The daydreams of thousands of women across the globe have just been shattered – by none other than Mr Darcy himself! Colin Firth, 47, who played Mr Darcy in the best adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and also Mr Darcy again in Bridget Jones’ Diary, has come out saying that the characters that he and Hugh Grant play in those films do not exist. I’m devastated.

Firth, who appears alongside Uma Thurman in new movie The Accidental Husband, said: “I’ve decided the quintessential Englishman I play doesn’t exist.

“I play him but you don’t run into him very often. There aren’t very many Mr. Darcys out there. I think he’s a figment of our folklore or film lore.

“My character exists in mythology and he may have existed once but now he only exists in the hands of actors.”

Firth also revealed he is bemused that foreign journalists have fallen for the Hollywood image of Englishmen and ignored the legions of rebellious rockers Britain has produced.

He added: “I was questioned about this by a group of Greek journalists recently while making a movie version of Mamma Mia!.

“They were insisting on the stereotypical Englishman, that no Englishman has ever grown his hair long, played the electric guitar or pierced his ear.”

The Melbourne Age

I’m sure I’m not the only one to plan a romantic trip to england, to hang out at the gates of Oxford University and meet a quintessential Englishman, who will obviously fall madly in love with my Australian attitude and we’ll live happily ever after in a moderate sized castle. I’m nothing if not a realist. Now I’ll just have to stay home and marry Hugh Jackman. Don’t tell me he’s married too…

So ladies, if you are planning on hitting England to meet a man with a debonair manner, cute accent and a general Englishness you can’t find anywhere else, but you have seen in film, don’t bother. They don’t exist!

Note by Celebitchy: I dated a typical English guy with a wild streak when I was in my early 20s. He was super charming, and to my naive eyes he was the best thing ever - for a while. He was like Hugh Grant’s character more than Colin Firth’s though. Maybe I’m the one who made him out to be a stereotype and that wasn’t all he was about, but those type of guys do exist, at least for that limited period of time when you’re infatuated and totally blind to reality.

Who are we kidding? This was just an excuse to post hot Colin Firth pictures. He’s shown in his films Bridget Jones’ Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, The Importance of Being Earnest, Pride & Prejudice, Love Actually, and The Accidental Husband.

In the header he is shown at the Rome Film Festival on 10/20/07. He is also seen below with his wife of ten years, Livia Giuggioli, in October and December of last year. Thanks to PRPhotos and Allmoviephoto.