Bond's female companions for the 22nd 007 film: Olga Kurylenko (left) and Gemma Arterton. Photograph: (Arterton) Alastair Grant/AP
So the two female "leads" have now been confirmed for the snappily billed Bond 22. They are, for the record, a Ukrainian model by the name of Olga Kurylenko and the little known Gemma Arterton, who can currently be seen playing a naughty schoolgirl in St Trinian's. Business as usual in the 007 harem.
"He's the Bond girl, not me," insisted Eva Green, referring to her role opposite Daniel Craig in Casino Royale and hinting at a sea-change in the franchise's sexual politics; a flipping of the pyramid in which the hero becomes the hotty and the hotty becomes something cooler and more cerebral. But the early indications are that the times are a-changing back. It may be that we are set for a return to the golden age of disposable mattresses with double-entendres for names; a ribald era that spawned the likes of Pussy Galore, Holly Goodhead and Venereal Stroganoff (admittedly one of the lesser-known Bond girls, and directly responsible for the demise of Roger Moore).
Faced with a news story about the latest Bond girl, the writer traditionally has one of two options. We can either take the high road and rail against the entrenched sexism of the concept, or we can take the low road and excitedly rate them in order of preference. But is there any reason why we shouldn't do both?
Let's take the first route first. My own view is that Eva Green is half right. They are all "Bond girls" (the men and the women), in that they are all patriarchal shorthand for the sexual ideal of any given decade. So Connery was the mainstream's glossy reinvention of the kitchen-sink tough, while Moore (the Cecil Parkinson of Bonds) epitomised a suave 70s era of suburban key parties.
Within their more pinched and limited confines, the Bond girls serve a similar purpose. If they were making Bond girls in the 1940s, they would have probably cast the Sweater Girl. If they were making them in the 1900s, they'd have had her in a bonnet and ringlets. To rewind through the Bond girls of yore is to gain a window into the sexual fashions of your own adolescence, or your parents' generation, or the time when your grandparents were still "in the game", so to speak.
And to briefly address the other matter, and in no particular order: Ursula Andress, Talisa Soto, Maryam D'Abo and Eva Green.
Now over to you. Bond girls, eh? The high road or the low? Which way is this one going to go?
