Trivia / Drop Dead Gorgeous

• Dawson Casting: To varying degrees. For instance, Brittany Murphy was 21 and Amy Adams was 24 during filming. Meanwhile, Denise Richards was old enough to be going to her ten-year reunion. Surprisingly averted with the lead, though. Kirsten Dunst was actually 16 during filming, a year younger than her character.
• Executive Meddling: Mostly averted, but not for lack of trying by New Line late in the production, according to BuzzFeed's 15th anniversary piece on the film. After principal photography was over, while the film was being edited, New Line, which hadn't really paid much attention during shooting, looked at its tracking numbers and found that not only were very few potential viewers aware of the film, fewer still planned to see it. Panicking, they asked the filmmakers to recut the film Lighter and Softer, more like a conventional teen comedy along the lines of Clueless. But there wasn't much existing material to do that with, by then it was already too late to get the cast back together for reshoots, and most of the editing was done. The studio never realized that, as the screenwriter put it, it was a movie for girls who saw Clueless and said "Fuck them!"
• What Could Have Been: Melissa Joan Hart auditioned for the role of Amber.
  • Gladys was also written with Sigourney Weaver in mind.
  • In the original ending, Gladys would commit suicide in jail, and the sniper would be librarian/former winner Iona Hildebrandt, who would've been revealed to be behind the murders. This ending was shot and produced, but test screenings absolutely hated it and the studio asked a rewrite to the current ending. Some photos of Iona at the sniper scene can be seen in some of the films publicity pics.
• Working Title: Dairy Queens, until the restaurant chain Dairy Queen sent a cease and desist.
• Write What You Know: Screenwriter Lona Williams was a previous beauty pageant contestant herself. The scene where they run around with the step ladders was reportedly based on a training regiment she saw another contestant do that she thought looked silly.

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