FILM 2025: LEGALLY BLONDE

FILM 2025: LEGALLY BLONDE

TRIVIA: To prepare for her role as Elle, Reese Witherspoon spent two weeks studying the behavior of sorority girls, as she did not wish to portray a stereotypical airhead sorority image. She states on the DVD commentary that they were all very kind and polite, and she enjoyed her time with them. She also observed women shopping from the café at Neiman Marcus, and attended law school for a day.

Charlize Theron, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alicia Silverstone, Katherine Heigl, Christina Applegate, Milla Jovovich, and Jennifer Love Hewitt were all considered for Elle Woods.

Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) wears forty different hairstyles throughout the film.

While at Stanford, source book author Amanda Brown wrote letters back home, regarding her inability to fit in with her classmates. Later she made a manuscript based on those letters and sent it to an agent, who was drawn to it because it was the only manuscript submitted written on pink paper--referenced in the film through Elle Woods scented pink résumés.

A perfect score on the LSAT exam is 180, therefore Elle's score of 179 puts her in the top 0.1 percent.

As agreed in her contract, Reese Witherspoon kept all of her costumes after filming.

When Elle (Reese Witherspoon) is studying for the LSAT with her sorority sister, Amy (Kimberly McCullough), Amy is reading off answer choices for an LSAT question. This is an actual LSAT question, which is part of the analytical reasoning section, taken from actual LSAT #31, June 2000.

On her first day, Elle comments that, "Whoever said orange is the new pink is seriously disturbed." This is a reference to Producer Marc Platt's other production, Josie and the Pussycats (2001), in which teenagers are brainwashed into thinking "orange is the new pink."

FILM 1781: HAPPY DEATH DAY

FILM 1781: HAPPY DEATH DAY 

TRIVIA: The Bayfield University Baby killer costume was designed by Tony Gardner, who also designed the Ghostface mask, the horror icon of the Scream franchise and which is a reworked version of the Father's Death Halloween costume.

The theatrical trailer utilizes the song "In Da Club" by 50 Cent as Tree's birthday ringtone. However, the final film does not feature this as the crew and studio could not acquire the rights. As a result, an original ringtone composition was concocted.

BOOK 185: THE STRANGER BESIDE ME: ANN RULE

BOOK 185: THE STRANGER BESIDE ME: ANN RULE

The Stranger Beside Me is a 1980 autobiographical and biographical true crime book written by Ann Rule about the serial killer Ted Bundy, whom she knew personally before and after his arrest for a series of murders. Subsequent revisions of the book were published in 1986, 1989, 2000, and 2008.

MY VERDICT: This book is simply amazing. It’s well written and continuingly interesting but the most astounding thing about it is it’s very existence – all the things that had to come into place to make this book happen. The fact that Ann Rule, as a true crime author, was commissioned to write a book about a series of murders and then slowly discovered that the murderer was a man she knew as a friend is something that you wouldn’t believe in a film script. But truth is stranger than fiction. 

When I first heard about this book I had assumed that Ann Rule knew Ted Bundy in passing, that they’d worked in the same building taking calls from those in need, maybe they exchanged a few words. The truth is that they considered each other friends, they went to parties together, they had lunch together, they spoke about themselves and their personal problems. How shocked would you be if someone you knew this way turned out to be a brutal murderer? And for so long she believed that he couldn’t have done it. Ann Rule expresses all her emotions bare on the page and this is scattered among details of Ted’s life and Ted’s crimes. It’s fascinating from start to finish and although the order maybe could have been a little less disjointed, (it starts with his escape to Florida) which in my opinion should have been more chronological (especially with the notes at the start and finish of the book) it’s still easy to follow and you do feel like you’re taken on a journey through the life, crimes and relationships of a real serial murderer.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in true crime.

Film 807: Pumpkin

Trivia: The sorority Alpha Omega Pi is actually based on UC Berkeley's Alpha Omicron Pi sorority. The writer lived next door to their house when he went to college there.

The shot of Kent's car flying off the cliff and exploding is actually taken from Hudson Hawk - you can even see the dummy, that represented the bad guy, on the hood.