Irreconcilable Differences - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Irreconcilable Differences or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Irreconcilable Differences

[janice]

The movie that Ryan O'Neal aka Peter Bogdanovich finishes for Sam Wanamaker aka Roger Corman, unnamed, is based on Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, which Bogdanovich finished for Corman... Then the movie that involves an old man actor, that puts O'Neal on the map is based on Targets, which had starred aged star Boris Karloff... The next film, Gabrielle, is based on The Last Picture Show, in which Sharon Stone, as Cybill Shepard, goes topless, and then has an affair, and marries Bogdonavich... And the musical Atlanta that kills O'Neal's character's career is based on At Long Last Love with a dash of Daisy Miller (one a musical where the actress can't sing, and the other a time-period costume drama that was too much for the young actresses acting ability)...

[marc]

The scene where the married couple, played by Ryan O'Neal and Shelley Long, are across the street from a movie theater playing their surprise hit (she had checked the box office to find out they were turning people away), is based on George and Marcia Lucas on the opening night of Star Wars... only in that case, the lines were going around the block.

[mathew]

Loosely based on the marriage and divorce of director Peter Bogdanovich and producer Polly Platt.

[francisco]

Though this movie had middling box office and mixed reviews, both Siskel and Ebert liked it. Infact Ebert gave it a glowing review; he gave it 3 and 1/2 stars, and said the following: "It also has a real edge, even a suggestion of bitterness, in its scenes about Hollywood. Although "Irreconcilable Differences" is a movie about family life, it's also a perceptive portrait of success and failure in Hollywood, with a good ear for the way people use the language of Leo Buscaglia to describe the behavior of Machiavelli. The Drew Barrymore character sees right through all of this. She doesn't care about careers, she wants to be given a happy home and her minimum daily requirement of love, and, in a way, the movie is about how Hollywood (and American success in general) tends to cut adults off from the natural functions of parents. The theory is that kids will wait but a deal won't. Actually, it's just the opposite."

[jesse]

Sam Wanamaker's powerful producer character is based on Roger Corman, who got Peter Bogdanovich into the movie business by having him finish a film, and then funded Targets, which opened the doors to The Last Picture Show.

[toni]

Lucy Van Patton= Polly Platt (originally Mary Marr Platt. You can see the similarities that Mary Marr Platt has with Lucy Van Patton) Albert Brodsky=Peter Bogdonovich (professional name was to be Peter Bogdon. You can see the similarities between Peter Bogdon and Albert Brodsky) Lucy Brodsky=Antonia Bogdonovich (you can see the similarities between Toni Bogdon and Lucy Brodsky) Blake Chandler=Cybill Shepherd (originally Cybill Lynne Shepherd. You can see the similarities between Cy-Lynne and Chandler) Aspects of Lucy Van Patton were also pulled from Nora Ephron; whose searing expose about her cheating husband Carl Bernstein was the basis for her bestseller Heartburn; which catapulted her into the A List in Hollywood; much like He Said It Would Be Forever catapulted fictional Lucy onto the A List. Aspects of Blake Chandler were also pulled from Playboy Centerfold model Dorothy Stratton who also dated Peter Bogdonovich, who also made a go at acting, also with Peter's help.

[frances]

Shelley Long, based on Polly Platt, to get back at Ryan O'Neal's character based on Peter Bogdanovich, writes a memoir that gets her famous while he becomes a failed director. In real life, when Bogdanovich's directorial career had faltered, Platt became a successful producer of such hit films as Broadcast News, Say Anything and War of the Roses after working as a production assistant on Terms of Endearment.

[janice]

Peter Bogdanovich has said in interviews that this movie is "terrible", as it makes he and Cybill Shepherd out to be the villains and presents Polly Platt as the victim in a very one-sided manner. It is ironic that Ryan O'Neal, who is a veteran of several Bogdanovich productions, is playing the Bogdanovich character. It is also ironic that O'Neal's daughter in the movie accuses him of being neglectful, since O'Neal's real-life daughter Tatum O'Neal also accused him of being neglectful.

[ava]

Sharon Stone's character is modeled upon Cybill Shepherd, a former lover of Peter Bogdanovich.

[duane]

At 15 years old, Drew Barrymore legally emancipated herself from her parents. In 2009 she told 60 Minutes (1968) that she had first learned such a thing was possible from starring in this movie six years earlier.

[chad]

Peter Bogdanovich directed Ryan O'Neal eight years earlier in the movie Nickelodeon, which has a very similar premise to this movie, where O'Neal is playing a fictional version of Bogdanovich, going from a film historian college professor to a writer and a filmmaker. In Nickelodeon, it's the same premise only O'Neal is a lawyer (with the same kind of awkward personality) who becomes a writer and filmmaker. Also, in each film there's an older mentor who hires them on the spot: Here it's Sam Wanamaker and then it's Brian Keith: both as film producers who are desperate for their film to be fixed, and O'Neal's characters fix it.

[kyle]

The expensive flop musical that the Ryan O'Neal's character makes as a vehicle for Sharon Stone's character is a thinly veiled reference to At Long Last Love (1975), the expensive flop musical that Peter Bogdanovich made as a vehicle for Cybill Shepherd.

[scarlett]

Ryan O'Neal's Albert says, about Sam Wanamaker's character, David Kessler, based on Roger Corman, "Do you know how many young directors David's given a start to in his business?" Roger Corman helped shape the early careers of Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante and this movie's muse and who O'Neal is based on, Peter Bogdanovich, to name just a few.

[gerald]

The first movie that O'Neal's character (based on Peter Bogdanovich) "fixes" for the producer (that puts him in the business) is based on Targets (Bogdanovich took existing footage of a Roger Corman movie and inserted into that movie, and Corman produced it). The next feature, which turns out to be a big hit and stars the young actress discovery (Sharon Stone mirroring Cybill Shepard, who does an impromptu nude scene), is based on The Last Picture Show. Then, as already noted, the musical flop "Atlanta" is based on At Long Last Love, although the expensive 1800's time period aspect could also have some Daisy Miller thrown in.

[elmer]

While the movie draws upon the Peter Bogdanovich / Cybill Shepherd / Polly Platt love triangle for its inspiration, as many critics including Roger Ebert have noted, it also draws upon Nora Ephron's "Heartburn" for much of its inspiration, as Platt never wrote a bestselling novel about her husband's affair, but Ephron did.

[lonnie]

Young Drew Barrymore almost quit acting after starring in this movie. According to what she wrote in her book, Little Girl Lost, there was a lot of fighting going on between crew members. Apparently it took them up to 30-40 takes for some small scenes, because no one was ever fully content. One Day Drew even broke down crying and she ran to her trailer because it exhausted her to keep putting up with it all. When they finished she doubted her career choice because for her, acting was about fun and being part of a crew. Rumor has it Shelley Long's perfectionistic acting method acting was intrusive again.