The producers went through normal channels to try to obtain the rights to include a piece of the title song from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), but all their requests were denied. Finally, a friend gave them Tim Rice's personal phone number, and after seeing and loving the movie, Rice agreed to grant them the right to use the song.
All the prom songs performed by the Christian rock band Godflight were actually by The Replacements, a rock band from the 1980s.
The woman who coached Mandy Moore and Eva Amurri on speaking in tongues gave them several phrases that they could repeat, including "she bought a Hyundai" and "untie my bow tie."
The Hebrew writing on Cassandra's necklace (visible during the Christmas food court scene) says "Cassandra."
According to producer Sandy Stern, the film had gone through "about 200 rewrites." The original script had Hilary Faye, played by Mandy Moore, shooting up the school.