May have been inspired by the Alfred Nobel incident. Upon reading his prematurely published obituary with horror, the Swedish inventor of dynamite left the majority of his considerable fortune to fund the Nobel Prizes, in an attempt to improve his legacy.
Veteran British actress Millicent Martin enjoys a quick cameo as a "Margaret Dumont". This was surely slipped in as a sly tribute to the legendary character actress Margaret Dumont by the film's star, Shirley MacLaine, who'd appeared with her in What a Way to Go! (1964).
Amanda Seyfried and Thomas Sadoski are married in real life.