Andrew Davies, who wrote the screenplay of the 1995 miniseries of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, will participate in a discussion with scriptwriter Hugh Stoddart at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. The discussion will take place on Monday, August 23 at 12:30 p.m.

A teenaged girl has published a young adult novel inspired by Jane Austen’s novels.

As a big fan of the author Jane Austen and her regency stories, Doerfler became inspired to start her work about a year ago, at age 14.

The result was “Tabitha: An Improper English Romance,” a 260-page book about a girl who struggles with the English society, her family and herself in the year 1814.

Her book involves romance, family issues and a lot of humor, she said.

. . .And then I was all like, “Darcy’s mean, and mean people suck,” and then Jane was all like, “You are SO too good for him, girlfriend,” and then Charlotte was all like, “But he’s sporting the bling, yo.”

(We could go on in this vein all day but it would be unbecoming to our editorial gravity, and is most likely doing the young authoress a disservice.)

If you’ve ever considered yourself a true Austen scholar, here’s the chance to prove it — the San Diego Union-Times has come up with a list of supposed “incentives” offered to quarterback Philip Rivers by the Chargers football team as part of his contract:

If the sun rises in the west – $20 million.

If Barbra Streisand, Bruce Springsteen, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin and Michael Moore come out in support of George Bush – $40 million.

If Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon hug – $60 million.

If O.J. finds the real killer – $80 million.

If Lizzie Borden confesses – $100 million.

If literary scholars can show that Jane Austen wrote “War and Peace” and that Leo Tolstoy wrote “Pride and Prejudice” – $120 million.

The AustenBlog staff tried some research on this one, but it looks like we’re going to be non-millionaire Austen fangirls for a while.

The screenwriter of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Deborah Moggach, has updated her Web site to include her views of the setting for Longbourn (Groombridge Place). She also mentions some of the smaller tasks she’s been completing, now that her main work on the film is finished.

A representative of Focus Features, the distributor of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, has confirmed that Penelope Wilton is playing Mrs. Gardiner in the film and that Claudie Blakley, who played Mabel in GOSFORD PARK, is playing Charlotte Lucas.

The representative also confirmed that Samantha Bloom, previously rumored to be playing Charlotte Lucas, is NOT in the film (and neither is her little brother! ;-))

EDIT 4 Feb. 2005: We just received word that Samantha Bloom is indeed in the film as “The Rosings Governess” (we presume meaning Miss DeBourgh’s companion).

We would like to welcome three new reporters to the AustenBlog staff: Mary, Tasha and Julie B., all regular contributors, have agreed to come on board. They have promised to scour the Internet for every scrap of Jane Austen news that is fit to print, so stay tuned!

Welcome to our new reporters!