DEAR 'DIARY' ... ... MAKING THIS FILM WAS A TOTALLY FAB EXPERIENCE.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Staff Writer

When down-home Texas gal Renee Zellweger was cast to play England's favorite neurotic 30-something heroine Bridget Jones in the movie version of Helen Fielding's beloved novel, ``Bridget Jones's Diary,'' the blokes and birds across the Atlantic didn't take too kindly to the news.

``Of all the clunking Hollywood idiocy,'' wrote columnist Zoe Williams in the Evening Standard. ``Casting her as a young and perfect thing is like remaking 'The Elephant Man' with Jude Law.''

``The only good thing, I suppose, is it isn't Meg Ryan,'' groused Suzanne Moore in her Mail on Sunday column.

Fielding herself was reportedly not all that keen about the idea of the thin, attractive Zellweger playing Bridget, an insecure woman obsessed with the circumference of her thighs. Fielding believes the whole point of the novel, which has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide, is that Bridget isn't one of the beautiful people. It's a fact that gave her doomed quest for selmprovement a sense of poignancy, not to mention a sense of loopy humor.

Now, a year after the biggest cross-Atlantic casting flap since Brit Vivien Leigh was picked to play Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara in ``Gone With the Wind,'' everybody is saying all the right things about Zellweger and the finished product. And well they should. Zellweger has proven her critics wrong, delivering both a pitch-perfect British accent and charmingly convincing performance as the chain-smoking, vodka-swilling, weight-watching ``singleton'' Bridget.

Zellweger, 31, said the outcry over her casting hurt her feelings for a little while, but that she got over it and even appreciates the Brits' deep feelings about Bridget.

``I completely understand why they would question it, especially since the film market is much smaller and therefore opportunities - especially like this one - are few and far between,`` Zellweger says. ``There are many wonderfully talented British actresses who could have played the part. So, believe me, I was as surprised as anyone when the phone call came.''

Her male co-stars understand the outrage, too, even if they have different takes on the subject.

``You could see where they were coming from,'' says Hugh Grant, who plays Bridget's caddish, charismatic boss. ``There have been other small losses to the Empire - including that preposterous submarine movie ('U-571') that gave credit to the Americans for something the British did. So to lose Bridget seemed like the final straw.''

Colin Firth, who plays Mark Darcy, Bridget's more suitable suitor, isn't as generous toward his countrymen.

``It's bull----,'' Firth says. ``I've traveled around the world and I've never seen that kind of reaction from any other country. The English are simply too territorial. It's strange that people would have a problem with it. It is all about acting, after all.''

While the profession may well be all about pretending, Zellweger, feeling the heat of expectations, left nothing to chance. She moved to London last March and anonymously took a Bridget-like job in a publishing house, Picador, working for three weeks as a trainee in the publicity department. (``The only hint they had that something was up came when they sent her out to buy a cake and she came back with a really expensive one,'' Fielding says.)

Zellweger also worked with dialogue coach Barbara Berkery (or, as the actress calls her, ``Iron Fist Barbara''), the woman who worked wonders rounding Gwyneth Paltrow's vowels for ``Shakespeare in Love.'' Zellweger wanted to reach the point where the Brit-speak became a habit, a process that co-star Grant says led to some interesting phases.

``Early on, she sounded like Princess Margaret,'' Grant jests. ``Then she sounded as if she were a stroke victim. But she did manage to pull it off. It was an unbelievably brave thing to do.''

Braver still, at least in the eyes of our image-obsessed society, was Zellweger's decision to gain the 20 pounds that Bridget is always trying to lose. Zellweger said she wanted to physically reflect Bridget's lifestyle (i.e. the nights drinking vodka and tonics and eating fried foods at the neighborhood pub), but that was easier said than done since the actress is normally a diet-conscious gym rat.

Every calorie counted; no meal was spared. Zellweger could still eat her normal spinach salad for lunch, but the balsamic dressing was replaced with thousand island and she had to wolf down two croissants with butter as well. Pizza, peanut butter sandwiches, cheese omelets, buttered bagels, chocolate milkshakes and protein shakes became staples of Zellweger's diet and after a few weeks, she had to ship most of her clothes back to Texas.

``I found out that one doughnut doesn't do a thing and 20 doughnuts don't do a thing,'' Zellweger says, offering dietary advice that would make Homer Simpson green with envy. ``It takes 20 doughnuts a day for five weeks before you see results.''

Zellweger kept at it and eventually found herself with a figure that required some serious shopping.

``I upgraded at Victoria's Secret about three or four times,'' she says. ``It was very exciting for me. And I foolishly brought those items home with me and they're rotting away in a drawer as we speak.''

Fielding says that Zellweger's weight gain was ``very important'' because ``Bridget isn't Miss Perfect, she's not stick thin, she doesn't do everything right.''

``And the thing about Renee,'' Fielding continues, ``is she has got this ability to look both ordinary and beautiful, which was important. For most women, you get a good day when it's all working together and you look great. And then the rest of the time, you just look normal.''

Zellweger doesn't just look normal in the movie; she goes out of her way to be less than beautiful, throwing herself in situations - and costumes - that would intimidate many ingenues. In ``Bridget,'' Zellweger dons (in all her voluptuous glory) a Playboy bunny-type outfit with fishnets stockings in one scene and runs down a busy city street wearing a skimpy pair of underwear in another.

``She was so game,'' says ``Bridget'' director Sharon Maguire, a longtime friend of author Fielding. ``Renee was delighted in the fact that her cellulite was sticking out and that, at the top of the bunny costume, you could see the fat pouching out. She would do anything to add to the comedy.''

Zellweger's take on Bridget is that she's not a woman with a weight problem; she's a woman with a selmage problem. And finding out who she is and what she wants is the beauty of the journey she takes in the book and the movie.

``What woman over 30 isn't concerned about men, work, relationships and fighting Mother Nature?'' Zellweger asks. ``I know how Bridget feels. I've spent evenings alone in front of the television with a bag of Doritos. We're all in the same boat, fighting against society's expectations for our lives, trying to find out what we really want for ourselves. Figuring that out is a big deal. I know I'm still working on it. So, watching Bridget flail around a bit gives us all - men and women - a little bit of comfort and hope.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Her Thighness

Renee Zellweger gained more than respect for her character in `Bridget Jones's Diary'

(2) Director Sharon Maguire, left, discusses a scene with Renee Zellweger on the set of ``Bridget Jones's Diary.''

(3) no caption (Renee Zellweger with bunny ears)