Dear Internet, how hard is it to type "spoiler alert"?

Why is everyone determined to spoil our favourite movies and TV shows?

The movie’s called Bridget Jones’s Baby.

So we weren’t perturbed to see pictures of Renee Zellweger filming a scene while holding a baby.

However, when the entire film hinges on just who fathered said baby, well, we’d really rather that information be disseminated though, oh, I dunno, THE FILM?

The term “spoiler alert” has been in use since the early days of the internet.

In 1994, Amy E. Schwartz wrote of the new ‘net language, “On movie buffs’ discussion lists, for instance, there is wide use of the term ‘spoiler alert,’ which is a warning inserted before any comment that would give away a film’s ending.” (via TheAwl.com)

So why is it, then, that so many online news and gossip sites have failed to preface recent Bridget Jones info with those two small words?

Now, I’m about to explain what I’m on about, so may I just say SPOILER ALERT.

See?

It wasn’t so hard.

Websites from People to E! are publishing pictures taken of Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth holding a baby clad in what appears to be a white Christening gown.

Am I alone in feeling this way? Sing it, Bridge… Post continues after video.

When the last film ended, Bridget Jones was pregnant, but the mystery was that she didn’t know who the father was — Mark Darcy (Firth) or Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant).

These pictures seem to indicate the answer to that very important question.

And we say boo. Boo to spoilers! Let them make the films, then let us see the films, and the we can all discuss them.

The film isn’t set for release until September 2016. Maybe we’ll have forgotten by then?