for colin firth’s birthday: what turns him on?

~ jama

“I like you very much . . . just as you are.” (Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, Bridget Jones’s Diary)

AMUSE-BOUCHE

Colin: Is it true about Poldark?

Me: Whaaa?

Colin: Has he replaced me in your affections?

Me: Never.

Colin: Haven’t I told you (endlessly) how ardently I admire and love you?

Me: Yes.

Colin: Didn’t I plunge into a mucky lake on your behalf?

Me: Uh-huh.

Colin: And say I like you “just the way you are” despite your blue soup?!

Me: Yes, yes.

Colin: Of all your Eye Candies, don’t I still TAKE THE CAKE??!!

Me: Of course!

Colin: Well then, what’s all this talk of Cornwall this and Aidan Turner that, topless scything, and windswept hair?

Me:

Colin: I thought so. You’ve gone all Irish on me, haven’t you? To think that an inadequately bathed whippersnapper on horseback could have stolen your heart! What is the world coming to?!

Me: But Colin, I made crème brûlée.

Colin: Oh well in that case 🙂 . . .

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CRÈME DE LA CRÈME

The one and only Colin Firth turns 55 today.

Though he most certainly still TAKES THE CAKE, we’re celebrating instead with crème brûlée. In his 2011 Inside the Actor’s Studio interview with James Lipton, Colin revealed what turns him on. Not Lizzy Bennet, ugly Christmas sweaters, winning an Oscar, or even his beautiful wife Livia. It’s crème brûlée, pure and simple.

We love a man who loves his dessert.

And crème brûlée is the perfect choice. It’s just like Colin — a sweet, rich, decadent pleasure that’s oh so smooth.  Elegant but not fussy, eliciting sighs and swoons as it passes through the lips. A tuxedo of a dessert, equally welcome aboard a Greek island yacht, at a Netherfield Ball late night supper, or as a post-seance treat on the French Riviera. Always cool, calm, and collected, its crackly exterior is flaming hot.

Avant la crème, a little more heat:

His favorite color is blue.
His favorite color is blue.
colinpad
His favorite sound? The cello.
colinglasses
Among his fave reads: Rilke’s The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, and Anne Tyler’s Saint Maybe.
Colin-Firth-Wallpapers-
He once said the person he’d most like to meet is Bob Dylan.
colincig
He’s 6’1″.
colinblacksuit
So dashing in a suit!
colinguitar
Playing the guitar soothes him. He also likes to decompress by cooking.
colinpattern
Profession he’d most like to attempt: arch-criminal.
colinbluesatin
He likes wine + Italian, a pint + curry, a good American burger.
colinold
The movie “Dumbo” makes him cry.
This looks a little creme brûlée, don't you think?
This looks a little creme brûlée, don’t you think?
What a handsome, handsome man!
What a handsome, handsome man!

*fans self*

Just for Colin’s birthday, we enlisted the services of Hoppy Vanderhare, aka Le Lapin Rotund. A recent graduate of Le Cordon Hare, Hoppy’s a master pastry chef who’s never without her kitchen torch, and unlike the Alphabet Soup furry kitchen helpers, she wasn’t the least bit afraid of singeing her whiskers.

Since we loved the Peach Cream Cheese Danish recipe from Natasha’s Kitchen, we decided to try Natasha’s Crème Brûlée. It should be illegal that something so simple to make would taste so utterly divine! It’s just a matter of whipping three eggs with sugar, heating up the heavy cream, adding a little vanilla, then slowly whisking the cream into the egg mixture. Pour through a fine sieve, fill your ramekins, place in a boiling water bath and bake for 35 minutes. Chill for several hours in the fridge before torching. While you’re waiting, watch your favorite Colin Firth movie. 🙂

Next, sprinkle a teaspoon or two of granulated sugar atop the chilled cream and caramelize the sugar with your torch by moving the flame in a circular motion until a crackly crust forms.

When you tap your spoon to break through the brûlée and taste that sweet crunch and velvety cream, you’ll be instantly transported to England, where you’re free to rendezvous with Fitzwilliam Darcy, Mark Darcy, King George VI, Harry Hart,  Lord Wessex, or Henry Dashwood. Eat two ramekins full and you can take a side trip to France to smooch with Valmont. Ooh-la-la, soooooo good!

Visit Natasha’s Kitchen for a printable recipe and video tutorial!

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AU CINÉMA

So, what’s Colin been up to lately?

This summer he shot scenes with co-star Rachel Weisz for an as yet untitled biopic about British amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst. Crowhurst’s story is a strange one — he was a businessman who entered the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race (a solo yacht circumnavigation) in hopes of winning the cash prize. This venture ended tragically as Crowhurst was ill-prepared and ran into insurmountable problems — it is thought he abandoned the race, reported false positions, eventually went insane and committed suicide.

7X2A4831.cr2
Colin as Max Perkins and Jude Law as Thomas Wolfe.

Already in the can and hopefully soon to be released in the U.S. is “Genius,” a film about literary editor Maxwell Perkins co-starring Nicole Kidman and Jude Law. And on the horizon — Colin as Henry Higgins in a Broadway production of “My Fair Lady”! This is my all-time favorite musical :). There’s been talk of a Bridget Jones 3 movie for awhile, but so far nothing’s been confirmed.

[ETA: This just in! The Bridget Jones threequel is set to start filming in the UK in early October! Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth will be back along with Patrick Dempsey. It is supposedly not based on the third BJ novel, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (where Mark Darcy is killed off), but on several of Helen Fielding’s newspaper columns.]

What’s your favorite Colin Firth role?

I recently saw “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” “A Single Man,” and “Another Country,” Colin’s feature film debut (1984). In “Another Country” (which can be viewed online in its entirety here), Colin plays Tommy Judd, a Marxist public school student and friend to openly gay Guy Bennett (played by Rupert Everett). This historical drama is loosely based on the life of spy and double agent Guy Burgess, and is interesting as it shows Firth and Everett at the beginning of their careers, around the time their infamous rivalry and now longstanding feud originated.

colinbridgetjones

Though I enjoy Colin’s many different personas (he was brilliant in “The King’s Speech,” riveting in “Kingsman,” affecting in “A Single Man”), my favorite on-screen Colin moments are the romantic ones (no surprise). When he shows his vulnerability, when there’s a crack in his composure, when you can read on his face the feelings he’s bottled up for so long, I’m a goner. Sometimes you don’t need any dialogue. It’s all in the right LOOK, and I love the way Colin’s characters look at the women they love.

In “Love, Actually,” Colin’s character Jamie tumbles into the water after Aurelia tries to salvage his manuscript pages. Yes, there’s a bit of food at the beginning of the scene:

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In the first Bridget Jones movie, I love the blue soup scene. How can you not love a man who so masterfully scrambles eggs?

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And in a scene I love from a movie I’ve yet to see (“Easy Virtue”), Colin tangos with Jessica Biel. Talk about flambé!

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Romance aside, I can’t resist watching Colin eat muffins 🙂 :

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And with that, we should all have another ramekin of crème brûlée and heartily wish Colin a very

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

 

P.S. Have you seen this cute Ellen Show interview where he discusses being sensitive about the size of his *ahem* manhood? 😀

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UN PETIT DIGESTIF

Colin: Stellar creme brûlée!

Me: Just for you.

Colin: You are the best.

Me: BTW, did you know Aidan Turner’s brother’s name is “Colin”?

Colin: Oh for heaven’s sake. Here we go . . .

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♥ This post is brought to you by the letters C and B. Crème Brûlée, as we now know, makes the man.

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wkendcookingiconThis post is being linked to Beth Fish Read’s Weekend Cooking, where all are invited to share their food-related posts. Put on your aprons and bibs, and come join the fun!

 

 

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Copyright © 2015 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.

40 thoughts on “for colin firth’s birthday: what turns him on?”

  2. OMG, I’m going to be shell-shocked all day.. Sigh. Can I just read this post over and over and over and do nothing else. AND his favorite dessert is MY favorite dessert. And I missed a Firth movie here and there. For shame!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Since you both like the same dessert, you’re practically related now :).

      There are quite a few CF movies I haven’t seen — I think some were only released in the UK. If you get the chance, take a look at “Another Country.” It’s a little strange hearing that voice coming from a much younger man.

      Like

  6. Love this post on so many different levels–though how can you go wrong with Colin Firth and creme brûlée? While I never could make it through the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, I adore him as Mark Darcy in Bridget Joneses Diary. Fun post!

    Like

  7. Happy birthday, CF! I’ll have to come back to this post to savour it more thoroughly, but I wanted to say that there is a third Bridget Jones book MAD ABOUT THE BOY (which ends most unsatisfactorily, I must say, and cries out for a sequel.)

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    1. Haven’t read that one — but there IS going to be a third BJ movie after all !! Not based on that novel (thank goodness, wouldn’t want to see MD die), but on Fielding’s newspaper columns.

      Like

  11. LOL! The Ellen Show clip was fabulous! (I’m also cracking up at the pic of him in the bright floral outfit – what on earth was that from?) Ahh, Mr Firth is still absolutely gorgeous, isn’t he? I haven’t seen Kingsmen yet, but my BIL/SIL own it, so hopefully I’ll see it soon. “The King’s Speech” was AMAZING. His face shape was all wrong to play Bertie, in truth (although HBC was practically the spitting image of the Queen Mum), but Colin NAILED the performance. Truly outstanding. Happy bday to him!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I don’t know what the floral suit was all about — you could probably hear him coming in that from a mile away. 🙂

      I need to watch “The King’s Speech” again.

      Like

  12. Oh, I hope dear Colin had a happy birthday. Surely so after this post, especially now that you’ve aired out the little fetching-young-Irishman-flirtation thing. (And he’s an Ann Tyler fan? Well of course, I am too.)
    Mmmmm on all the lovely crème brûlée. And such a good excuse to use the word, “ramekin.”
    Happy Weekend!

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  15. Your post is hilarious!! I’ve never had Creme Brulee, and think I’ve only seen two Colin movies. I’ll be doing a search for him later today to be sure.

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  16. I hadn’t laughed so much with a post for a long time! As a big fan of Colin too, I absolutely loved this. And well, who doesn’t love creme brulee? Can’t wait to make some now!

    Alba 🙂

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  17. I do love Crème Brulee, but don’t make it nearly enough. Thanks for the encouragement. I will come back and savor all those lovely Colin clips.

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