176 Fun Facts About Rom Coms

Which Frank Capra comedy was first to sweep the 'Big Five' Oscars?

It Happened One Night won Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay, though by Capra's account neither Clark Gable nor Claudette Colbert had wanted to make it; no film matched the sweep for 41 years.

In It Happened One Night, what does Clark Gable's character call the blanket hung between the beds?

Peter Warne (Clark Gable) dubs the blanket 'the walls of Jericho'; in the final shot a toy trumpet sounds and the blanket falls, echoing the biblical walls that fell to Joshua's trumpets.

Katharine Hepburn secured the screen rights to The Philadelphia Story after a 1938 list branded her what?

Box office poison was the label an exhibitors' ad pinned on her in 1938; she starred in Philip Barry's play, secured the screen rights, and the 1940 film became her comeback, winning James Stewart an Oscar.

Which blacklisted screenwriter wrote the story for Audrey Hepburn's 1953 Rome romance, uncredited?

Dalton Trumbo wrote the story while blacklisted, so Ian McLellan Hunter fronted for him and collected the Oscar; Trumbo's widow finally received the statuette in 1993.

Audrey Hepburn won her only competitive Oscar for which romantic comedy?

Roman Holiday (1953) won Hepburn Best Actress in her first American film, as a runaway princess exploring Rome with Gregory Peck's reporter, who ends up giving away his scoop rather than expose her.

Why was Some Like It Hot shot in black and white?

Drag make-up looked ghoulish in colour tests of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, so Billy Wilder shot in black and white; Monroe's contract called for colour, but she agreed once she saw the tests.

Which real California resort stood in for the Miami 'Seminole Ritz' in Some Like It Hot?

The Hotel del Coronado, a Victorian beachfront resort near San Diego, doubled for the Florida Seminole Ritz because its vintage look suited the film's 1920s setting.

What was Woody Allen's working title for Annie Hall?

Anhedonia, the clinical term for being unable to feel pleasure, was Allen's working title; after trying other names at test screenings he settled on the name of Diane Keaton's character.

Which shellfish do Alvy and Annie chase around a kitchen in Annie Hall?

Lobsters crawl loose across the kitchen floor of a Hamptons beach house as Alvy and Annie giggle through cooking dinner; Alvy, afraid to pick them up, suggests calling the police.

Who won the Best Actress Oscar for Moonstruck (1987)?

Cher won Best Actress as Loretta, a widowed bookkeeper who falls for her fiancé's brother and answers his declaration of love with a slap and 'Snap out of it!'; Olympia Dukakis won Best Supporting Actress.

The famous 'I'll have what she's having' line in When Harry Met Sally... was delivered by whom?

The director's mother, Estelle Reiner, delivers the line as a fellow diner after Sally's faked orgasm; Billy Crystal came up with it, and the AFI ranks it 33rd among its 100 movie quotes.

Harry and Sally share their first car ride from which university to New York?

Harry Burns and Sally Albright drive from the University of Chicago to New York after graduating in 1977, arguing the whole way about whether men and women can be friends.

Which romantic comedy began as a dark script titled '3000'?

Pretty Woman began as J.F. Lawton's '3000', a bleak drama named for the $3,000 Edward pays Vivian for the week; Disney had it reworked into a modern fairy tale with a happy ending.

In Pretty Woman, Edward flies Vivian to San Francisco to see which opera?

Edward takes Vivian by private jet to Verdi's La Traviata, the story of a courtesan loved by a wealthy man that mirrors their own; she is moved to tears.

In Sleepless in Seattle, Tom Hanks's Sam and Meg Ryan's Annie finally meet on Valentine's Day at what New York landmark?

The Empire State Building's observation deck hosts the Valentine's Day climax: Jonah flies to New York alone, Sam chases after him, and Annie arrives just as they return for a forgotten backpack.

In Sleepless in Seattle, Meg Ryan's Annie Reed is a reporter in which city?

Annie Reed writes for The Baltimore Sun and hears Sam on the radio while driving at Christmas; she later flies from Baltimore to Seattle to watch him from afar.

Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks first shared the screen, before Sleepless in Seattle, in which 1990 comedy?

Joe Versus the Volcano paired them first: Hanks's Joe, told he is dying of a 'brain cloud', agrees to leap into a volcano, and Ryan plays a trio of different women he meets along the way.

You've Got Mail is based on a 1937 Hungarian play that had already been filmed in 1940 as what?

The Shop Around the Corner, the 1940 film of Miklós László's play Parfumerie, has two bickering shop clerks falling in love by anonymous letter; Nora Ephron named Kathleen Kelly's bookshop after it.

What is Joe Fox's AOL screen name in You've Got Mail?

NY152 is Joe Fox's handle and Shopgirl is Kathleen Kelly's; they fall for each other by anonymous email while his Fox Books superstore threatens her small bookshop nearby.

Nora Ephron's semi-autobiographical novel Heartburn was about her marriage to which journalist?

Carl Bernstein, the Watergate reporter, had an affair with Margaret Jay while Ephron was pregnant with their second son; Meryl Streep played the Ephron figure, Rachel Samstat, in Mike Nichols's 1986 film.

In Four Weddings and a Funeral, Matthew's eulogy for Gareth is a poem by which writer?

W. H. Auden wrote 'Funeral Blues', which opens 'Stop all the clocks'; John Hannah's reading as Matthew gave the poem a new wave of popularity and renewed interest in Auden's other work.

Who plays Carrie, the American guest Charles keeps meeting, in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Andie MacDowell plays Carrie, whom Charles first meets at a wedding; she marries a wealthy Scot at a later one, and Charles ends up abandoning his own wedding for her.

In Notting Hill, Anna gives William the original of La Mariée, a painting by which artist?

Marc Chagall painted La Mariée ('The Bride') in 1950; William owns only a print, so Anna, who admires it in his flat, later turns up with the original as a gift.

Which singer's cover of Charles Aznavour's 'She' closes Notting Hill and reached the UK top 20?

Elvis Costello's version peaked at number 19 in the UK in 1999; it plays over the film's final scenes, as William and Anna marry and are last seen on a garden bench, Anna pregnant.

In My Best Friend's Wedding, which Bacharach song does Rupert Everett lead a restaurant in singing?

I Say a Little Prayer is George's showstopper: posing as Julianne's fiancé to make Michael jealous, he overplays the part at lunch with the wedding party until the whole restaurant is singing along.

In Runaway Bride, Ike notices that Maggie orders what the same way as whichever man she is engaged to?

Her eggs change with every fiancé, which convinces Ike she doesn't know her own mind; after fleeing their wedding she tries every style and settles on eggs Benedict.

Clueless (1995) is a loose modern adaptation of which Jane Austen novel?

Its heroine is Emma Woodhouse moved to Beverly Hills. Director Amy Heckerling sat in on classes at Beverly Hills High to get the slang right, and the film entered the National Film Registry in 2025.

10 Things I Hate About You (1999) is a teen update of which Shakespeare comedy?

The Taming of the Shrew supplies the plot: Bianca may not date until her sharp-tongued sister Kat does, so a suitor pays bad boy Patrick Verona to woo Kat, as Petruchio woos Katherina.

In 10 Things I Hate About You, which Frankie Valli hit does Heath Ledger sing from the bleachers?

Can't Take My Eyes Off You is Patrick's public apology to Kat, sung across the bleachers of the real Stadium High School in Tacoma; it lands him in detention, and Kat helps him sneak out.

The Wedding Singer (1998) is set in which year?

The film is set in 1985, with Robbie Hart plying his trade in Ridgefield, New Jersey; Billy Idol appears as himself on the plane at the end, and it became a Broadway musical in 2006.

In 50 First Dates, what does Henry make so that Lucy can catch up on her life each morning?

A videotape, labelled 'Good Morning Lucy', explains her accident and everything since, so her father and brother no longer have to restage the same Sunday for her every day.

What did Renée Zellweger do at Picador in London to prepare for Bridget Jones's Diary?

She worked as a publicity trainee at Picador at the producers' request, learning the job Bridget herself does at a book publisher in the film.

Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary is itself a loose reworking of which novel?

Pride and Prejudice supplies the template: Mark Darcy is Fielding's Mr Darcy, which is why Colin Firth, the BBC's 1995 Darcy, was cast; Andrew Davies, who adapted that serial, also worked on the film script.

Love Actually opens and closes at the arrivals gate of which London airport?

Heathrow's arrivals gate is where the Prime Minister's opening voiceover finds his proof that love is everywhere, and the film's storylines converge there again a month after Christmas.

In Love Actually, Colin Firth's writer falls for a housekeeper who speaks only which language?

Portuguese is all Aurélia speaks, so Jamie takes lessons and returns to propose in halting Portuguese; she accepts in broken English, revealing she has been learning his language too.

Until 2017, My Big Fat Greek Wedding was the highest-grossing US release ever to do what?

Never top a weekend chart: it still took $241 million in North America, a record for such a film until the animated Sing passed it in January 2017, and it grew out of Nia Vardalos's one-woman show.

In The Holiday, Kate Winslet's Surrey cottage was actually what?

A purpose-built film set: the crew found a real cottage, but it was too far from the crew's base, so they built the exterior in a field beside St James's Church in Shere.

In The Proposal, Sandra Bullock's editor faces deportation to which country?

Canada is where Margaret Tate, a New York book editor, will be deported after a visa violation, so she pressures her assistant Andrew into a sham engagement and a trip to his family in Sitka, Alaska.

Crazy Rich Asians was the first major studio film with a majority Asian cast in a modern setting since which film?

The Joy Luck Club (1993) was the last such studio film, 25 years earlier; Crazy Rich Asians follows Rachel Chu to Singapore for a wedding, where she finds her boyfriend's family is among the island's richest.

In To All the Boys I've Loved Before, how do Lara Jean's secret love letters get out?

Her sister posts them: little sister Kitty finds the hidden letters while Lara Jean sleeps and secretly mails them, only owning up near the end of the film.

Anyone but You (2023) is loosely based on which Shakespeare comedy?

Much Ado About Nothing is the model: Bea and Ben are Beatrice and Benedick, at odds since their first date went sour, who see through their friends' matchmaking at a Sydney wedding and fake a romance that turns real.

Which 1997 comedy won Best Actor and Best Actress Oscars for Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt?

As Good as It Gets won both lead Oscars: Nicholson's obsessive-compulsive novelist Melvin softens after he is made to mind a neighbour's dog, then pays for the care of waitress Carol's asthmatic son.

In Jerry Maguire, how does Dorothy interrupt Jerry's big declaration speech?

'You had me at hello' is Dorothy's reply when Jerry bursts into her sister's support group for divorced women and makes his speech, ending 'You complete me'; she tells him to shut up first.

In Coming to America, Eddie Murphy's Prince Akeem arrives from which fictional African kingdom?

Akeem Joffer, crown prince of Zamunda, travels to Queens, New York, to find a bride who will love him for himself, working at the McDowell's burger joint with Arsenio Hall's Semmi.

In The Lady Eve (1941), Henry Fonda's wealthy heir is an expert on which animals?

Snakes are Charles Pike's passion: the ale heir is sailing home from a year up the Amazon when Barbara Stanwyck's card sharp trips him as he walks past and sets out to fleece him.

Who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as the butler Hobson in Arthur (1981)?

John Gielgud won as Hobson, the acid-tongued valet who is more of a father to Arthur than his real one; it is Hobson who quietly urges Linda to crash Arthur's engagement party.

Which actress won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Ghost (1990)?

Whoopi Goldberg won as Oda Mae Brown, a sham medium who is stunned to find she really can hear the murdered Sam, and who is badgered by him into warning his girlfriend.

What one-word reply does Sam habitually give Molly instead of 'I love you' in Ghost?

'Ditto' is Sam's stock reply to Molly's 'I love you'; in the final scene he at last says the words himself, and it is Molly who answers 'Ditto'.

Dirty Dancing, set in the summer of 1963, takes place at what kind of establishment?

A Catskills holiday resort, Kellerman's, hosts the story, which Eleanor Bergstein drew from her own youth: a doctor's daughter nicknamed Baby who spent summers there entering 'dirty dancing' contests.

In Dirty Dancing, what does Baby blurt out that she carried when she first meets Johnny?

A watermelon is her way into the staff-only party; tongue-tied in front of Johnny, all she can say is 'I carried a watermelon', and she winces the moment it is out.

In Knocked Up, what job has Alison just been promoted to at a TV network when she meets Ben?

On-air reporter is the promotion Alison is out celebrating, after working behind the scenes at E!, when a one-night stand with Seth Rogen's slacker Ben leaves her pregnant.

In Leap Year (2010), Amy Adams's Anna heads to which country to propose?

Anna flies to Ireland to propose in Dublin on 29 February, when Irish tradition lets women ask, but a storm puts her ashore in Dingle, where she pays pub owner Declan (Matthew Goode) to drive her.

Which 1939 Ernst Lubitsch comedy was marketed with the tagline 'Garbo Laughs!'?

Ninotchka cast Greta Garbo as a stern Soviet envoy who melts in Paris for Melvyn Douglas; MGM sold her first full comedy with 'Garbo Laughs!', echoing 'Garbo Talks!' from Anna Christie.

Which screen legend ended a 15-year absence from film as Jennifer Lopez's nightmare in Monster-in-Law?

Jane Fonda had not made a film since Stanley & Iris in 1990, having retired after marrying Ted Turner; she came back as Viola, the mother who schemes to drive off her son's fiancée.

In It's Complicated (2009), Meryl Streep's Jane runs what kind of business in Santa Barbara?

Jane Adler owns a bakery-café in Santa Barbara and falls into an affair with her remarried ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin) while her architect Adam (Steve Martin) courts her.

Who played Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, despite being under six years older than Dustin Hoffman?

Anne Bancroft was cast as the older woman although fewer than six years separated her from Hoffman, and she was just eight years older than Katharine Ross, who played her daughter.

What single word of career advice is Benjamin given at his graduation party in The Graduate?

'Plastics' is the one word Mr. McGuire presses on Benjamin, promising 'a great future' in it; Benjamin ignores the tip and drifts into an affair with Mrs. Robinson instead.

Who plays the 'forgotten man' turned butler in My Man Godfrey (1936), opposite his ex-wife Carole Lombard?

William Powell's Godfrey is collected from a city dump by Lombard's dizzy heiress during a scavenger hunt; Powell agreed to the part only if Lombard, by then divorced from him, played her.

The title of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a line from a poem by whom?

Alexander Pope's Eloisa to Abelard supplies the line: Eloisa, parted from her lover, envies the 'blameless vestal' who can forget, the very thing the film's lovers pay a clinic to do.

Which firm erases memories in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?

Lacuna Inc., run by Tom Wilkinson's Dr Mierzwiak, performs the erasures; Jim Carrey's Joel undergoes the procedure after learning that Clementine has already had him wiped.

At the 2017 Oscars, Faye Dunaway read the wrong card and named La La Land Best Picture; which film had actually won?

Moonlight was the real winner: La La Land's producers were midway through their acceptance speeches when show staff took back the envelopes, and producer Jordan Horowitz held up the right card as proof.

La La Land opens with 'Another Day of Sun', a musical number staged where?

A jammed Los Angeles freeway hosts the number: the crew closed part of the 105-110 interchange, 100 feet up, for two days of filming, with dancers leaping out of their stalled cars.

Which 1937 screwball comedy, with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne as a divorcing couple, won Leo McCarey Best Director?

The Awful Truth won McCarey the Oscar, yet he said he had been honoured for the wrong picture: he thought his direction of the melodrama Make Way for Tomorrow, from the same year, was better.

Whom did Truman Capote want to play Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's?

Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe, who turned the part down, and Paramount cast Audrey Hepburn instead; the Givenchy black dress and Mancini and Mercer's Oscar-winning 'Moon River' followed.

Which 1977 romantic comedy beat Star Wars to the Best Picture Oscar?

Annie Hall won Best Picture, Director, Actress and Original Screenplay while Star Wars collected six Oscars in other categories; Woody Allen did not turn up to collect his.

How did Nicolas Cage's character Ronny lose his hand in Moonstruck?

In a bread slicer: Ronny was distracted by his brother Johnny when the accident happened, and he blames him for the lost hand and for the fiancée who then left him.

In Say Anything..., what does Lloyd Dobler hold aloft outside Diane's window?

A boombox blasting Peter Gabriel's 'In Your Eyes' is Lloyd's dawn plea after Diane breaks up with him and, on her father's advice, hands him a pen as a parting gift.

What does Tom do for a living in (500) Days of Summer?

Tom Hansen writes greeting cards at a Los Angeles company despite training as an architect; the non-linear film ends with him meeting a woman named Autumn.

Which Natasha Bedingfield song runs as a gag throughout Anyone but You?

'Unwritten' is Ben's 'serenity song': Bea overhears it on his headphones on the flight, it is sung to calm him during a helicopter rescue, and the cast belts it out over the end credits.

In Notting Hill, Hugh Grant's William runs a small bookshop that sells only what?

Travel books are all William's Portobello Road shop sells; minutes after Anna buys one there, he spills orange juice down her shirt, and the film went on to take about $364 million worldwide.

In High Fidelity (2000), John Cusack's Rob ranks his worst breakups while running what kind of shop?

A record store, Championship Vinyl, is where Rob and his clerks turn everything into ranked lists; the film moved Nick Hornby's English novel across the Atlantic to Chicago's Wicker Park.

In Crazy Rich Asians, Rachel faces down Nick's mother Eleanor over a game of what?

Mahjong decides it: Rachel discards the tile Eleanor needs to win, then shows she could have won with it herself; the scene isn't in Kevin Kwan's novel and was written for the film.

In To All the Boys I've Loved Before, which classmate fakes a relationship with Lara Jean?

Peter Kavinsky proposes the fake relationship so Lara Jean can throw off Josh while he makes his ex-girlfriend Gen jealous.

When Harry Met Sally... ends over a decade after it begins, with Harry racing to a party on which holiday?

New Year's Eve finds Sally about to leave the party alone when Harry, who has been wandering Manhattan, runs in and tells her he loves her, twelve years after their first drive to New York.

Whose divorce sparked the ideas behind When Harry Met Sally...?

Rob Reiner and Penny Marshall's divorce left him glumly single again, which gave the film its idea; Nora Ephron then interviewed Reiner and producer Andrew Scheinman to build Harry's side of the argument.

In Sleepless in Seattle, who phones a radio show hoping to find widower Sam a new wife?

His young son Jonah phones a Christmas Eve radio call-in show and coaxes Sam on air to talk about his late wife; thousands of women who hear him write in, among them Meg Ryan's Annie.

Which comedian plays the nervous new priest who fluffs the vows in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Rowan Atkinson's Father Gerald tangles the vows; the film cost under £3 million, so little that extras wore their own wedding clothes and his vicar turns up at two of the weddings to save hiring another actor.

Which Pennsylvania town is Bill Murray's weatherman covering in Groundhog Day?

Phil Connors covers the Groundhog Day ceremony in Punxsutawney, where Punxsutawney Phil predicts the weather; the town scenes were actually shot in Woodstock, Illinois.

Which director of Tootsie also appears in it as Dustin Hoffman's exasperated agent?

Sydney Pollack took the agent's part, written for Dabney Coleman, only after Hoffman talked him into it; three years later he won Best Director and Best Picture for Out of Africa.

Who wrote The Princess Bride as a novel and then adapted it for the screen himself?

William Goldman passed his 1973 novel off as the 'good parts' of a classic by S. Morgenstern, an author he made up; his own screenplay turns that joke into a grandfather reading to a sick grandson.

Which Tom Hanks comedy launched Touchstone, the label Disney created for its more grown-up releases?

Splash, Ron Howard's mermaid romance with Daryl Hannah, was Touchstone's first release in 1984; Disney wanted a second name so that racier films would not carry its family brand.

Which Carly Simon song from Working Girl won the Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy?

'Let the River Run' came to Simon as a hymn to New York after she read the script and then Walt Whitman's poems; it made her the first artist to win that trio of awards for a song written and performed alone.

Sixteen Candles was the directorial debut of which writer-director?

John Hughes pinned Molly Ringwald's headshot over his desk before he had met her and wrote Sixteen Candles around her in about a weekend, then directed it himself.

Who plays Duckie, Andie's devoted best friend, in Pretty in Pink?

Jon Cryer's Duckie was meant to get the girl; test audiences rejected that ending, so the finale was reshot to send Andie off with Andrew McCarthy's rich kid Blane.

Which three stars headline Billy Wilder's 1954 romantic comedy Sabrina?

Bogart, Hepburn and Holden play the two Larrabee brothers and the chauffeur's daughter caught between them; Wilder had wanted Cary Grant, not Bogart, as the stuffy older brother.

In The Apartment, why does Jack Lemmon lend his flat to his bosses?

C.C. Baxter lends the flat to executives for their affairs to climb the corporate ladder, until he falls for Shirley MacLaine's elevator operator; Wilder's film won five Oscars including Best Picture.

What kind of animal is Baby in the 1938 screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby?

A leopard sent from Brazil, Baby turns docile only when someone sings 'I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby', so Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant spend half the film serenading it.

His Girl Friday was adapted from which 1928 stage play?

The Front Page had two men in the leads; Howard Hawks turned star reporter Hildy Johnson into a woman, and into editor Walter Burns's ex-wife, played by Rosalind Russell.

In Pillow Talk, what do Doris Day and Rock Hudson's characters share?

Jan and Brad share a telephone party line and feud over it before he woos her under a Texan alias; it was the first of three comedies pairing Day, Hudson and Tony Randall, and won a screenplay Oscar.

Which Matthew McConaughey rom-com grew out of a plotless picture book of dating 'don'ts'?

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days began as Michele Alexander and Jeannie Long's illustrated list of dating mistakes; with no story to adapt, the screenwriters invented the columnist, the ad man and their rival bets.

In 13 Going on 30, Jennifer Garner's character wakes up as a 30-year-old with what job?

Fashion editor at Poise is the dream job Jenna wakes up in, until she learns that her grown-up self has been sabotaging the magazine for its rival Sparkle in return for a job there.

Legally Blonde sends Elle to Harvard, but author Amanda Brown based the novel on her time at which law school?

Stanford Law School is where Brown studied without finishing her degree; she turned the letters and stories she wrote there into the novel, and the film moved Elle east.

Which Mamma Mia! star won a Razzie as Sam, one of Sophie's three possible fathers?

Pierce Brosnan was named Worst Supporting Actor at the 2009 Razzies, yet Phyllida Lloyd's film of the ABBA stage musical was the fifth highest-grossing release of 2008.

In Hitch, Will Smith's date doctor is undone by falling for whom?

Eva Mendes plays Sara Melas, a gossip columnist who exposes Hitch after they fall for each other; the 2005 film grossed over $370 million.

Which performance inspired Judd Apatow to cast Steve Carell in The 40-Year-Old Virgin?

Anchorman, which Apatow produced, showed him Carell's Brick Tamland and left him wanting a whole Steve Carell film; Carell offered a character from an old Second City sketch, and they wrote the script together.

In Silver Linings Playbook, what must Pat enter with Tiffany before she will deliver his letter to Nikki, his ex?

A dance competition is Tiffany's price for carrying Pat's letter to Nikki, the wife who left him, so the two rehearse together for weeks; Jennifer Lawrence won an Oscar for the role at 22.

In Silver Linings Playbook, Robert De Niro's superstitious father stakes most of his money on which NFL team?

Philadelphia Eagles games rule the Solitano house: Pat Sr., a bookmaker saving to open a restaurant, is convinced the team's luck depends on his son watching the game with him.

In Crazy, Stupid, Love, which actor plays the smooth-talking womanizer who gives Steve Carell's Cal a makeover?

Ryan Gosling's Jacob teaches the newly separated Cal to dress and flirt, then falls hard for one woman himself; writer Dan Fogelman went on to create This Is Us.

Which 1850 novel partially inspired the Emma Stone comedy Easy A?

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, which Olive's class is studying, inspires her to sew a red 'A' on her clothes; the film was shot in Ojai, California, and premiered at Toronto in 2010.

Which directing duo made There's Something About Mary?

The Farrelly brothers offered the part of Mary's old flame to quarterback Steve Young, who turned it down because the comedy was R-rated, so Brett Favre played it instead.

Which George Bernard Shaw play is given a high-school makeover in the 1999 film She's All That?

Pygmalion supplies the makeover plot: Freddie Prinze Jr.'s Zack bets he can turn Rachael Leigh Cook's outcast Laney into prom queen in six weeks, as Henry Higgins remade Eliza Doolittle.

In Never Been Kissed, why does Drew Barrymore's Josie enroll in high school?

Josie Geller of the Chicago Sun-Times goes back to high school to research a story undercover, and falls for her English teacher, Sam Coulson.

Sweet Home Alabama takes its title from a 1974 song by which band?

Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1974 anthem lends its name; Reese Witherspoon's New York designer must return to Alabama to divorce the husband she grew up with before marrying her new fiancé.

27 Dresses was conceived after the success of which earlier Aline Brosh McKenna screenplay?

The Devil Wears Prada made Aline Brosh McKenna's name and 27 Dresses followed: Katherine Heigl's Jane, a bridesmaid 27 times over, watches her sister get engaged to the boss she secretly loves.

What is the day job of Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn's characters in Wedding Crashers?

John and Jeremy are divorce mediators who spend wedding season crashing receptions; gatecrashing the Treasury Secretary's daughter's wedding lands them a weekend at the Cleary family home.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall was filmed on the North Shore of which Hawaiian island?

Oahu's North Shore hosts the action: Jason Segel wrote and stars as composer Peter, who flies to Hawaii to forget his ex and finds her at the same resort with her rock-star boyfriend.

Who wrote, produced and directed Something's Gotta Give (2003)?

Nancy Meyers sends Jack Nicholson's ageing womanizer to his young girlfriend's Hamptons beach house, where a heart attack leaves him in the care of her playwright mother, Diane Keaton, and he falls for a woman his own age.

Three songs from which 2007 musical were nominated for the same Oscar, and all three lost?

Enchanted put 'Happy Working Song', 'So Close' and 'That's How You Know' up for Best Original Song and lost to 'Falling Slowly' from Once; months later the Academy capped every film at two nominated songs.

What is the name of Muriel's dead-end hometown in Muriel's Wedding?

Porpoise Spit is the beach town Muriel leaves behind once her friends drop her: she tags along on their island holiday anyway, runs into old schoolmate Rhonda there, and the two start again in Sydney.

In Shakespeare in Love, Viola disguises herself as a boy and wins which role in Will's new play?

Romeo goes to 'Thomas Kent', really Viola, because women were banned from the stage; on opening night the boy playing Juliet loses his voice, so she takes that part instead, opposite Shakespeare himself.

In Before Sunrise, Jesse and Céline get off a train to spend one night in which city?

Jesse persuades Céline to leave the train in Vienna and wander the city with him until his morning flight; Richard Linklater's 1995 film won him the Silver Bear for Best Director at Berlin.

Amélie is set in which Paris neighbourhood?

Montmartre is where Amélie waits tables at the Café des 2 Moulins while secretly meddling in her neighbours' lives for the better; the real café has been a tourist stop ever since.

The Big Sick was written by Kumail Nanjiani and which real-life partner?

Emily V. Gordon, Nanjiani's wife, co-wrote the script from their own courtship and her medically induced coma; Zoe Kazan plays Emily, and the film premiered at Sundance in January 2017.

Palm Springs (2020) traps two strangers who meet at a wedding in what predicament?

A time loop already holds Nyles when he crawls into a desert cave and warns Sarah not to follow; she does, and wakes up on the morning of the same wedding all over again.

In Set It Up, Harper and Charlie scheme to set up whom?

Their demanding bosses, played by Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs, are steered into dating each other so that their overworked assistants can get them off their backs.

Which action star plays himself in Always Be My Maybe?

Keanu Reeves, a fan of Ali Wong's stand-up, told the director he would be honoured to join the love story, then sent himself up as the preening celebrity boyfriend Sasha brings to dinner.

Which actor plays the father who lets Tim in on the family secret in About Time (2013)?

Bill Nighy's James tells his son that the men of the family can travel back to moments they have already lived; the film is dedicated to Richard Griffiths, who died a few months before its release.

Runaway Bride reunited Roberts and Gere with which Pretty Woman director?

Garry Marshall directed both, and brought Hector Elizondo back too: the two met playing basketball, and Marshall went on to find him a part in every film he ever directed.

What is Sandra Bullock's job in While You Were Sleeping?

Lucy Moderatz is a transit token collector in a Chicago Transit Authority booth; she saves a commuter from the tracks and is mistaken for his fiancée by his family.

In Definitely, Maybe, why does a father recount his past romances to his daughter?

To help her understand his divorce, Will tells Maya the story of the women in his past with the names changed, leaving her to guess which one became her mother.

Which NBA superstar plays himself in Trainwreck?

LeBron James plays himself as the doting friend of Bill Hader's sports doctor, thrilled that Aaron is dating again and later luring him to an intervention alongside Matthew Broderick and Chris Evert.

In The Wedding Planner, the doctor who rescues Jennifer Lopez's Mary turns out to be who?

Her client's fiancé: Matthew McConaughey's Steve pulls Mary clear of a runaway dumpster and dances with her, then turns up as the groom in her most lucrative job; it was Adam Shankman's first film as director.

In Music and Lyrics, what is Drew Barrymore's Sophie hired to do in Alex's flat when he spots her way with words?

She comes to water his plants and casually improves a line his lyricist is stuck on, so Alex, a faded star of the 80s band PoP!, begs her to write his comeback song with him.

Roxanne (1987) is a contemporary adaptation of which 1897 play?

Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac supplies the plot: Steve Martin's big-nosed fire chief C.D. Bales woos astronomer Roxanne on behalf of a handsome, tongue-tied colleague.

Which future star made his screen debut in Mystic Pizza (1988)?

Matt Damon has a single line as Steamer, a younger brother at the dinner table, in his first film role; Julia Roberts, Annabeth Gish and Lili Taylor play waitresses in Mystic, Connecticut.

Which two Bridesmaids talents were Oscar-nominated for the screenplay?

Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo met in the Groundlings improv troupe and wrote the script together; Mumolo also turns up on screen as the nervous flyer sitting beside Wiig on the plane.

In Ticket to Paradise, George Clooney and Julia Roberts try to sabotage a wedding where?

Their daughter Lily plans to marry a Balinese seaweed farmer, so the divorced pair fly to Bali to stop the wedding; Ol Parker directed the 2022 film, which grossed about $170 million worldwide.

Who wrote and directed the 2025 matchmaker rom-com Materialists?

Celine Song, who made Past Lives, wrote and directed it out of her own time as a New York matchmaker; Dakota Johnson's Lucy is torn between Pedro Pascal's wealthy financier and her ex-boyfriend, played by Chris Evans.

In the meet-cute that opens the Gary Cooper comedy Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, two strangers split the purchase of what?

A set of pyjamas: Cooper's millionaire wants only the top, so Claudette Colbert's Nicole buys the trousers, and he later spots them on a penniless marquis who turns out to be her father.

Sleepless in Seattle was inspired by which 1957 Leo McCarey film?

An Affair to Remember, McCarey's remake of his own 1939 film Love Affair, runs through Sleepless in Seattle: Annie writes to Sam after watching it, and its clips and theme song keep coming back.

In Overboard (1987), who does carpenter Dean tell Goldie Hawn's amnesiac heiress she is?

His wife and the mother of his four boys, Dean claims, so that she will work off the bill she refused to pay him before she fell from her yacht off the Oregon coast.

In Two Weeks Notice, what is the profession of Sandra Bullock's idealistic character?

Lawyer Lucy Kelson spends her days fighting developers, then goes to work for Hugh Grant's billionaire builder as the price of saving a Coney Island community centre; the film grossed $199 million.

In Serendipity (2001), Jonathan and Sara meet while both reaching for what at Bloomingdale's?

Both reach for a pair of gloves, the same black pair, at Bloomingdale's; Sara later writes her number inside a copy of Love in the Time of Cholera, sells it, and leaves the rest to fate.

Rye Lane (2023) follows two freshly dumped strangers through one eventful day in which city?

London's Peckham and Brixton are the setting: Yas finds Dom crying in a gallery toilet and the two spend the day walking it off together; the title comes from Peckham's Rye Lane Market.

In The Lost City (2022), Sandra Bullock plays Loretta Sage, a writer of what kind of books?

Romance-adventure novels made Loretta famous; when a billionaire kidnaps her to find the lost city in her latest one, her cover model Alan sets off after her to prove he can be a hero off the page.

Where does Dylan stage a flash mob to win back Jamie at the end of Friends with Benefits (2011)?

Grand Central Station is where Dylan, having phoned Jamie's mother to get her there, springs a flash mob dancing to 'Closing Time' and finally tells her how he feels.

Which Saturday Night Live writer turned a parenting self-help book into the screenplay for Mean Girls?

Tina Fey read Rosalind Wiseman's Queen Bees and Wannabes and phoned producer Lorne Michaels to suggest that it could be turned into a film.

In Legally Blonde, sorority girl Elle Woods follows her ex-boyfriend Warner to which Ivy League law school?

Harvard is the setting, but the campus scenes were shot in California, at USC, UCLA, Caltech and a high school in Pasadena.

In The Princess Diaries, shy teenager Mia Thermopolis learns she is heir to which small European kingdom?

Genovia is famous for its pears because Julie Andrews, who plays its queen, suggested the idea. The set was then decorated with artificial pears and pear-shaped statues.

The jukebox musical Mamma Mia!, filmed with Meryl Streep on a Greek island, is built around the hits of which group?

ABBA turned out in full for the film's Stockholm premiere, where all four members were photographed together for the first time since 1986.

In Miss Congeniality, Sandra Bullock's FBI agent poses as beauty queen Gracie Lou Freebush from which state?

New Jersey needed a stand-in because its real contestant was about to be disqualified. Gracie ends up being named Miss Congeniality for saving the other contestants' lives.

In Pretty Woman, snobbish saleswomen refuse to serve Vivian when she tries to shop on which Beverly Hills street?

Rodeo Drive turns Vivian away because of the way she looks, so she asks hotel manager Barney for help. He later teaches her table etiquette as well.

Which Henry Mancini song does Audrey Hepburn sing on screen as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's?

Moon River, with words by Johnny Mercer, was nearly lost: after a test preview, Paramount's head of production wanted the song taken out of the film.

Which actor won an Oscar as Rod Tidwell, the Arizona Cardinals player who stays loyal to agent Jerry Maguire?

Cuba Gooding Jr. had made his film debut eight years earlier in Coming to America, as a boy getting a haircut. This time he won Best Supporting Actor.

Which novelist wrote The Notebook, the love story of Noah and Allie filmed with Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams?

Nicholas Sparks was inspired by the story of his wife's grandparents, who had been married for more than 60 years when he met them.

In Crazy Rich Asians, New Yorker Rachel Chu flies to which country to meet boyfriend Nick Young's wealthy family?

Singapore is the setting, yet much of the film was shot in Malaysia, where two abandoned mansions stood in for the Young family's ancestral home.

The 'I'll have what she's having' lunch scene in When Harry Met Sally... was shot at which real Manhattan eatery?

Katz's Deli still hangs a sign above the table that reads: 'Where Harry met Sally... hope you have what she had!'

In Splash, Daryl Hannah's mermaid cannot say her real name, so she borrows which one from a Manhattan street sign?

Madison was an extremely rare first name for a girl when the film came out in 1984. By 2000 it was the third most popular in the United States, a rise widely credited to the film.

In The Princess Bride, which obedient reply from farmhand Westley does Buttercup come to realise means he loves her?

"As you wish" still follows Cary Elwes around. He says fans usually open with the line when they meet him, and he borrowed it for the title of his 2014 book about making the film.

In Coming to America, Prince Akeem and his aide Semmi rent a squalid flat in which New York City borough?

Queens is where Akeem and Semmi take entry-level jobs at McDowell's, a McDonald's knockoff whose owner is forever dodging trademark claims.

Which action star voices the inner thoughts of baby Mikey in the 1989 John Travolta comedy Look Who's Talking?

Bruce Willis can be heard only by the audience, never by the adults on screen. The film was a surprise hit, earning $297 million worldwide.

In Sixteen Candles, what family event makes everyone in Samantha Baker's house forget her sixteenth birthday?

Her sister's wedding is the very next day. Samantha even has to sleep on the sofa, because the grandparents who are in town for it have taken over her bedroom.

In Tootsie, Dustin Hoffman's out-of-work actor becomes a star as Dorothy Michaels on what kind of television show?

A daytime soap opera called Southwest General gives Michael Dorsey his break. He auditions in disguise after months without an acting job and a row with his agent.

In Dirty Dancing, what is the real first name of Jennifer Grey's character, known to all at Kellerman's as Baby?

Frances Houseman shares her nickname with her creator. Screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein, who drew much of the story from her own childhood, was called Baby herself as a girl.

Which future Sex and the City star plays the shop-window dummy who comes to life in the 1987 comedy Mannequin?

Kim Cattrall spent six weeks posing for a Santa Monica sculptor so that the dummies would carry her likeness. She also took up body-building to look as streamlined as possible.

Whose ballad 'I Just Called to Say I Love You' won an Oscar after featuring in Gene Wilder's The Woman in Red?

Stevie Wonder composed almost the whole soundtrack. One critic who loathed the film wrote that wasting his songs on it 'ought to be a capital offense'.

Which actress, a veteran of more than 130 stage productions, won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Moonstruck?

Olympia Dukakis won in the same year that her cousin, Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, ran for US president as a major-party nominee.

Which British comic actor plays Arthur Bach, the permanently tipsy New York millionaire of the 1981 comedy Arthur?

Dudley Moore was supposed to play the part with an American accent. He struggled with it, and persuaded the director to let him keep his natural English one.

Which actor, Goldie Hawn's real-life partner, plays the carpenter who tricks her amnesiac heiress in Overboard?

Kurt Russell and Hawn made it a family affair: their infant son Wyatt makes his screen debut in the film, as a baby on a golf course.

Romancing the Stone sends Kathleen Turner's Joan Wilder from New York to which country to ransom her kidnapped sister?

Colombia was played by Mexico. Interiors were filmed in Mexico City, and the whitewater scene that strands the two leads on opposite banks was shot on a river in Veracruz.

In Roxanne, Steve Martin plays Bales, a witty charmer with an unusually large nose and which small-town job?

Fire chief Bales serves a town called Nelson, and the film was shot in the real Nelson, British Columbia. Martin's prosthetic nose took 90 minutes to apply every day.

Pretty in Pink, the 1986 prom romance starring Molly Ringwald, takes its title from a song by which band?

The Psychedelic Furs re-recorded the song for the soundtrack. Ringwald said she was the one who played it to the screenwriter, and that it inspired him to write the script.

Brooklyn artist Nola Darling juggles a trio of suitors in She's Gotta Have It, the feature debut of which director?

Spike Lee played one of the suitors himself, the motor-mouthed Mars Blackmon, because on a budget of $175,000 he could not afford to hire another actor.

Which director threatened to quit Working Girl unless the studio cast Melanie Griffith as secretary Tess McGill?

Mike Nichols got his way, and Griffith repaid him with an Oscar nomination for the lead. It was one of six for the film, which was also up for Best Picture and Best Director.

In Crossing Delancey, a matchmaker introduces bookstore worker Isabelle to Sam, a Lower East Side man who sells what?

Pickles are why Isabelle is dismissive of Sam at first. She softens on learning that he never hired the matchmaker, and that hers was the one photo that made him say "this one I'll meet".

Which actor plays Lloyd Dobler, the underachiever who woos class valedictorian Diane Court in Say Anything...?

John Cusack at first refused to shoot the film's best-known scene. He felt that Dobler would never do something so theatrical and performative.

Critic Nathan Rabin coined which label for the quirky love interest who exists only to cheer up a brooding hero?

Manic Pixie Dream Girl was Rabin's 2007 verdict on Kirsten Dunst's character in Elizabethtown. By 2014 he wanted the phrase "put to rest", saying it had become as much of a cliché as the trope itself.

Old Hollywood's 'comedy of remarriage' reunited divorced couples to get around which censorship rules on adultery?

The Hays Code banned any attempt to justify adultery on screen, so writers had a couple divorce and then fall for each other again. Philosopher Stanley Cavell later gave the genre its name.

Screwball comedies, the 1930s films built on a madcap battle of the sexes, take their name from a pitch in which sport?

Baseball's screwball breaks in the opposite direction from every other breaking pitch. Critics borrowed the word for films whose sparring lovers behave just as unpredictably.

Freddie Prinze Jr.'s Zack bets he can turn nerdy Laney Boggs into what within six weeks in She's All That?

Prom queen is the target of a wager that his friend Dean dares him into. M. Night Shyamalan worked on the script without credit while he was writing The Sixth Sense.

In Love Actually's grand-gesture doorstep scene, Mark silently confesses his feelings to Juliet using a stack of what?

Cue cards carry the whole speech. Mark, who is the best friend of her new husband Peter, tells her at the outset that he knows he will get nothing in return.

Which 2019 comedy traps Rebel Wilson's cynical architect in a world that plays out like a clichéd PG-13 love story?

Isn't It Romantic has its heroine list the clichés before she lands among them: the gay best friend with no life of his own, the voice-over, the makeover montage and the slow-motion shots.

Which 2011 Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher film dropped its working title, Friends with Benefits, to avoid a clash?

No Strings Attached reached cinemas in January 2011, six months ahead of the rival that kept the name. The two films share a premise: friends who agree to sleep together without romance.

The rom-com makeover gets a twist in Grease, when which star's wholesome Sandy turns up in a leather 'greaser' outfit?

Olivia Newton-John then did the same thing in real life. Her next album, Totally Hot, put her on the cover in all-leather attire and teased hair.

The last-minute dash goes airborne in The Wedding Singer, where which rock star helps Robbie win back Julia mid-flight?

Billy Idol plays himself, one of the passengers who hear Robbie's story and then restrain Julia's fiancé. The stage musical swapped the scene for a Las Vegas one with an impersonator.

Which actor plays adman Benjamin Barry opposite Kate Hudson in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days?

Matthew McConaughey's character is chasing a diamond campaign, and the film found a real stone to match. The yellow-diamond necklace Hudson wears was designed by Harry Winston.