The fate of Breaking Bad's Walter White may be the news of the day – never mind the potentially imminent shutdown of much of the United States government over a budget battle.
But reports of another tragic turn of events has been garnering outrage across the Web. Break it gently now: Mark. Darcy. Is. Dead. If you don't understand the significance of that statement, you can go back to trying to avoid spoilers about the Breaking Bad finale – and good luck with that. If you now have the urge to drown your sorrows in chardonnay, reread Pride and Prejudice where the original Mr. Darcy remains alive and well, and then watch the BBC miniseries of the Jane Austen book in which Colin Firth plays Mr. Darcy particularly alive and very well, then, well, sympathies.
But let's just say, there are apparently a great many Bridget Jones fans who are "aghast," according to the Guardian, and "left reeling," wrote the Telegraph, when a preview of the third book in the bestselling series went online. It turns out Helen Fielding, the writer who created the saucy, if hapless and lovelorn, British heroine, has decided to go off and kill her romantic hero, so that the now-widowed Bridget might take up with a 30-something boy toy. (Even British Tory MP Louise Mensch took to Twitter, the Guardian observed, to record her dismay.)
To be clear, this is not a true spoiler – it's the opening premise of the novel and practically given away in the title, Mad About the Boy, due out on Oct. 10. By certain media accounts – now that news has leaked of the tragic offing of the character, based on Jane Austen's beloved hero, and played also by Colin Firth in the movies – fans are threatening a mass boycott of the book. Good luck to them: According to an article in the Independent, the actual cause of Mark Darcy's death will only be revealed (i.e. leaked online) when the actual book comes out. And really, how else was Fielding going to get another book out of her heroine, points out Guardian writer Suzanne Moore with well-placed disdain, if she wasn't going to be miserable.
So there it is: Walter White's journey comes to an end. (We're not saying how here.) Mark Darcy is now six feet under. Keep calm and carry on. And, in other news, here's hoping that Washington manages to do the same.