The Off-Screen Romances of Bond Girls

I was running through my list of Bond girls, cross-checking the romance and action they enjoy with Bond on screen with what happens in their real lives. I was thinking that somehow, maybe their characters would rub off on them, and that when it comes to real life, they, too would enjoy big romance. I'm not hugely surprised by my findings, after all, this is Hollywood. But we get so fixated by the on screen auras of these women that we automatically assume there will be similarities between their on-screen and off-screen lives.

Let's look at Jinx, as played by Halle Berry, in Die Another Day. On screen she was a perfect 10 and forbidden fruit for Bond until the end. Frankly, I really liked her charm. But how is she doing in real life? As beautiful as this Bond Girl is, when it comes to choosing the right guy, she is just like everyone else. Her choice in men isn't exactly executed Bond-style. She fell for David Justice, good old Eric Benet, and then Michael Ealy. I thought she had finally seen the light when she hooked up with Gabriel Aubry, but I was to be proven wrong. That relationship went right past like a Japanese bullet train.

I thought I was being too harsh on our sister here, so I looked at a few other Bond girls to see if I was mistaken. In my own MI6 way, I pulled out Ursula Andress' file, and there were no surprises with the original Bond girl, either. I've always thought all I had to do to get my own real-life Bond was to work on my abs and bring up my bum a little higher. (OK, then find my moment on a seashore somewhere and channel Ursula.) But as evidenced by Ursula, there's more to it: she didn't nail the love thing in real life, either. (She married, divorced, and had a series of affairs - some with married men - and one which led to her having a child later in life.)

It's easy to get drawn into characters played on screen, forget that the real-life scenarios are almost totally different, and wonder why our own Bond-style love hasn't happened yet. But real life does take research, work, laughter, and more work. But the reward is worth it, because there's nothing like doing life with someone you love, and who cares deeply about you. So don't give up just yet!