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1. Who plays Vivian Ward?
Julia Roberts
Roberts was barely into her twenties and fresh from Steel Magnolias, and Vivian earned her an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe. Michelle Pfeiffer and Meg Ryan reportedly both passed on the part, and the body on the poster belongs to a double.
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2. Who plays Edward Lewis?
Richard Gere
Gere kept turning the part down until Roberts, sitting across from him in a meeting, slid over a note reading 'Please say yes'. The late-night piano piece in the hotel lounge is Gere's own playing, and he composed it himself.
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3. Who directed Pretty Woman?
Garry Marshall
Marshall came from television, where he had created Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley and Mork and Mindy, and he reunited Gere and Roberts years later for Runaway Bride. Penny Marshall is his sister, and had recently directed Big.
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4. Which city is the main setting?
Los Angeles
Vivian works Hollywood Boulevard and Edward is staying in Beverly Hills, so the film is largely a shuttle between the two. A street hustler who asks passers-by what their dream is opens the film and closes it, a touch Marshall added himself.
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5. What is the name of the hotel where Edward stays?
The Regent Beverly Wilshire
It is a real hotel at the foot of Rodeo Drive, now run by Four Seasons, and the lobby is the genuine article, though the penthouse suite was a soundstage set. Barney the manager first notices Vivian when she crosses that lobby in thigh-high boots.
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6. What is Vivian's friend's name?
Kit De Luca
Kit is Vivian's roommate, the one who has spent their rent money on drugs when the film opens, and Laura San Giacomo plays her a year after Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Vivian hands her a share of Edward's money before planning her own move to San Francisco.
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7. How much does Edward agree to pay Vivian for the week?
$3,000
Vivian asks for four thousand, Edward offers two, and they settle on three. J.F. Lawton's original script was titled 3,000 after that fee, and it was a far bleaker story in which Edward dropped her back on Hollywood Boulevard at the end.
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8. What kind of business does Edward specialize in?
Buying and breaking up companies
Edward buys troubled companies and sells them off in pieces, and his target this week is Morse Industries, a shipbuilder run by an old man played by Ralph Bellamy in his final film. By the end he has decided to help Morse build ships instead.
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9. What car is Edward struggling to drive when he meets Vivian?
A Lotus Esprit
His lawyer Stuckey, played by Jason Alexander, owns the car, and Edward cannot manage its gearbox, so Vivian drives. Lotus got the exposure because, so the story goes, Ferrari and Porsche would not lend a car to a film about a hooker.
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10. Who plays the hotel manager Barney?
Héctor Elizondo
Elizondo turned up in nearly every film Garry Marshall made, usually in a part written for him, and Barney is the best of them. He teaches Vivian which fork to use before her dinner with the Morses and points her to a dress shop that will treat her properly.
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11. What sport do Edward and Vivian attend together?
Polo
Edward brings her along to be shown off to clients, and it is also where Stuckey learns what Vivian does for a living and starts treating her accordingly. She spends the interval stomping divots back into the turf with the rest of the crowd.
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12. What color is Vivian's gown for the opera?
Red
Costume designer Marilyn Vance has said the script called for a black dress and she had to argue for the red. Vivian wears it for the flight to San Francisco and a night at the opera, and the jewelry that goes with it came with its own armed guard.
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13. Which opera do they attend?
La traviata
Verdi's opera follows a Parisian courtesan who falls for a wealthy young man and gives him up, which is why it hits Vivian so hard. Asked if she enjoyed it, she says she almost peed her pants, which Edward translates as 'better than Pirates of Penzance'.
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14. What does Edward snap shut as Vivian reaches toward it?
A necklace box
Gere snapped the lid on her fingers as a joke that was not in the script, and Roberts's laugh is real, so Marshall kept the take. The necklace inside was genuine rubies and diamonds, which is why an armed guard stood just off camera.
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15. What does Edward climb during the final romantic visit?
A fire escape
Edward arrives in a white limousine with opera blaring and climbs the fire escape with a bouquet, the white knight of Vivian's childhood fantasy, despite a fear of heights that kept him off his own balcony all week. Her verdict: 'She rescues him right back'.
