Bridget Jones: Has The Everywoman's Character Moved With The Times?

The scrutiny that Bridget Jones star Renee Zellweger has experienced has been absolutely "bonkers", according to her co-star Sally Phillips.

There has been huge speculation about the 47-year-old's appearance in the run up to her latest film Bridget Jones' Baby - as there has been throughout her time as the hapless heroine.

Sally, who plays Shazza in the movie, says she wishes she had complained more about such treatment earlier in her career.

She said: "It's obviously bonkers, the scrutiny that Renee has had to go through has been completely insane.

"What's great is the 20-year-olds like Jennifer Lawrence are just standing up and saying so - they do have more power, and we've been a bit useless as a generation for complaining about it.

"I certainly have been so worried about being seen to be difficult that I haven't made any big feminist stands which in a way I regret."

Just 22% of leads in the top 110 highest grossing Hollywood films are female, so whether you love Bridget or not her significance cannot be underestimated.

Sally says change will take time, but it will happen.

She said: "Film is basically lots of rich people, often men gambling on what's going to be a successful formulae.

"So they put a lot of money in and they gamble on formulae that work, that they know work because it's a lot of money.

"And because women have not been allowed to be involved and women were traditionally there to be beautiful they're really reluctant to move from the tried and tested formulae, so it's very slow to turn the tank around. It'll happen."

Twenty years ago Bridget Jones became a cultural phenomenon reflecting the everywoman's worries.

She inspired devotion but also proved divisive, something she continues to be.

Critics say she is seriously out of touch, perpetuating a dated portrayal of the modern woman and generally doing us all a great disservice.

Freelance arts writer Fiona Sturgess says she's never been a fan of the character.

She said: "The great answer to her woes seems to be if I could just get married and get a man in my life then all would be wonderful.

"And I just think no, that isn't the great answer and I don't know many women my age and certainly not women 10-15 years younger who think that - she just seems very out of step and conservative in her world view."

So Bridget maybe somewhat of a charicature, downing Chardonnay in her enormous pants, but journalist Laura Snapes points out this is entertainment and Bridget has been a trailblazer.

She said: "She is a comic creation, a fantasy. I'm not watching it to have my horrible life reflected back at me.

"Bridget was this really potent character in 2001 - you can see her effect in an indirect way by the way that Girls and Broadcity have become so popular, which do also depict that messier version of girlhood.

"So I think we can look at her as a trailblazer whose time might have come, the baton might have been passed to the next generation but that doesn't mean that we should write off the character because of the choices that she's making in her life."