Robert Mulligan started directing, but he had to bow out after four days filming due to the 1981 strike by the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The film was shut down for three months and when production re-commenced, scheduling conflicts meant Mulligan had to withdraw from the film and as such the director was replaced with veteran George Cukor. He was 81 years old and in semi-retirement when he was persuaded to direct. This is Cukor's final film as director.
When Merry is fixing her lipstick in the ladies' room mirror she is humming the main theme from Gone with the Wind (1939) which the director George Cukor began directing in 1939, only to be replaced by Victor Fleming at Clark Gable's request.
Candice Bergen would play Meg Ryan's mother again in the the remake of The Women (2008). The original film was also directed by George Cukor.
Frances Bergen: The veteran actress and widow of Edgar Bergen and the mother of Candice Bergen as a literary party guest.
Dack Rambo: As Kent, Merry's Malibu party actor friend who admits to Liz that he's never read any of her books, he appearing later in the movie being interviewed by Dick Cavett.