Trivia

Amanda Bynes' character, Penny, is seen constantly eating lollipops. Bynes' father, who is a dentist, became very worried for her dental health, as it was estimated she ate about 40 lollipops a day. She told him that she wasn't really eating all of them, when in reality she ate them all.

Aretha Franklin auditioned for the role of Motormouth Maybelle, but lost out to Queen Latifah.

Most of the cast jokingly called "You Can't Stop the Beat" "you can't stop to breathe" because of its pace and fast-moving lyrics. Queen Latifah said she had no trouble singing a lot of words very quickly because of her background as a rapper.

It took John Travolta four hours to put on the 30-pound fat suit and 5 gel-filled silicone face prosthetics to become Edna Turnblad.

Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken were both cast at the request of John Travolta.

Jerry Stiller: Wilbur Turnblad in Hairspray (1988), now appears as Mr. Pinky.

Ricki Lake, Adam Shankman, Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman: William Morris talent agents in the finale - note Shaiman's very out-of-period beard.

John Waters: The flasher in the opening 'Good Morning Baltimore' sequence.