Trivia / The People vs. Larry Flynt

• Acclaimed Flop: Like Ed Wood and Man on the Moon, got great reviews but fell short of its budget.
• Actor-Shared Background: Courtney Love plays stripper Althea Flynt in this film. Before she was famous, Love was a stripper in real-life, too.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Edward Norton took part in this film because he desperately wanted to work with Miloš Forman.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $35 million. Box office, $20.3 million.
• Dawson Casting: Courtney Love was 32 when she played Althea. The real Althea was only sixteen (the legal age of consent in Ohio) when she started at Larry's strip club.
• Hypothetical Casting: Larry Flynt wanted Michael Douglas to play him on film.
• Irony as She Is Cast: James Carville, a well-known liberal Democrat in Real Life, plays Simon Leis, the Ohio prosecutor who first charged Larry with obscenity.
  • Burt Neuborne, a Real Life attorney for Larry Flynt portrays Jerry Falwell's lawyer Roy Grutman.
  • James Cromwell, who is similarly known for his far left-wing views in real life, also plays the staunchly conservative Chares Keating who is one of Falwell's most vocal allies.
• Real-Life Relative: Brett Harrelson, Woody's brother, played Larry Flynt's brother Jimmy.
• Throw It In!: "Illanis, I'll be along in an hour and I'll bring the ping pong balls." was an ad lib by Woody Harrelson, who did it as he had played ping pong with Alanis Morissette the night before.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Larry's satiric Presidential campaign in 1984 was left out of the movie, since the writers believed that focusing on Larry's feud with Jerry Falwell, culminating in his victory at the Supreme Court, was a better way to make the film's points.
  • Tom Arnold, Jim Carrey, Tom Hanks, and Bill Murray were considered for Larry Flynt.
  • Cameron Diaz auditioned for Althea Leasure. Patricia Arquette, Elizabeth Berkley, Rachel Griffiths, Ashley Judd, Parker Posey and Mira Sorvino were also considered.
  • Oliver Stone considered directing.

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