50 Fun Facts About Miss Congeniality

Miss Congeniality opened three days before Christmas 2000, the same day as which Tom Hanks film?

Cast Away. It topped the box office that weekend while Miss Congeniality opened fifth, yet Sandra Bullock's comedy played on into the spring and took more than four times its $45 million budget worldwide.

Donald Petrie, who directed Miss Congeniality, went on to make which Matthew McConaughey romantic comedy?

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Petrie made it in 2003 and sat out Miss Congeniality 2, just as he had earlier left the sequel to his hit Grumpy Old Men to another director.

Early in Miss Congeniality, Gracie claims 'official business' to jump the queue at which chain?

Starbucks. Flashing her FBI credentials, she pushes to the counter and reels off a coffee order for her whole office, down to two blueberry scones and a compilation CD.

Under what alias does Agent Gracie Hart enter the pageant in Miss Congeniality?

Gracie Lou Freebush. She invents the name herself while refusing the job, as the sort of bimbo who 'wants world peace', and her partner remembers it when he has her pageant ID made.

Which state does Gracie Hart represent at the pageant in Miss Congeniality?

New Jersey. The slot was free because the real Miss New Jersey was about to be thrown out over an adult film, which left a pageant coach just two days to make Gracie pass for a contestant.

What is the fictional pageant in Miss Congeniality called?

Miss United States. Its anthem, 'She's beauty and she's grace, she's Miss United States', was composed by the screenwriter's son when he was five years old.

In which Texas city is the pageant in Miss Congeniality held?

San Antonio. The preliminaries are staged in front of the Alamo, where Gracie leaps off the stage to tackle a man she takes for a gunman, who was only trying to light a cigarette.

In Miss Congeniality, what is the alias of the domestic terrorist whose threat sends the FBI to the pageant?

The Citizen. His riddling letter seems to point at the pageant, but he is caught in a shack in Nevada before the final, and the threat turns out to be a copycat's work.

Which British actor plays Victor Melling, the pageant coach who grooms Gracie in Miss Congeniality?

Michael Caine. His Victor Melling is a fallen star of pageant coaching, shunned after a contestant told a magazine he had harangued her 'to within an inch of her sanity'.

Which actor plays Eric Matthews, Gracie's FBI partner, in Miss Congeniality?

Benjamin Bratt. Matt Dillon came close to the part, and Hugh Jackman read for it too, later admitting that he could not keep up with Sandra Bullock in the audition.

Which actress plays former beauty queen Kathy Morningside in Miss Congeniality?

Candice Bergen. Her Kathy Morningside bristles whenever the event is called a beauty pageant, insisting that it is a 'scholarship program'; Gracie later throws the phrase back at her.

Which Star Trek star plays pageant host Stan Fields in Miss Congeniality?

William Shatner. He performs the pageant's anthem himself, on screen and on the soundtrack album, and his Stan Fields grumbles afterwards that the blast came right in the middle of his big number.

Which Ghostbusters star plays Harry McDonald, Gracie's FBI boss, in Miss Congeniality?

Ernie Hudson. His assistant director benches Gracie after a botched sting, then pulls the whole team out of the pageant, so she hands in her badge and gun to stay on alone.

In Miss Congeniality, Gracie's awkward friend, played by Heather Burns, is Miss which state?

Rhode Island. Pressed by Gracie for a criminal past, its contestant confesses only to stealing red underwear from a department store, because her mother called them 'Satan's panties'.

In Miss Congeniality, which state's contestant, Karen Krantz, comes out on live television after missing the final five?

New York. Karen Krantz seizes the microphone to tell 'all the lesbians' that if she can make the top ten so can they, then shouts her love to her girlfriend as she is hustled away.

What is Gracie's official talent in the Miss Congeniality pageant?

The glass harp, a row of tuned water glasses she had not played since high school. She performs it at the preliminaries, but on finals night she finds thirsty contestants drinking her instrument.

In Miss Congeniality, where is the bomb hidden on the night of the final?

In the crown. Gracie fights the new winner for the tiara on live television and hurls it up into the scenery, where it explodes and sets the stage alight.

Which contestant wins the pageant in Miss Congeniality?

Cheryl Frasier. At the farewell breakfast the next morning she is the one who presents Gracie with the title of Miss Congeniality, for saving the contestants' lives.

In the Miss Congeniality final, Gracie is stunned to be named what?

Runner-up. The FBI had only asked the pageant to fix her a place in the top five, and by finals night the Bureau had pulled out altogether, so second place was all her own work.

In Miss Congeniality, pageant assistant Frank Tobin is secretly whose son?

Kathy Morningside's. He had dropped her surname to bury a record that included assault and a weapons charge, which is why the FBI's first check on Frank Tobin came back clean.

In Miss Congeniality, why does the bomber want the pageant winner killed on stage?

Revenge for being fired. After years in charge of the show, the culprit had learned that the network wanted 'a newer, hotter show' without her, and decided to give it one.

In Miss Congeniality's 1982 prologue, what does young Gracie do to the boy she likes when he rejects her?

Punches him on the nose and calls him a wimp. She had just seen off his bully, and he complained that now everyone would think he needed a girl to fight for him.

In Miss Congeniality, Gracie's opening sting goes wrong against mobsters of which nationality?

Russian. Gracie breaks cover to save a mob boss who is choking on a peanut, a fellow agent is shot in the confusion, and she is taken out of the field.

Although its pageant is set elsewhere in Texas, much of Miss Congeniality was shot in which city?

Austin. Its old municipal airport had closed the year before, so the film shot in the disused hangars, which went on to become Austin Studios.

Asked to describe her perfect date, a Miss Congeniality contestant names which day, 'not too hot, not too cold'?

April 25th, because 'all you need is a light jacket'. She has taken 'date' to mean a day on the calendar; later, over pizza, she gives the romantic-dinner answer she had meant to give.

In Miss Congeniality, Gracie taunts Eric with a playground-style chant that begins 'You think I'm' what?

Gorgeous. She first chants 'You think I'm gorgeous, you want to kiss me' after Eric admits her evening gown convinced him, and revives the chant at the end when he finally asks her to dinner.

Watching Gracie walk in Miss Congeniality, Victor says he hasn't seen a walk like it since which film?

Jurassic Park. His cure is to make her 'glide', hips rolling and chin level with the floor, until she snaps 'I'm gliding here!' in the middle of the lesson.

In Miss Congeniality, Gracie tells pageant viewers to remember which word when fighting off an attacker?

SING: solar plexus, instep, nose, groin. She demonstrates each blow on her partner Eric on live television, and in the sequel a fan writes to say the routine saw off a real attacker.

Miss Congeniality brought Sandra Bullock her second Golden Globe nomination for a comedy; which film brought the first?

While You Were Sleeping, five years earlier. She lost both times, the second to Renée Zellweger for Nurse Betty, and finally took home a Globe in 2010 for The Blind Side.

In Miss Congeniality, Victor complains that other coaches got Southern belles while he got whom?

Dirty Harriet, his swipe at Gracie's gun-toting manners. By his own account he only got the job because every other coach worth having already had a contestant.

In Miss Congeniality, Gracie tells the pageant that society most needs harsher punishment for whom?

Parole violators. Every contestant before her had answered 'world peace', and Gracie, the one federal agent on the stage, tacks the same two words on a beat later.

What is the subtitle of the 2005 sequel to Miss Congeniality?

Armed and Fabulous. It reached cinemas more than four years after the original, yet its story opens just three weeks after the pageant, with Gracie suddenly too famous to go undercover.

Which talk-show host, playing himself, is thrown to the mat in a self-defence demo in Miss Congeniality 2?

Regis Philbin. He tells Gracie she looks nothing like J. Edgar Hoover, she answers that she is wearing his dress, and her bodyguard then floors him as he pleads 'Not the groin!'

In Miss Congeniality 2, too famous to work undercover, Gracie agrees to become what?

The face of the FBI. She is recognised in the middle of a bank stakeout, the sting falls apart, and her boss gives her a choice between public relations and a desk.

In Miss Congeniality 2, in which city are the pageant winner and its host kidnapped?

Las Vegas. The pair are seized on the way to their limo after a goodwill visit to a senior centre, and Gracie is sent only to hold a press conference, not to investigate.

In Miss Congeniality 2, which weakness of the kidnapped pageant host turns out to be behind the abduction?

Gambling. His mother tells Gracie he loved the slot machines and that loan sharks would catch up with him, which shows the kidnappers were never really after the beauty queen.

Which future Parks and Recreation star plays kidnapper Karl Steele in Miss Congeniality 2?

Nick Offerman. His Karl is the one who cracks in the end: caught in an FBI wristlock, he gives up the place where the two hostages are hidden.

Who plays Sam Fuller, Gracie's hot-tempered bodyguard, in Miss Congeniality 2?

Regina King. Her Sam Fuller is handed the job of guarding Gracie because nobody else will work with her, and the two brawl their way to becoming partners by the final scene.

In Miss Congeniality 2, Gracie slips into a nursing home disguised as what?

An elderly woman, calling herself Ida Flammenbaum. Sam comes along as her nurse and Joel as her son, keeping the receptionist busy while Gracie works the residents for information.

Diedrich Bader plays Joel, who does what job for Gracie in Miss Congeniality 2?

Stylist. Joel promises to find 'the sculpture in the stone', then hands Gracie a list of rules for the new job that opens with 'no hitting' and 'chew with your mouth closed'.

In Miss Congeniality 2, the two hostages are left tied up inside what at a resort hotel?

A pirate ship, the centrepiece of the resort's nightly stage show, which ends with the vessel sinking. The kidnappers had been sacked from that show and meant the drowning as payback.

In Miss Congeniality 2, Gracie tackles which star after mistaking her for her own impersonator?

Dolly Parton, playing herself. Gracie was hunting a Dolly lookalike who had paid off the hostages' limo driver, and the tackle, shown on the news, gets her ordered off the case.

To get into a drag club's dressing room in Miss Congeniality 2, Sam takes the stage as which singer?

Tina Turner. Sam has to be talked onto the stage, but her 'Proud Mary', with Gracie and Joel as backing showgirls, wins the crowd's vote and a pass to the dressing rooms.

Roger Ebert dismissed Miss Congeniality 2 with which two-word verdict?

Doubly unnecessary. He had called the first film unnecessary too, and signed off by admitting he was the only critic in the world who had liked Sandra Bullock's Speed 2.

What sound punctuates Gracie Hart's laugh in the Miss Congeniality films?

A snort. Roger Ebert called it 'a genteel barnyard sound', and in the sequel Gracie wonders aloud whether it is the reason her boyfriend has just dumped her.

Besides starring, what other role did Sandra Bullock hold on both Miss Congeniality films?

Producer. Roger Ebert held the credit against her: it meant she had picked the first film's 'tired and routine' material herself, he wrote, and he asked what she was thinking of.

Which talk-show host has claimed Miss Congeniality was inspired by footage of her learning to walk in heels?

Ellen DeGeneres, who said in 2014 that the film 'was written based on me', after its writer saw her rehearse in heels and a dress to host the Emmys. The director says he never heard that story.

In Miss Congeniality 2, what job does Treat Williams's character, Walter Collins, hold?

FBI bureau chief. His Collins twice orders Gracie onto a flight home and threatens her with arrest, then steps up to the cameras to take the credit once she has cracked the case.

At the end of Miss Congeniality 2, the rescued pageant queen strikes up a romance with which character?

Jeff Foreman, the local agent assigned as Gracie's handler. After he helps pull the hostages from the water, Gracie plays matchmaker and sends the beauty queen his way.

In Miss Congeniality, Kathy Morningside won her own pageant title only after the original winner came down with what?

Food poisoning. Kathy had only finished second that year; the other contestants pass the old rumour on to Gracie during a night of pizza and beer she arranges to get them talking.