Cultural References Edit

• This episode is a parody of the 1999 film Notting Hill.
• The episode title is a play on the 1937 film A Star is Born.
• When Helen Fielding runs around being chased by bobbies and a man in a gorilla suit (following the book club meeting and the end of the episode), it is an homage to the UK sketch comedy The Benny Hill Show. The music featured in the background of the sequences, "Yakety Sax", is the same music used in that series.
• After Ned meets Sara Sloane, he is singing a song sung to the tune of "Horse with No Name" by America.

TriviaEdit

• Seen across the mall from Ned's Leftorium are the businesses 'I Can't Believe It's a Law Firm!' (Lionel Hutz's old law office), 'Expensive Coffee In Little Cups' and 'Something Wicker This Way Comes'.
• Homer's lipsync from his response to Ned Flanders' "milk for free" saying is also off.
• Lenny's lip sync is off after admitting he's selling Sara's autograph on eBay.
• Sara asks Ned to ask for 'Zelda Fitzgerald' at the Springfield Four Seasons hotel where she is staying. Zelda Fitzgerald was the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of The Great Gatsby.
• Originally, Sara's line after Ned starts a fight with the director was "Katherine Hepburn never showed her breasts". The line was changed to "Angela Lansbury never showed her breasts," as Katherine Hepburn died a few months after this episode aired.
• James L. Brooks is credited as Jim Brooks for his appearance.