How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Donald Petrie’s film came out of a source with no plot in it. The book by Michele Alexander and Jeannie Long was a cartoon list of things not to do while dating; the pair wrote most of it on cocktail napkins at a bar during a concert, drew it in crayon and had it bound as a Christmas present for friends. Only the list of don’ts reached the screen; the story was invented afterwards. Petrie gave the authors’ names to Andie’s two friends, Michelle and Jeannie. Gwyneth Paltrow and director Mike Newell were attached first; Newell would not commit to a date and Paltrow left. The yellow gown was made by Carolina Herrera with the costume designer, and the Isadora necklace is a real Harry Winston yellow diamond piece, named after Isadora Duncan. Some of the New York is genuine: the Mercer Street apartment, the Staten Island Ferry, the old Custom House at Bowling Green. The Madison Square Garden close ups, the cinema interior, the restaurants and the whole gala interior were shot in Toronto. A good fit if you want a middle act of sabotage set pieces that only changes register at the family table on Staten Island. Not for anyone who takes the magazine side seriously; those scenes exist only to set the wager up.