6
Richard Gere
composed his own
music for the lobby
piano-playing scene
The actor, who wrote
music in high school,
wrote and performed
the solo he plays in the
hotel lounge. “It seemed
like Julia had a little
crush on Richard,” says
Jason Alexander.
4
9
The original
ending was much,
much darker
In the first script Edward
drops Vivian back on the
streets. “Garry said he was
going to make it a love story.
He believed you could find
love in many places,” says his
wife, Barbara. Screenwriter
Lawton says, “The chemistry
between Richard and Julia
was so electric, so genuine, it
was clear there was no
other ending.”
Budgets were tight—the film was
shot for just $14 million
Pretty Woman earned $178.4 million at the
U.S. box office but was shot on a budget. “The
reason that Vivian and Edward are late to the
opera is so they didn’t have to have a lobby of
fancy-dressed people in the shot,” says
Kathleen Marshall. “If they were late... you
don’t have to pay extras that day.”
1
5
10
3
8
2
Fans hated Jason Alexander’s character
Prior to Seinfeld, Alexander was best known as
Edward’s nasty lawyer Philip Stuckey—and moviegoers
didn’t react kindly to the character. “I called it the
Pretty Woman death stare,” he says. “I had women that
came up and went, ‘How dare you.’ I had one woman
spit at me. That’s what I went through really until
Seinfeld started to calm the waters.”
The necklace Vivian wore to the
opera really was worth $250,000
Produced by French jeweler Fred Joaillier,
the bling Edward says is worth “a quarter
million” was 18K white gold with 23 pear-
cut rubies interlaced with diamonds.
Julia Roberts
tailed real call girls
for research
Barbara Marshall worked as a
nurse at the L.A. Free Clinic,
which served sex workers.
“Julia came with me one day
and decided to go out with
some of the girls!” she says.
“They showed her how to
The film was originally called walk, how to approach a car.”
3000 —after Vivian’s fee—but test
audiences said it was confusing.
7
Kit became
comic relief
Vivian’s BFF Kit, played
by Laura San Giacomo,
was originally a meth
addict. “I said, meth
isn’t funny,” she
explains. Marshall
encouraged her to add
flourishes, like when
she breathes onto the
shiny front-desk
counter at the hotel.
Michelle Pfeiffer
and Al Pacino
were considered
for the leads
Screenwriter
JF Lawton says, “I
guarantee you if it had
been those two people,
it would’ve been a very
different thing. But
Garry cast Richard and
Julia, and the magic
started happening.”
People’s Pretty Woman
special issue is on sale
Feb. 28!
Garry Marshall’s
daughter
Kathleen and
son Scott had
cameos
“His movie sets were
like camp, like ‘We’re
going to have fun,’ ”
says Scott, who played
a drug dealer in an
early scene. Kathleen
was a hotel desk clerk
at the Regent Beverly
Wilshire.
Reported by EILEEN FINAN and LISA RUSSELL 59
LEFT PAGE: KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK; RIGHT PAGE: (1) BUENA VISTA HOME ENTERTAINMENT, INC.; (2) PHOTOFEST; (4) MPTV; (8) PHOTOFEST; (10) FROM LEFT: RON GALELLA, LTD/RON GALELLA COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES; BOB GRANT/FOTOS INTERNATIONAL/GETTY IMAGES
March 2, 2020
