, and it made money, but it wasn't a massive bestseller in her day," says Louise West, curator of the Jane Austen House Museum at Chawton, in Hampshire.

Instead it became a slow-burn success, turning its creator -- after her early death in 1817 -- into a literary star. In his recent book "What Matters in Jane Austen?" expert John Mullan claims that only Shakespeare and Dickens "can rival her continuing, international appeal."

Cambridge University English professor Janet Todd puts Austen's enduring appeal down to "the mixture of simplicity and complexity -- her work looks so simple, so ordinary, and yet underneath, the more you look, the more you see, and the more complicated it becomes.

"Austen is one of the very few real crossover writers, who are popular with the public and also feted by critics and academia -- it is very rare."

"It's not just any old love story," says West. "It is also brilliantly written. Austen was the first truly modern novelist, and 'Pride and Prejudice' is full of irony, craft, careful plotting -- you read it for the story, but you get all these other layers of richness too."

But she says the secret of the story's success is down to its protagonists, Elizabeth and Darcy, "two terribly attractive characters who spark off each other in a very dynamic and sexy way," and to its heroine, in particular.

"'Pride and Prejudice' is the book that brings more people here than any other," says West. "They come looking for Elizabeth Bennet -- she is the character women aspire to be, she got the fairy story, and they want it to be real."


READ MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/28/world/europe/pride-and-prejudice-200th-anniversary/

Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen: What is the ultimate Pride and Prejudice cast? From Colin Firth and Keira Knightley to Laurence Olivier and Alison Steadman, which actors would you hand pick for the ultimate Pride and Prejudice screen adaptation? Vote now...

Ellie Walker-Arnott
3:12 PM, 25 January 2013

Jane Austen's sunniest novel Pride and Prejudice celebrates its 200th anniversary on Monday. And it's got us thinking...

The iconic love story has sparked numerous adaptations, from the classic Laurence Olivier version to the 2005 romantic blockbuster starring Keira Knightly and Rosamund Pike. (It even inspired Helen Fielding to pen Bridget Jones's Diary...) But if you could hand pick actors from across the best-loved film and TV adaptations to make an ultimate cast of characters, who would you choose?

Do you firmly believe no other Darcy could beat Colin Firth emerging from that lake in a wet shirt? Is Keira Knightley's pouty performance in the 2005 your favourite Lizzie Bennet? Maybe Alison Steadman's shrieking Mrs Bennet strikes you as the best? Or perhaps bare-chested Johnny Wickham in the upbeat Bollywood adaptation Bride and Prejudice is your favourite?

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!  

Colin Firth - Come On Get Higher (Pride and Prejudice)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U0wstd6OTM&list=UUr-gXdILncJ5zq58wwtRMyw&index=8

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Colin Firth - Pride and Prejudice Sunday Morning

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Happy Birthday, Mr. Darcy!! (HEROLD SCOTLAND) Barry Didcock Senior features writer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0ArRWExbbM

One of English literature's most enduring characters – thanks in part to his embodiment on screen by that troika of male totty Colin Firth, Laurence Olivier and Matthew Macfadyen – Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy celebrates his 200th birthday this month.

He is, of course, the romantic lead in Jane Austen's novel Pride And Prejudice, first published in three hard cover volumes on January 28 1813. But you probably knew that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVChdOFevEo

You may not have known that Austen was paid only £110 for the copyright, miserly when you consider the effect her creation would have on generations of readers, particularly those on the distaff side. In a 2004 poll for the Orange Prize for Fiction, Darcy was voted the romantic icon women would most like to date and the fictional character most women would like to invite to a dinner party.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHv4eHp_gUM

Men tend to look a little less favorably on him, however. "I never met a man who likes Darcy, though most women seem to," wrote literary critic John Carey. Olivier himself was unmoved by Darcy too. "I was very unhappy with the picture," he wrote in his autobiography of his 1940 film portrayal. "It was difficult to make Darcy into anything more than an unattractive-looking prig."

Maybe that's the appeal of Darcy, however. He isn't obvious, or easy or even particularly likeable. But, in the words of Martin Amis, he exhibits the ability of men to be "chastened, deepened, and finally democratized by the force of love."

READ MORE: http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/in-praise-of/in-praise-of-mr-darcy.19779751