Trivia / In the Loop

• Dueling-Stars Movie: Peter Capaldi vs. James Gandolfini, both known for playing morally-questionable characters on TV, with on being from the UK, and the other from the USA.
• Fake American: Linton's aide Bob Adriano is played by British actor Enzo Cilenti.
• Life Imitates Art: The MPs expenses scandal revealed two beautiful examples:
  • Simon Foster avoids watching a hotel's porn channel for fear that it will "show up in the register of interests". Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's husband wasn't quite so careful.
  • Lord Mandelson's claims for gardening expenses revealed he had been through a "diplomatic crisis" with a neighbour over neglect of his garden. His predicament was eerily similar to Simon Foster's as he struggled with Paul Michaelson and his collapsing garden wall.
• Playing Against Type: James Gandolfini as Pentagon Dove General Miller.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The reason the UN vote is so abrupt is that they didn't have enough money to recreate the Security Council of the UN.
• You Look Familiar: Anna Chlumsky, who plays Liza Weld, would go on to play Amy Brookheimer, another political aide character in Spiritual Successor series Veep (which was also created by Armando Iannucci).

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