This Bridgerton Easter Egg Is Turning Heads
Warning: if you're one of the few people who hasn't watched Bridgerton yet, there are spoilers ahead. If you, like millions of viewers, are up-to-date, then here's a bombshell for you: Lady Whistledown's secret identity was hinted at in the show's very first episode.
The announcement of this Easter egg that apparently went unobserved by many viewers was revealed by none other than the actress who plays Lady Whistledown herself, Nicola Coughlan. Coughlan's character, as watchers will recall, was revealed to be the Regency-era equivalent of Gossip Girl in the final episode, after spending the entire season dishing the dirt on London's ton under the alias of Lady Whistledown. No one knows her secret identity, of course, and everyone thinks she is simply the debutante Penelope Featherington.
The big clue that Penelope is, in fact, Lady Whistledown, was revealed by Coughlan on Twitter and we've got to say it's pretty brilliant.
Nicola Coughlan couldn't wait for everyone to find out that Penelope Featherington is Lady Whistledown
Even better is that the clue was all Coughlan's idea. "Ok I'm just curious, has anyone spotted the massive Easter Egg about Penelope in the very first scene of Bridgerton?" she asked. In a follow-up tweet, she explained that she chose to use as an accessory a "massive massive feather that looked a lot like" a quill in the scene, representing the quill Lady Whistledown uses to pen her juicy gossip.
Coughlan knew from the beginning that her character is also Lady Whistledown, and was excited for how audiences found out about her nom de plume. "I think the reveal was done so well," she told Harper's Bazaar. "I mean, it was one of the most satisfying things in the world to shoot. It was amazing. And that big cloak and the carriage and everything, I think it's the perfect ending. When I watch it, even though I know, I was still like, 'Ahh!'"
Keeping that big of a secret to herself was no easy task, though, which may be why she couldn't resist inserting such a big hint in Penelope's opening scene. "I've had to carry around this secret the whole time while we've been filming," she said.