Because of its vitriolic take on Tinseltown, this was unsurprisingly turned down by all the major studios in Hollywood. It eventually found a home at United Artists.
Shot in 15 days.
Stanley Shriner Hoff was an amalgam of various studio heads and not - as many believed - a direct parody of Columbia head Harry Cohn. (Hoff's penchant for crying was borrowed from one of Louis B. Mayer's more idiosyncratic traits.) Nevertheless, Harry Cohn took personal offense at the characterization.
The scandalous cover-up depicted in the film is supposedly based on a real-life incident involving a young John Huston. Louis B. Mayer apparently paid gossip columnist Louella Parsons a large sum of money not to disclose the incident in her column.