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The Rewatchables ·

My Best Friend's Wedding

year 1997decade 90sdirector P. J. Hogangenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Juliet Litmanhost Amanda Dobbins
All 15 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 31:24

The karaoke scene

The host running the category leaves the choice to the other two and lists candidates: the karaoke scene, Rupert Everett singing 'Say a Little Prayer' (a spouse's favorite four minutes of the movie), the 'choose me, marry me' speech, which is both crazy and heartfelt and which the hosts connect to Grey's Anatomy, Notting Hill and 90210's Kelly Taylor 'I choose me', the bathroom fight at Comiskey Park, and the ending with giant cell phones that somehow had service everywhere in 1997.

One more nominee is the boat scene, where she and Dermot Mulroney almost talk about their feelings, then dance while he sings 'The Way You Look Tonight'.

The film

My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)

Directed by P. J. Hogan · Drama

104 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Cast credits have not been imported yet.

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

45:31

Casting What-Ifs

Sarah Jessica Parker turned down the Julia Roberts role for Sex and the City; Calista Flockhart reportedly turned dow...

Sarah Jessica Parker turned down the Julia Roberts role for Sex and the City; Calista Flockhart reportedly turned down both roles; Drew Barrymore lost out to Cameron Diaz because Julia pushed for Diaz; Ed Burns turned down the Dermot Mulroney role

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:45:31Read transcript
  • Sarah Jessica Parker turned down the Julia Roberts role because she was about to do Sex and the City; she was the first choice, which speaks to where Julia Roberts was at that moment.
  • Julia's preceding run is read out as Dying Young, Hook, The Player, Pelican Brief, I Love Trouble, Ready to Wear, Something to Talk About, Mary Riley (as transcribed), Michael Collins and Everyone Says I Love You, a seven-year drought; Hook was a phenomenon nobody was happy with, and Pelican Brief is enjoyable but now feels 45 years old and slow, a solid cable movie.
  • Calista Flockhart turning down both roles is read from IMDb trivia and doubted, dated to the peak first-year Ally McBeal era, which has not aged well; the Drew Barrymore item seems true: she lost out to Cameron Diaz because Julia really pushed for Diaz.
  • Julia Roberts and Drew Barrymore have never been in a movie together, inviting speculation about an early-90s love triangle nobody knows about; one host has a lot of warmth toward Drew Barrymore.
  • Billed as one of the great casting what-ifs the three have ever done: Ed Burns turned down the Dermot Mulroney lead role; the reaction is that it would be a way better movie, with one host needing a glass of water over Ed Burns and noting a husband's celebrity doppelganger is Ed Burns; he is called very handsome but too serious.
  • Ed Burns would be more believable and an upgrade, clearly smarter than Dermot Mulroney; but if Michael is smart the whole house of cards collapses, since he is supposed to be confused while Julia and Cam carry the show, and Ed Burns would not put up with her and would stop the email; the counter is that every Ed Burns character is a moron, like the dumb cab driver in She's the One.
  • Ed Burns is still married to Christy Tarlington (as transcribed), an iconic, inspiring couple, and it is a shame he skipped this movie because it would have been good for his career; one host is teased as a huge Ed Burns fan for whom he, rather than Michael B., may be the one.
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54:37

Half-Assed Internet Research

Dermot Mulroney presented Julia Roberts with a woman of the decade award at the Guys Choice Awards; in 2001 producer ...

Dermot Mulroney presented Julia Roberts with a woman of the decade award at the Guys Choice Awards; in 2001 producer Jerry Zucker discussed a sequel called My Best Friend's Divorce; test audiences found Julia too evil, prompting reshoots that beefed up Rupert Everett; the original ending had Julia meet a John Corbett character; the new ending was shot eight months after wrap with Roberts in a wig over her pixie cut

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:54:37Read transcript
  • Dermot Mulroney and Julia Roberts are still very close; he presented her with the woman of the decade award at the Guys Choice Awards, the joke being that nobody else would go; in 2001 there were talks, per producer Jerry Zucker, about My Best Friend's Divorce, with Kimmy and Michael on the verge of a split, which the hosts find extremely believable.
  • The test audience thought Julia was too evil in the original cut, so reshoots beefed up Rupert Everett's character; in the original ending Julia met a man played by John Corbett with the hope she had found someone, but it did not test well and the audience wanted more of George and more singing.
  • The hosts do not want Aiden brought in to fix the ending either, poor Aiden being the second choice; a new ending was filmed eight months after the film wrapped, with Roberts back on set in an expensive updo wig covering her recent pixie cut, so she wears a wig in the final cell-phone scene with George.
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1:03:41

Picking Nits

What kind of sports writer Michael is; a $39,000 salary against billionaire spending; a 20-year-old dropping out to m...

What kind of sports writer Michael is; a $39,000 salary against billionaire spending; a 20-year-old dropping out to marry after a month or two; a best friend given three to five days' notice; a four-day wedding ending Sunday night in a church; the Sunday pre-wedding brunch; a drop-dead-gorgeous New York food critic with a book at 28; Kimmy having no maid of honor; the ugly purple bridesmaid dress; 'you're the only person I trust'; the welcoming billionaire family

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:41Read transcript
  • What kind of sports writer was Michael: a generalist, a gamer, maybe regional, since all the references are Texas, San Antonio and College Station; making about $39,000 a year in 1997 while she gives up everything to follow him, except they are spending billionaire money and hitting up dad.
  • The entire relationship timeline makes no sense: a month or two and they are getting married, she is 20 and dropping out of college, the parents would have stopped it and never thrown a wedding; a sub-nitpick is billionaires being this nice.
  • Julianne gets Michael's call the Wednesday night before his wedding, giving his supposed best friend three to five days' notice; a real best friend would have been told earlier and told when he met someone, and the pact needed caveats built in; the film half-covers it with her not checking her phone machine while on a book tour as a food critic.
  • The wedding itself is a four-day affair starting Thursday with a Sunday night church wedding, which makes no sense: they are not Jewish, and billionaires could have gotten the Saturday church spot; a Catholic explanation about a 6 p.m. Sunday slot after the holy window is offered and dismissed.
  • A brunch the Sunday morning before the wedding asks too much of guests, though one host likes being fed and prefers a pre-wedding brunch where attendance is required to the annoying post-wedding one; another's stepmother insisted on a 9 a.m. Sunday brunch where everyone was hungover and kids ran around.
  • The food critic nitpick: a New York food critic at 28 who has already written a book is ridiculous, the opening scene gets criticism backwards by having the waiter present the plate to the critic rather than her dining incognito, her 'inventive and confident' verdict is terrible criticism, and a drop-dead gorgeous 28-year-old critic is not a real thing, since the job takes 20 years to get.
  • Every choice about the food critic job was 100 percent wrong; the climactic jab that she is a loser food critic treats having a job as a bad thing from someone dropping out of college at 20, and the plate presentation is as absurd as a sports writer interviewing batters at home plate between pitches; when a critic comes in, the restaurant pretends she is not there.
  • Cameron Diaz has no maid of honor because hers broke her pelvis line dancing in Abilene and there is no backup; one host likes it as a strategic move revealing she does not trust Julia Roberts and is neutralizing her by cutting off her recourse, while another cannot invest in someone with no backup friend and thinks she should have demanded more for her own wedding.
  • TV and movies always skip the fact that the person getting married has no friends, as when Dylan McKay marries Tony (as transcribed) on 90210 with bridesmaids he met two weeks earlier, or the unseen bridesmaids on Succession in seafoam green like Julia Roberts' non-wedding to Kiefer Sutherland, a detail that teaches you she is a bad person.
  • The purple bridesmaid dress has the ugliest possible color and sparkles on the halter; and when Kimmy tells Julia Roberts she is the only person she trusts, that is not true, which the defender calls smart; how close could the friends have been if he waited until three days before the wedding.
  • Her whole family being billionaires who run Chicago yet are nice and welcoming to a sports writer does not hold, though the dad does have an intimidating conversation about how much he makes; being 20 and dropping out of the best schools is the one nit a host cannot get past, a waste of money if you never graduate.
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1:14:17

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Was she the worst maid of honor of all time? Does every woman want a perfect gay best friend? When did Cameron Diaz c...

Was she the worst maid of honor of all time? Does every woman want a perfect gay best friend? When did Cameron Diaz cut Julia Roberts out of their lives? Do Kimmy and Michael stay married? Does Julianne die alone, and how many marriages does she have?

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 01:14:17Read transcript
  • Was she the worst maid of honor of all time: she could only have been worse by killing the bride, injuring someone or actually stealing the husband; against Anne Hathaway in Rachel's Getting Married (as transcribed), Hathaway has the excuse of being a family member fresh out of rehab, so Julia Roberts, a stranger parachuting in to ruin a wedding, is worse, and Rosemary DeWitt (as transcribed) would be a better sister than anyone here.
  • Does every woman want a perfect gay best friend like Rupert Everett: definitely, he seems like the dream, though one host already has a great one; a spouse's old idea for a Friendster-style service matching married women with gay best friends spawns a rom-com pitch about a man who pretends to be gay to join it and must later confess he is in love, which the hosts claim for The Ringer.
  • When did Cameron Diaz officially cut Julia Roberts out: one guess is on the honeymoon; another thinks the savvier Kimmy phases her out over a couple of months, playing hurt rather than confrontational; a third imagines one super-awkward dinner when Julianne is in town tasting plates, after which they never see her again.
  • Julianne is probably not in love with Michael; the point is that she is a narcissist who gets infatuated, and the story is about letting go, so she goes home ashamed, pissed that she lost and missing her friend rather than heartbroken for a year.
  • Do they stay married: no; Kimmy drops out of school at 20 to follow a sports writer, within a couple of years he takes the job at her father's company she and her dad discussed, lives in Chicago near the parents, is miserable, they fight and it falls apart.
  • Does Julianne die alone and does she ever marry: the over-under on marriages is two, a panic marriage within 18 months and a quick divorce, a second marriage with a kid that ends by 40 after therapy and some emotional growth, then a cohabiting partner as an AARP member.
  • The missing career chapter: around 2008 or 2009 the food movement takes off and the gorgeous unicorn food critic becomes a star with her own travel show rivaling Tony Bourdain's, 'On the road with Julianne', a Netflix series that could be the sequel.
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