Half-Assed Internet Research
Renée Zellweger’s cameo, Helen Childress’s writing process, My Sharona rights, the rejected Kiss song, and the real Troy Dyer lawsuit
In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:17Read transcript
- Renée Zellweger appears briefly as the woman Troy kisses near the beginning.
- Helen Childress began the script at nineteen, revised it for three years through roughly seventy drafts, and drew on friends’ personalities and experiences.
- Quentin Tarantino sought My Sharona for Pulp Fiction but found that Reality Bites had obtained the rights first.
- Beth by Kiss was the intended song for Michael’s car scene, but Stiller could not secure the rights.
- A real Troy Dyer sued in 2005 after a DVD commentary said the characters came from Childress’s friends; the matter settled with a written statement that he was not the portrayed character.