[Image-SIG] Strange error - Please help !!

[Ray Pasco]

(Python 2.3.4, PIL 1.1.5b1)

All of a sudden, after developing with PIL yesterday, I get this error 
today:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "try.py", line 4, in ?
    imPil = Image.open ('GOLDENS.JPG')
  File "C:\Python23\Lib\site-packages\PIL\Image.py", line 1725, in open
    preinit()
  File "C:\Python23\Lib\site-packages\PIL\Image.py", line 271, in preinit
    __import__("%sImagePlugin" % m, globals(), locals(), [])
  File "C:\Python23\Lib\site-packages\PIL\BmpImagePlugin.py", line 61, in ?
    class BmpImageFile(ImageFile.ImageFile):
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'ImageFile'

Why is it trying to use the BMP plugin on a JPG file ?
Is this merely the first decoder used to try to resolve the image file 
type ?

I completely un-installed and reinstalled Python, PIL, etc. to no avail.
If I can't resolve this I will have to reinstall the OS !

Thanks,
Ray Pasco