Fran Drescher took voice lessons to alter the nasal quality of her voice for the part of Joy Miller. When she arrived on-set using her new "normal" voice, producers insisted that she revert to her natural trademark one, as it was one of the reasons she was asked to play the part.
The newspaper Timothy Dalton is reading on the breakfast table is a Turkish newspaper named "Hurriyet". The word means "freedom" in Turkish.
Early in development, Fran Drescher planned the movie to be a spin on The King and I (1956), titled "The King And Oy", but legislatively faced the problem that FOX owned the rights. Therefore, she decided to pay homage to Beauty and the Beast (1991) instead.
The extra dancers in the ball scene had to dance in stockings or socks, because their shoes made too much noise on the dance floor.
President Pochenko (Timothy Dalton) and Joy Miller (Fran Drescher) enter the factory, it starts playing L'internationale, the Communist Party hymn, and hymn of the U.S.S.R., until 1944.