Many women are curious about how to fluctuate their weight in this same way. To pile on the pounds Zellweger reportedly stopped working out and forced herself to eat when not hungry in the slightest. I know that many women would be terrified at tampering with their body in this way – fearing that once they became accustomed to ignoring natural body signals then they'd never be able to stop. Pigging out on all your favourite high fat foods may sound like fun but the junk food and lack of exercise made Zellweger feel sluggish and she joked of her body "It doesn't know what has happened because it thinks there's supposed to be a baby and there's no christening." She also had a tough (if pampered) time in losing the weight; post-filming Zellweger can obviously benefit from the luxury of the best trainers and spas offering daily exercise and carefully controlled meals...and the hefty fee per film must be a serious boost to motivation.


Interestingly we can apparently be motivated to lose weight by the promise of a lot less than Zellwegers reported $6 million per movie. In the past employers have offered cash, gift cards and even cruises to employees who take steps to get in shape. Not surprisingly, research demonstrates that companies can save huge amounts of money if their employees are healthy and that healthy employees are more productive. A town in Italy also once offered euros to encourage its residents to drop the pounds. And it works – to a degree. Many people are reward-driven – the positive benefits of building treats and the like into a proposed exercise programme is well documented. People will go for that run on Monday and Wednesday if their diary promises a massage reward on Friday. It's interesting that the simple rewards of much improved health and fitness just never seem to cut it for many people. When you're thirty years old the thought of staying trim and pounding the streets in order to prevent health problems in middle age just doesn't work. The link up is just too tenuous.

So, how about you. Would you lose or gain weight for money? And should we be offering cash incentives to encourage weight loss in our increasingly overweight population?

And as for Renee – if it wasn't for all the flesh-baring in big knickers as Bridget – surely she could just insist on a fat suit.