Dame Elizabeth Taylor remained seated for most of her performance and was wheeled onto the set in a chair. "I can't walk a long distance, so everybody sees me in a wheelchair and thinks I'm sick", she told TV Guide. "If you had broken your back three times, you couldn't stand very long (either)."
Shirley MacLaine said of the shoot, "It was my best time ever in making a film." She went on to claim that none of the actresses were ever late to the set, "not even Elizabeth" and they worked from 5 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. every day.
This movie, written by Carrie Fisher, contains one actress who was Fisher's mother (Debbie Reynolds), one who was her ex-stepmother (Dame Elizabeth Taylor), and one (Shirley MacLaine) who played the mother of a character based upon her in Recuerdos de Hollywood (1990) (also written by Fisher).
When asked how she felt about being known as an "old broad", Shirley MacLaine told Us Weekly, "I've been a broad since I was three." Dame Joan Collins seems to have researched her answer more thoroughly, claiming, "The dictionary's definition of broad is babe, chick, dame, dish, doll, or tootsie. I don't mind being called any of those!" Debbie Reynolds quipped "I'm not 'broad' in the sense of my rear end, but I do love being an old broad." Referencing co-star Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Reynolds concluded, "England made Elizabeth a 'Dame', so in America, let's give the title 'broad'!"
In 1959, in one of the biggest scandals to hit Hollywood up to that time, beloved couple Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds divorced when Fisher left Reynolds for Dame Elizabeth Taylor. Although Reynolds and Taylor reconciled many years later, this movie marked the first time they had acted in a scene together since before that scandal.