Beloved Rom-Com Heroine Bridget Jones to Receive Statue in London's West End

In a move that is sure to delight fans of the iconic Bridget Jones character, a bronze statue of the quirky rom-com heroine is set to be unveiled in London's West End on Monday. The statue, which is modeled on the role played by Renée Zellweger for the past two decades, will be part of a film trail in the heart of the city's film and theatre district in Leicester Square.

Appropriately, Bridget Jones will be joining the ranks of other beloved British icons, such as Paddington Bear and Harry Potter, in celebrating a century of British cinema. Author Helen Fielding, who first brought Bridget to life in a newspaper column and then a best-selling series of books, revealed that the statue even includes a discreet homage to the character's legendary "mummy pants" - the big support knickers that became part of the cultural lexicon after being mentioned by Bridget's lothario boss, Daniel Cleaver, in the first of the four Bridget Jones films.

Fielding expressed her delight at seeing Bridget, a character who "started life so unassumingly in an anonymous column in a newspaper," now being immortalized with a statue in such a prestigious location. She believes Bridget has become a role model for a new generation of young women, who can relate to her "emotionally honest, authentic, slightly messy, human, normal" persona, which provides a refreshing contrast to the pressure of social media-fueled perfection.