ArkaEvren

FILM · 1996 · USA

One Fine Day

25 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

25 Interesting Facts About One Fine Day

Interesting Facts (21)

  1. #001

    When Maggie Taylor forgets the name of the kitten, that was not part of the script. Mae Whitman actually forgot the kitten's name and stayed in character. The director found it so cute that he kept it in the film.

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  2. #002

    When Melanie bumps into the table in her home near the end, that apparently was not in the script. Michelle Pfeiffer's clumsiness was kept in the film for that reason.

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  3. #003

    According to an interview with Mae Whitman, the notorious prankster George Clooney would take the plastic cat props the props department had given Whitman to carry and throw them into traffic to scare drivers into thinking they had run over real cats. This upset onlookers (who thought the props were real cats) so much that Clooney was reported to the ASPCA and had to explain himself.

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  4. #004

    Pfeiffer (who also produced the film), in a 2021 interview with both Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney, said that 20th Century Fox initially wanted to release the film on February 14, 1997, so that the romantic comedy would suit Valentine's Day. However, the film tested so well with audiences that Fox was so sure it would be a hit that the release was moved up to December 20, 1996, the day Scream (1996) and Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) opened. Both films performed very well at the box office and this film suffered from the competition. But Pfeiffer and Clooney acknowledged that the film became much more popular on video and television and said that in recent years it has been a favorite among fans of their work.

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  5. #005

    In the scene where Jack comes to Melanie's apartment, George Clooney held Mae Whitman in front of his face to hide a black eye he had gotten during a basketball game.

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  6. #006

    The press conference scene in which Jack confronts the Mayor of New York was supposed to be at City Hall in Manhattan, but it was actually shot at Brooklyn Borough Hall, which is the Brooklyn Borough President's office.

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  7. #007

    The school used for the scene in which Jack and Melanie find that their children's class has already left is a private college called the New York School of Interior Design, or NYSID. Red front doors were added for the shoot.

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  8. #008

    Pete Hamill, who plays the reporter Frank Burroughs in the film, was actually working for the New York Daily News during production, like George Clooney's character Jack Taylor in the film, with his picture pasted on MTA buses and subway posters.

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  9. #009

    Thanks to his performance in this film, Alex D. Linz would eventually land the role in Home Alone 3 (1997), taking over the franchise from Macaulay Culkin for Fox and released about a year later in 1997.

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  10. #010

    While the film was in production, Entertainment Tonight (1981) did an episode about the film during shooting; it was the scene at Bethesda Terrace in Central Park in March 1996, one of the first scenes shot.

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  11. #011

    The film takes place over a single day, beginning at 6:30 in the morning and ending at around 21:30, when Jack falls into a deep sleep and Melanie passes out on the couch a few minutes after everything has been arranged for her. They have been together on and off for at least ten hours since they met at around 8:30 in the morning.

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  12. #012

    Jack Taylor wears the same clothes from the beginning to the end of the film after taking Maggie to school, while Melanie makes several costume changes, including the pajamas she wears at the start and end of the film and the orange wool jacket she wears during accidents such as Sammy squirting juice on her blouse, the chocolate pudding mishap and the press conference at City Hall.

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  13. #013

    James Newton Howard used George Gershwin as the foundation of his score, evoking a contemporary feel suited to the bustle of New York City and the hectic day through which both George Clooney's and Michelle Pfeiffer's characters move.

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  14. #014

    This was the third film Sheila Kelley made under director Michael Hoffman; the others were Some Girls (1988) and Soapdish (1991).

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  15. #015

    The film begins and ends in Melanie's apartment. Melanie is shown trying to sleep amid the things that keep interrupting her, including Sammy waking her at midnight. A few minutes later, after trying to make herself more attractive to Jack, she falls asleep on him, and at the end, after coming out of the bathroom, she falls asleep on Jack again as they bring their long day together to a close.

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  16. #016

    The newspaper where George Clooney's character, Jack Taylor, works is actually the New York Daily News, which still exists as a newspaper.

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  17. #017

    When Jack is first seen early in the film, his apartment is a mess because of a serious unresolved plumbing problem. Jack mentions this to Lew while recounting Manny Feldstein's retracted testimony about the Mayor taking money from the mafia, the film's other major subplot.

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  18. #018

    This was the second film featuring Amanda Peet to be produced and released by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1996. The other was She's the One (1996), made for Fox Searchlight and released shortly after the studio's blockbuster of the year, Roland Emmerich's Independence Day (1996). Thirteen years after this release, Peet would go on to appear in Emmerich's 2012 (2009), which, ironically, was also released during the Christmas holiday season.

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  19. #019

    Melanie and Jack have a great deal in common, and the film signals throughout that they will end up together. Both are divorced, deeply love their children, are workaholics always rushing to get things done, and both impress people with their looks.

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  20. #020

    The film features five actors who have appeared in comic book movies: George Clooney a year later in Batman & Robin (1997), Michelle Pfeiffer four years earlier in Batman Returns (1992), Joe Grifasi in Batman Forever (1995) and Michael Massee two years earlier in The Crow (1994). Clooney played Batman in his comic book film, while Pfeiffer and Massee played the villains Catwoman and Funboy in theirs. Mae Whitman also appeared in another comic book film, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010).

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  21. #021

    Both George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer are Tauruses.

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Characters & Cast (2)

  1. #022

    Tom Cruise was initially going to take the male lead. He stepped in when George Clooney turned the offer down.

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  2. #023

    After Tom Cruise turned down the role of Jack Taylor for Jerry Maguire (1996), the studio approached Kevin Costner for the part. Costner wanted to accept the offer because he had missed many opportunities to work with Michelle Pfeiffer (as of 2025 they have not yet collaborated on a film) and had always wanted to work with her, but he decided to focus on his next directing project, The Postman (1997), instead, so the role went to George Clooney.

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Easter Eggs & References (1)

  1. #024

    The film was expected to be shot in the early spring. It is notable for the many scenes with rain in the background or made to look as if it had rained. These include Jack, Maggie, Melanie and Sammy missing the Circle Line trip, Jack meeting Manny on the roof of a building downtown, and the ride in the flooded puddle at Bethesda Fountain after the soccer game in Central Park.

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Career & Awards (1)

  1. #025

    The cast includes an Oscar winner, George Clooney, and an Oscar nominee, Michelle Pfeiffer.

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

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