Picture an “office tart”. Is she tall and slim with bee-stung lips? High cheekbones and come-to-bed eyes framed by a razor-sharp brunette bob? Sitting on an office chair, all Machiavellian smiles and legs akimbo? Thought so.
For 20 years, this is the image the nation has come to associate with “the other woman”, specifically if that woman is young, has a nondescript corporate job, and wears miniskirts. Yes, I’m talking about Love Actually’s Mia. You know, the smoking hot, red lingerie-wearing, inappropriately smirking woman who fervently flirts with her married boss, Harry (played by Alan Rickman), prompting him to surreptitiously buy her a gold necklace for Christmas. Compare it to the Joni Mitchell CD he buys his wife, Karen (Emma Thompson), and you get the idea.
