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.
 * 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".
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: In the Broadway version, Will Schuester plays Link.
 * 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.