This week, Hollywood loves blogs.

Today all the buzz in the blogosphere is over the identity of London working girl “Belle de Jour” and her book deal. Belle’s story has film potential, especially the “nice hooker by day/naughty blogger by night” twist, but she won’t be the first online scribe to make it to the screen. My Sassy Girl, a 2001 Korean romantic comedy that was the 5th highest grossing film in the country’s history, was based on a proto-blog by Kim Ho-Sik that recounted his relationship with a quirky college girlfriend. Now DreamWorks has just announced that Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha will be remaking the Korean hit for Western audiences – a tactic that worked well for The Ring, a Japanese-blockbuster-turned-Naomi-Watts vehicle.

My Sassy Girl was hugely popular all over Asia - it was even number one in Hong Kong, a city that’s pretty devoted to its own film industry - where audiences embraced it with a sort of frenzied puppy love. It will be interesting to see whether Chadha retains any hint of the film’s Korean origin. If it were any other director I wouldn’t expect it to happen, but Chadha has already made two films with largely Indian casts so she may not turn My Sassy Girl completely Hollywood.

“What’s wrong with ballet?” We vote for Jamie Bell (aka Billy Elliot) to take the role of Tin Tin in the new Steven Spielberg-produced franchise. He has the cute little nose and the hint of mischief, plus he can plié. All Bell’s alleged competition, Rupert Grint (aka Ron Weasley), can do is grow red hair and open his eye very, very wide. Let the boy dance. Jade Chang 26 March 04

useful link: www.tintin.com/uk