Hairspray/Trivia

• Acting for Two: Divine played both Edna Turnblad and Arvin Hodgepile. Waters had to give Glen Milstead a male role because he was getting sick of doing drag for film roles. Milstead insisted that he wasn't a drag queen in Hairspray because what drag queen would dare be so frumpy?
• All-Star Cast: Played with. The 2007 movie had several all star members (John Travolta, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah and Zac Efron to name a few), but these were mostly secondary roles, whereas the main role went to entirely new actress Nikki Blonsky.
• Billing Displacement: It was advertised starring John Travolta (in drag!). Nikkie Blonsky gets an "And introducing" after the long list of all the other celebrities "starring" in the movie.
• Casting Gag:
  • 2011 would have Michelle Pfeiffer and Zac Efron star together again, but instead of him dating her daughter, it's her he goes after in New Year's Eve.
  • In the 2007 film, Jerry Stiller plays fashion store owner Mr. Pinky. Stiller played Wilbur Turnblad in the original 1988 film. Several other actors from the original and the director appear as well (see The Cameo in the main section).
  • Brittney Snow in the 2007 version essentially fulfilled the same role as Tracy in her show American Dreams except she actually danced on American Bandstand.
  • Marissa Jaret Winokur, Tracy of the musical, and Allison Janney, Mrs. Pingleton of the 2007 film, were both in American Beauty - but Janney with the larger part.
• The Cast Showoff: Several members of the cast were picked either because their musical talents were largely unknown to the general public (Marsden, Walken, Bynes) or had simply been forgotten about in recent years (Travolta, Pfeiffer).
• Cut Song: "The New Girl in Town" was cut from the stage musical, but put into the 2007 film. Some songs from the stage version were cut from the film, too.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Amanda Bynes ate so many lollipops during filming there were some genuine concerns she might lose her teeth. Rumors place it at around 40 a day. John Travolta's fat suit couldn't have been all that pleasant either.
• Fan Nickname: Amongst the cast, "You Can't Stop the Beat", due to the intense dancing and fast pace, garnered the nickname "You Can't Stop to Breathe". Queen Latifah, being a rapper, was the only one who had no trouble singing the song.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: In the Broadway version, Will Schuester plays Link.
• Production Posse: NBC reunited at least four people behind their critically-acclaimed The Wiz telecast to adapt Hairspray for television: Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (who produce all of the musicals NBC airs during The New Tens, and also did the same for the 2007 Hairspray movie), director Kenny Leon (who collaborated with Zadan and Meron three times before Hairspray), and scriptwriter Harvey Fierstein.
• Recursive Adaptation: From movie to Broadway musical and back again.
• What Could Have Been: James Marsden beat out his X-Men co-star Hugh Jackman and Joey McIntyre for the part of Corny Collins.
  • Queen Latifah won out over Aretha Franklin.
  • Christopher Walken was chosen over Billy Crystal.
  • Mamie Van Doren was originally picked for Velma in the original film.
  • John Waters wrote a sequel to the 2007 movie titled Hairspray 2: White Lipstick, detailing everyone's struggles to adjust to new music trends of the late 1960s. Plot points he shared included the African-American dancers planning an all-Black music program, Link becoming Fake Brit to attract fans of The Beatles, and Edna losing weight through weight loss pills. New numbers included Link having a Mushroom Samba and singing with his pimples, and Edna gorging back all the weight she lost after learning that Wilbur thinks she looked better when she looked fat.