Mums Go Mad For R-Patz And New Moon
By admin • Nov 24th, 2009Just one year ago, many women were blissfully unaware of Twilight - a series of four books detailing the romance between a teenage girl and a vampire.
And mums whose daughters had fallen hard for the saga may have found themselves rolling their eyes and remembering their own first crush.
However, all of that has now changed, as supposedly mature ladies who probably should know better have allowed themselves to get swept up in the story of forbidden love, teenage yearning and blood-lust - and many women may now be wishing they had picked up their children’s’ books earlier to find out what they were missing.
The hit series by US author Stephenie Meyer tell the story of Bella Swan, a 17-year-old girl who moves to the rainy town of Forks and falls in love with the mysterious Edward Cullen, only to discover that he and his family are vampires.
Last year’s film saw girls the world over fall hard for its male lead Robert Pattinson - who stars opposite Kristen Stewart - and his portrayal of the tortured vamp - and it seems that secretly, many mums were also suitably impressed by his portrayal.
Melissa Peterson, a 42-year-old mum from the US, recently explained the motivation behind the craze to ABC News, saying: "It takes you back to when you were 17 and had your whole life in front of you."
She is one of some 30,000 members of the web community Twilight Moms, where grown women can have a cyber-meet-up to discuss the books and films, away from the screaming Twi-hard teenage fans.
Speaking of Edward Cullen, Ms Peterson says: "This character was born in 1908, so he behaves like a gentleman and we don’t do that anymore - so it’s kind of fun."
And Variety writer Justin Chang told the US news corporation: "He knows how to treat a lady in a sense and I think a lot of older women in particular, older readers, older moviegoers find that appealing."
Indeed, 23-year-old R-Patz himself has admitted to receiving marriage proposals from women old enough to be his mum.
This is despite the fact that when it was first announced he had won the role, many fans of the books complained that he was not attractive enough to portray the immortal heartthrob.
It seems that, less than two years on, all of that has been forgotten, with the young Brit star topping polls across the globe for his looks - although his beauty regime may put off some hygiene conscious women, as he admits he rarely washes his hair.
But the Twilight craze is not only limited to the US.
At its UK opening on November 20th, the sequel New Moon smashed the box office, taking around £11.68 million for its first weekend - almost five times what Twilight made during its own opening weekend.
Could it be mums who are driving up ticket sales this year?
In the follow-up to the opening film, Edward makes the decision to leave Bella, believing that she will be safer without him and able to get on with her life.
Bella seeks comfort in her childhood friend Jacob and starts to move on, but she soon discovers that he has secrets of his own.
Are you a Twilight and R-Patz obsessed mum?