Who could forget that slightly manic — but ever so endearing — single gal looking for love in London: Bridget Jones. From her first diary entries in 1996, to her portrayal on the big screen in 2001, to her most recent ramblings in this year's Mad About the Boy, we've gotten to go inside the mind of Bridget Jones and see the truth, the whole truth about what it's like to be a woman most definitely now not in her 30s.
The woman behind the diaries, Helen Fielding, tells NPR's Rachel Martin that Bridget now appears — at least on the outside — to have grown up a bit. And yes, as you've probably heard by now, her dashing Mr. Darcy is no longer. "I was quite surprised by the scale of the reaction, certainly in Britain, to Mark Darcy's death," Fielding says. "I was watching the news one night, BBC, and there's the Syrian crisis, and then, next story was headline news: Mark Darcy's dead!"
Interview Highlights
On writing about a situation many people find themselves in
They are single again, and they are a bit older, and the dating landscape has completely changed, and they have to get out there again. And when Bridget was single before, there was no email, even — all those messages she sent to Daniel in the office about 'you appear to have forgotten your skirt,' and things, were just an archaic office messaging system. So Bridget's now back out there dating, dealing with texting, with Twitter, with online dating, and with children — and with the fact that, you know, life is busy and complicated, and you're juggling work and all these other things, and that seemed to me to be a very rich area to write about.
Helen Fielding says she wanted to explore a common predicament: getting older, finding yourself single again, and having to deal with a changed dating landscape.
Alisa Connan
Helen Fielding says she wanted to explore a common predicament: getting older, finding yourself single again, and having to deal with a changed dating landscape.
Alisa Connan
On Bridget's age
The first novel, I didn't say how old she was, I left it vague. And I was going to do that this time, and then I thought, I'm just going to dare to do it. I'm going to say that she's in her 50s. Because I think that just as when I wrote the first Bridget, the 30-something spinster, as she was then called, got such a bad press, that hadn't caught up with what was really going on. You know, Bridget felt in some part of her brain that she was Miss Havisham, and she was going to end up dying alone and being eaten by a dog, just because she hadn't got a boyfriend when she was in her 30s.
And I think there's the same sort of thing going on with idea of the woman in her 50s, that she should somehow be staring morbidly at a lake, or knitting, and have a tight grey perm and a shopping trolley. Whereas in fact, what I see around me is it's the same — women are still looking good, still dating if they're single, still feel the same inside ... there shouldn't be this outdated notion of 'a woman of a certain age,' which in itself is a patronizing thing to say, and never applied to men.
On whether there will be more Bridget
All I do know is, I won't write another book unless I've got something I really want to say. I mean, I do think one thing that could be quite funny — but it wouldn't really work — to write about someone becoming a celebrity would be funny, because there's so many things, even when you're on a book tour — I remember when the first Bridget Jones book became successful, coming back to my flat in London, and there was a photographer on a motorbike outside. And I was wildly indignant, and why can't they leave me alone! It's intolerable! But then it was a pizza. Domino's delivery man. And I was really disappointed ... that's quite a rich seam, too. But I don't think it's right for Bridget. Maybe.
Into all boy bands, past and present, and will watch anything on TV about teens or pregnancy (so clearly Teen Mom is her favorite).
So much TV to watch this weekend, so not enough time to fit it all in! Between the Queer Eye 10 year reunion and two housewives popping up on two TV networks that aren’t Bravo, here’s what’s worth your precious weekend hours and why:
What Not to Wear. Friday at 9pm on TLC. It’s the series finale! Whoa! We’ll see Stacy and Clinton check in on past contestants and have one last hurrah in Las Vegas, which certainly seems fitting. #GoBigorGoHome
Hello Ross. Friday at 10pm on E!. Nene Leakes drops by Ross’s show. Question: How can that much sass fit into one talk show studio? Seriously though.
Missing at 17. Saturday at 8pm on Lifetime.RHOBH‘s Brandi Glanville makes her acting debut in a Lifetime movie about a girl who goes missing. Here’s a glimpse:
The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Sunday at 8pm on Bravo. Part 1 of the tell-all special showed us that Rosie and Joe Giudice wouldn’t pass a 7th grade social studies class. What will be possibly be learned in part 2?!
Queer Eye Reunion: 10 Years Later. Sunday at 9pm on Bravo. So, where are they now? Andy Cohen sits down with the 5 original Bravolebrities from Queer Eye for a catch-up—and probably some seriously amazing girl talk.
NVIDIA head Jen-Hsun Huang revealed G-Sync this morning, a module for gaming monitors that helps alleviate screen tearing and skipping issues. A variety of display companies are already on board, including ASUS, BenQ, Philips and ViewSonic. Huang said the module kills stutter entirely, pushes down lag and kills tearing. The monitors with G-Sync look the same as a normal display, as the module is built into the rear (as seen above). We're told by NVIDIA's Ujesh Desai that the module won't make new monitors much more expensive, and the module works with GPUs that have Kepler architecture (so the GTX 660 and up). G-Sync monitors will be available starting in Q1 2014.
"This eliminates the penalty for the drop in frame rate," Epic's Mark Rein said of the module. "The whole Rein family will be getting new monitors this year," he said with a laugh. A quick demo we were shown of a V-Sync'd monitor versus one with G-Sync did what NVIDIA promised: screen tearing was eliminated and lag was imperceptible. We'll have a video of NVIDIA's new G-Sync module coming up shortly -- stay tuned!
NVIDIA G-SYNC
See all photos
13 Photos
Update: We've added a hands-on demo with G-Sync. It looked fantastic in person, but due to the limitations of our camera equipment, some of the improvements may not be apparent in our video. Find that demo just after the break.
Study strengthens link between low dietary fiber intake and increased cardiovascular risk
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
18-Oct-2013
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Contact: Jane Grochowski ajmmedia@elsevier.com 215-239-3712 Elsevier Health Sciences
Results reported in The American Journal of Medicine
Philadelphia, PA, October 18, 2013 A new study published in the December issue of The American Journal of Medicine shows a significant association between low dietary fiber intake and cardiometabolic risks including metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular inflammation, and obesity. Surveillance data from 23,168 subjects in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2010 was used to examine the role dietary fiber plays in heart health.
In the current study investigators have taken a closer look at possible sex, age, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in dietary fiber consumption, as well as examined the association between dietary fiber intake and various cardiometabolic risk factors.
Dietary fiber, which previous studies have shown may assist in lowering blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and inflammation, is thought to play an important role in reducing cardiovascular risk. Despite this knowledge, investigators found that dietary fiber intake was consistently below recommended intake levels for NHANES participants.
The Institute of Medicine defines recommended intake levels according to age and sex: 38g per day for men aged 19-50 years, 30g per day for men 50 and over, 25g for women aged 19-50 years, and 21g per day for women over 50. Using data from NHANES 1999-2010, the study reveals that the mean dietary fiber intake was only 16.2g per day across all demographics during that time period.
"Our findings indicate that, among a nationally representative sample of nonpregnant US adults in NHANES 1999-2010, the consumption of dietary fiber was consistently below the recommended total adequate intake levels across survey years," says senior investigator Cheryl R. Clark, MD, ScD, Center for Community Health and Health Equity, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston. "Our study also confirms persistent differences in dietary fiber intake among socioeconomic status and racial/ethnic subpopulations over time."
The research team found variations according to race and ethnicity, with Mexican-Americans consuming higher amounts of dietary fiber and non-Hispanic blacks consuming lower amounts of dietary fiber compared with non-Hispanic whites.
The study highlights the importance of increasing dietary fiber intake for US adults by showing a correlation between low dietary fiber and an increased risk for cardiovascular risk. Participants with the highest prevalence of metabolic syndrome, inflammation, and obesity were in the lowest quintile of dietary fiber intake.
"Overall, the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, inflammation, and obesity each decreased with increasing quintiles of dietary fiber intake," comments Clark. "Compared with participants in the lowest quintile of dietary fiber intake, participants in the highest quintile of dietary fiber intake had a statistically significant lower risk of having the metabolic syndrome, inflammation, and obesity."
This new data analysis emphasizes the importance of getting adults across diverse ethnicities to increase their dietary fiber intake in order to try and mitigate the risk for cardiovascular damage.
"Low dietary fiber intake from 1999-2010 in the US and associations between higher dietary fiber and a lower prevalence of cardiometabolic risks suggest the need to develop new strategies and policies to increase dietary fiber intake," adds Clark. "Additional research is needed to determine effective clinical and population-based strategies for improving fiber intake trends in diverse groups."
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Study strengthens link between low dietary fiber intake and increased cardiovascular risk
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
18-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Jane Grochowski ajmmedia@elsevier.com 215-239-3712 Elsevier Health Sciences
Results reported in The American Journal of Medicine
Philadelphia, PA, October 18, 2013 A new study published in the December issue of The American Journal of Medicine shows a significant association between low dietary fiber intake and cardiometabolic risks including metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular inflammation, and obesity. Surveillance data from 23,168 subjects in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2010 was used to examine the role dietary fiber plays in heart health.
In the current study investigators have taken a closer look at possible sex, age, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in dietary fiber consumption, as well as examined the association between dietary fiber intake and various cardiometabolic risk factors.
Dietary fiber, which previous studies have shown may assist in lowering blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and inflammation, is thought to play an important role in reducing cardiovascular risk. Despite this knowledge, investigators found that dietary fiber intake was consistently below recommended intake levels for NHANES participants.
The Institute of Medicine defines recommended intake levels according to age and sex: 38g per day for men aged 19-50 years, 30g per day for men 50 and over, 25g for women aged 19-50 years, and 21g per day for women over 50. Using data from NHANES 1999-2010, the study reveals that the mean dietary fiber intake was only 16.2g per day across all demographics during that time period.
"Our findings indicate that, among a nationally representative sample of nonpregnant US adults in NHANES 1999-2010, the consumption of dietary fiber was consistently below the recommended total adequate intake levels across survey years," says senior investigator Cheryl R. Clark, MD, ScD, Center for Community Health and Health Equity, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston. "Our study also confirms persistent differences in dietary fiber intake among socioeconomic status and racial/ethnic subpopulations over time."
The research team found variations according to race and ethnicity, with Mexican-Americans consuming higher amounts of dietary fiber and non-Hispanic blacks consuming lower amounts of dietary fiber compared with non-Hispanic whites.
The study highlights the importance of increasing dietary fiber intake for US adults by showing a correlation between low dietary fiber and an increased risk for cardiovascular risk. Participants with the highest prevalence of metabolic syndrome, inflammation, and obesity were in the lowest quintile of dietary fiber intake.
"Overall, the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, inflammation, and obesity each decreased with increasing quintiles of dietary fiber intake," comments Clark. "Compared with participants in the lowest quintile of dietary fiber intake, participants in the highest quintile of dietary fiber intake had a statistically significant lower risk of having the metabolic syndrome, inflammation, and obesity."
This new data analysis emphasizes the importance of getting adults across diverse ethnicities to increase their dietary fiber intake in order to try and mitigate the risk for cardiovascular damage.
"Low dietary fiber intake from 1999-2010 in the US and associations between higher dietary fiber and a lower prevalence of cardiometabolic risks suggest the need to develop new strategies and policies to increase dietary fiber intake," adds Clark. "Additional research is needed to determine effective clinical and population-based strategies for improving fiber intake trends in diverse groups."
###
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| Share
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Prince is a unique musician. This we know. For his most recent video, he did something really strange: He chose an unknown teenager to direct it. Danielle Curiel, 18, is a fledgling dancer, model, and actress who got an email from Prince recently that changed her life. We talked to her about her crazy experience with the Purple One!
OK!: How in the world did you get connected to Prince?
Danielle Curiel: I got an email one day from Nandy and Maya, the Twinz. The email said, “Prince is requesting Danielle Curiel to submit a video for his new song,” and to pick my favorite choreographer, who is Nicole Kirkland. We did the submission, and he loved it. He asked me to write a treatment for it, to direct it, and he gave me a budget. I’m like, What! Me?! I’m only 18. He said he wanted it to be very big in the dance world, so I made it very dance-influenced. I had auditions, and there were like 1,000 people. That’s how it started.
OK!: Did you get a sense of why you? Had he seen your work?
DC: I asked him, and he won’t really tell me specifically how he found me. I feel that it’s through the internet, I’m sure he saw something of me dancing. That’s what Maya and Nandy say, that he just emailed them, and said, “This Danielle Curiel dancer, have her submit a video to me.” And that’s really it.
OK!: How did you get this idea for this look for the video?
DC: The song is very literal. It’s about breakfast. I was thinking, if he wants it to be big in the dance world, let’s make this song make sense with dance. I thought, I would add breakfast, which is why that whole comedic beginning is there, and it’s like, No, I don’t want breakfast, I want you. Instead of making it super sexual, I thought “Breakfast can wait—for dance.” Instead of staying in one place, we entered into this imagination world, in their heads. They’re in the kitchen, and this is in their heads.
OK!: And you’re in the video, right? You’re the main girl?
DC: Yes, I’m the red, curly haired girl.
Instagram
OK!: Were you nervous about all this? DC: For sure. [laughs] There was a moment when I was like, Oh my God, what am I going to do? I’m so young! But I feel, because I moved [to LA] when I was 16, I’m pretty mature for my age. So I’m like, I can handle it. I’m not a big crybaby or anything. I’m very strong, my mom raised me to be very strong. My mom was by my side the whole time.
OK!: I know he has a quiet personality and sticks to himself. Did you get to speak or interact with Prince at all in the process?
DC: We would communicate through email, so there wasn’t much speaking. He would always say his full-on ideas of what he wanted. It was good communicating with him—he was very, very open to all of my ideas. He really didn’t disagree with anything that I said. He just let me go, which was so awesome.
OK!: The video is pretty sexy. What did your family and friends think?
DC: They were fine with it. It wasn’t like I was being sexy to be sexy. Me being sexy is through my dance. They’re open. They didn’t say anything about it. They all loved it.
Instagram
OK!: What’s next for you?
DC: I want to continue to direct. I loved the experience. I do love being on camera, though. I’m not going to do any more videos, but I’d love to do shows, I want to do movies. I sing, as well, with my sister. She was in the video, with the curly hair. She raps, and I sing, so we have a little duo thing, which Prince may be interested in. He’s helping us, developing us. We might get that going.
OK!: Whose career would you love to have one day?
DC: I think J.Lo, and Beyonce are amazing. I think they’re very, very strong, hard-working women, and they kind of do everything I want to do. They both act, they both sing, and they both dance, so that’s the model I want to go to.
Can you believe this wild story? What would you do if Prince emailed you? Do you like the video? Tell us in the comments below or tweet us @OKMagazine.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, in New York City.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, in New York City.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
President Obama said Thursday that the government shutdown and threat of default did unnecessary damage to both the U.S. economy and the country's reputation abroad.
Standard & Poor's concluded that the disruption subtracted about $24 billion from the economy and is likely to trim more than half a percentage point off growth in the final three months of the year.
Some of the businesses that lost money during the shutdown will gain it back, as federal workers and the government make up for spending that was deferred. But there are likely to be longer-term repercussions, according to Beth Ann Bovino, S&P's chief U.S. economist.
She says the fact that the agreement only keeps the government funded until mid-December is a worry and leaves hundreds of thousands of federal workers with lots of uncertainty.
"Will you get your paycheck, or will we go back on furlough without pay again? Concerns of a repeat, I am sure, are on people's minds and that's coming in to the holiday season," she says.
Bovino says that could make the most important shopping season of the year pretty ho-hum. And it's not just federal workers who will hold back because of that uncertainty. Other workers will, too, as well as businesses that might decide to put off hiring and investment.
Some of the long-term effects are global, says Adam Posen, who heads the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He says the U.S. suffered reputational damage as, once again, the world watched its chaotic political process produce self-inflicted damage to the economy. Posen says that hurts U.S. leverage in negotiations with other countries.
"If you try to make a deal and it has to go to Congress, the people on the other side will say, 'Why the hell should we adhere to this deal, since Congress is clearly a random mad dog?' " Posen says.
And, he says, U.S. advice in international forums and crises will be discounted.
"They're going to turn around and say, 'Who the hell are you to lecture me, U.S., since you can't even keep your own budget in order?' "
Posen says the credibility of U.S. securities has been eroded in the financial markets as investors decide they're no longer risk-free. That gives the U.S. a lower credit score, and just as a lower credit score means higher interest rates for a household, it will mean higher interest rates for the U.S. government.
That's been obvious in the financial markets in the past couple of weeks, says Jens Nordvig, head of currency strategy at Nomura Securities. He says the interest rate on very short-term U.S. Treasurys went from near zero to almost half a percent — a huge spike — as investors feared they were no longer risk-free.
"That was a very dramatic situation, and the more we have of those examples, the more the risk premium is going to be permanent, the more you'll see a situation where the U.S. government will have to pay higher interest rates than would otherwise be the case," Nordvig says.
And for every tenth of a percentage point increase in interest rates, U.S. borrowing costs rise $2 billion year.
Posen says that as U.S. securities are viewed as less safe, it will erode their elevated status and the position of the U.S. dollar as well.
"This will accelerate the rate at which the Chinese renminbi becomes accepted — at least throughout Asia — as an alternative to the dollar, or Chinese government bonds become accepted as an alternative" to U.S. Treasurys, Posen says.
That could raise the cost of doing business for U.S. firms. And finally, Posen says, chaos is scaring off investment in the U.S.
"Investors, who we need to get the economy out of the sort of slow-growth, high-unemployment state we're in, will feel much more uncertain, and will be less likely to make investments," he says. "And foreigners will be less likely to make investments in the U.S., because you just don't know what the environment's going to be."
Posen says that if Congress repeats its recent performance in mid-January, when government funding runs out again, it will continue to erode confidence in the U.S.
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