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Neither the confrontation with Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis) outside the courtroom, nor the final graduation scene, was a part of the original script. When this movie was tested, audiences were so wrapped up in Elle Woods' (Reese Witherspoon's) story, they were disappointed that she never got her revenge on Warner, and they also wanted to know what happened to her in the end (did she become a lawyer after all?) The two scenes had to be shot in England, because Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Davis were filming there (she was filming The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), while he was filming another project) at the time. The Great Hall of Dulwich College in London played Harvard Law School. During the graduation scene, only Witherspoon and Davis were actually present. Shots of Jennifer Coolidge, Selma Blair, Luke Wilson, and other supporting cast members were filmed in Los Angeles, California, and the whole thing was edited together later. Witherspoon and Wilson were wearing wigs. She had cut her hair short since finishing filming, and she is much paler than in court. He had shaved his head for The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and got a much deeper tan. However, since two years have elapsed in this movie, this is acceptable.
A perfect score on the LSAT exam is 180, therefore Elle's score of 179 puts her in the top 0.1 percent.
Elle Woods was named after Elle Magazine. Amanda Brown, author of "Legally Blonde", the novel on which this movie was based, spent her time at Stanford Law School reading copies of Elle Magazine.
While at Stanford, source book author Amanda Brown wrote letters back home, regarding her inability to fit in with her classmates. Later she made a manuscript based on those letters and sent it to an agent, who was drawn to it because it was the only manuscript submitted written on pink paper - referenced in this movie through Elle Woods' scented pink résumés.