"Later she said that Africa was just another version of my masochistic bastard complex and I should stay in England, learn to love myself and go out with bores."

One really wants to like CAUSE CELEB. BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY and BRIDGET JONES: The Edge of Reason were both such fun, and Bridget was such an endearing character that one picks up Helen Fielding's latest novel hoping for more of the same wit and farce.

That CAUSE CELEB was Fielding's first novel comes as no surprise. Clearly it has been published in the U.S. to capitalize on the success of her earlier books. This is no crime in itself. The great thing about Bridget was that she was so earnest in her quest for self-improvement and so whimsical about love. Sure she could be cloying, counting every last calorie even as she was downing that third chocolate croissant, but her charm lay in her vast ability to laugh at herself. Unfortunately, Rosie Richardson, the Heroine (with a capital H) of CAUSE CELEB, does not share that ability.

Rosie Richardson is a publicist at a London publishing house. She describes herself as a literary puffette whose main job seems to be to attend parties looking appropriately pretty. At one such event she meets Oliver Merchant, a hotshot television personality who appears to be a drunken cross between Charlie Rose and Warren Beatty. It is never sufficiently clear why Rosie is so drawn to Oliver. He treats her hideously, his assistant calls her to make and break each of their dates, and he says things to Rosie such as, "I've fallen in love with you but I'm not in love with you." She stays with him through much emotional abuse and when she's had enough she escapes to run a refugee camp in the African desert.

As she throws herself into running the African camp, Rosie undoubtedly grows up, realizes the important things in life and sees that in other parts of the world celebrity is not everything; food and shelter cannot be taken for granted and nothing is more important than health. These are solid points to make, and we are proud that Rosie has not only matured but gained self-confidence as well. But the African storyline is not substantial enough to compete with the giddy exploits of the emotionally stunted luminaries back home, and even Rosie's burgeoning love affair with the camp doctor lacks sufficient steam.

Four years later, Rosie returns to London to organize her celebrity friends for an event to raise money for the deeply endangered refugees back in Africa. This becomes the "cause celeb" of the title. Seeing Rosie's well-heeled friends out of their element in plague-stricken Africa would be amusing except that the refugees are indeed slowly starving to death. Certainly the British celebrities are there to enhance their own images as well as help the starving Africans, but does that mean they should not do their part to help raise money and ease the suffering? This is where Fielding is unclear, and it is murky whether or not their presence is helpful or a grand waste of time.

It begs the question: When Westerners help Third World countries are they only doing it to ease their own consciences? And if so, does that mean they should not offer their help? There is an underlying cynicism that is hinted at but never addressed. The book wraps up a bit too tidily --- Rosie gets her good doctor, and the Africans eat. For now.