I haven’t read the book yet (horrid I know) but in Phantom of the [name]Opera[/name] [name]Christine[/name] goes by the nickname [name]Lottie[/name]? Any guesses why? [name]Just[/name] curious!
I read it 20+ years ago, and adored it. It was a nickname based on her appearance-- the stereotypical gorgeous Swedish girl, with golden curls and bright blue eyes. There was a character in a play? book? called “[name]Little[/name] [name]Lottie[/name]” that was sweeping Europe at the time Leroux wrote the book, describing a girl with that exact appearance wandering about in the world, making friends. It would have been an immediate shorthand to readers that [name]Christine[/name] was beautiful, doll-like, sweet, angelic, perfect, etc. Like “[name]Little[/name] [name]Eva[/name]” in Uncle [name]Tom[/name]'s Cabin, if you’ve read it.
Oh, got it. Thanks. I was, rather foolishly, wondering if [name]Lottie[/name] was once used as a nn for [name]Christine[/name], but this makes much more sense.
[name]Christine[/name] was actually blonde??? Oh god. I’m going to have to dislike every version I’ve seen of it now 
Yes, she is described as having honey-blonde hair, blue eyes, and is also nearsighted. I highly recommend the novel!
I always wondered this too! Thanks!!
Wow. I can’t explain how angry and sad I get when film makers (etc) blatantly ignore a character description that an author has so lovingly crafted and thought about 
Why don’t they realise how much this is going to annoy and alienate people who fell in love with the books?
Examples:
[name]Harry[/name] [name]Potter[/name]: We should have seen a tall and skinny [name]Harry[/name] with green eyes and a mop of black hair. What we got was a short, stocky boy with blue eyes and tidy cropped brown hair. [name]Hermione[/name] was meant to have bushy brown hair yet it got progressively blonder and straighter in every film "-_-
[name]Les[/name] Mis: [name]Fantine[/name] has blonde hair. [name]Cosette[/name]'s is brown. In the film they reverse it. Why?
Hunger Games: [name]Gale[/name] and [name]Katniss[/name] have ‘that seam look’. [name]Black[/name] hair, olive/tanned skin and grey eyes. In the film they had brown hair.
Grrr.
but you still saw all of these films :). Ticket sales = successful adaptation.
The real reason is that [name]Andrew[/name] [name]Lloyd[/name] [name]Webber[/name] wanted to bang [name]Sarah[/name] Brightman. She came to dominate the character, so we all think of a petite brunette.
[name]Just[/name] to be fair to [name]Andrew[/name] [name]Lloyd[/name] [name]Webber[/name], the Phantom of the [name]Opera[/name] was not a popular book at the time it was published, it was actually long out of print when [name]Webber[/name] managed to find a secondhand copy of the original novel to serve as inspiration for his musical. Perhaps he wanted to make the musical and story more his own, after all, the musical is quite different from the novel itself. It could have also been the fact that the first [name]Christine[/name] actress, [name]Sarah[/name] Brightman, was brown haired and blue/green-eyed, starting the line of brown-haired Chistines. That’s just my speculation though.
I didn’t actually 
I saw pictures first in articles, got angry and refused to go. I’m a writer so I think I see it all from the perspective of a protective author. I couldn’t sell out my story the way JKR did.