All's not perfect for Bridget Jones in new sequel coming in fall

The 2002 romcom hit Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason seemed to end on a happy note: Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) proposed to Bridget. But things quickly go south, says Renée Zellweger, who returns as the beloved heroine in a new sequel, Bridget Jones' Baby, due Sept. 16.

It finds Bridget single, alone - and pregnant.

"She's a bit more mature," Zellweger tells Entertainment Weekly.

Mature? Really? Bridget's baby wasn't exactly planned. She's not even sure whether the father is Darcy or an American dreamboat (Patrick Dempsey) she just met.

Zellweger says the heroine has a down-home, true-to-life brand of feminist strength.

"I like that she tells what it's like to be a woman in these really relatable situations," she says.

Joe Giudice on Wednesday began serving a 41-month sentence for financial crimes at New Jersey's Federal Correctional Institution, Fort Dix. But the reality darling tells People, "I shouldn't be in there longer than a year and a half." . . . Ellen Barkin, 61, was back on the set of her TNT show Animal Kingdom Wednesday, a day after she was rushed to the hospital after choking on a piece of food.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 opens Friday, 14 years after the original megahit made Nia Vardalos a household name.

Vardalos' character is now a mom, an experience that makes her realize with horror she's become just as clingy as her own mom.

Vardalos, a first-time mom herself - in 2008 she and hub Ian Gomez adopted a girl, Ilaria - said she came up with the idea when she was dropping off her daughter on the first day of kindergarten.

"All the other moms were saying goodbye . . . they were normal people," Vardarlos tells Yahoo Global News' Katie Couric. "And I heard a sound that sounded like a banshee wailing and realized, 'Oh, it's me!' . . . I realized I couldn't let go and I have morphed into my own suffocating Greek parents."

tirdad@phillynews.com
215-854-2736