49 Fun Facts About You've Got Mail

Which earlier Nora Ephron film also starred Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as strangers who fall in love from afar?

Sleepless in Seattle, their 1993 hit, kept the pair apart for almost the whole film; You've Got Mail reunited both stars with its director and had them meeting, and quarreling, from the first act.

Which comedy first paired Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, eight years before You've Got Mail?

Joe Versus the Volcano gave Meg Ryan three different roles opposite Tom Hanks, as the three women his doomed hero meets on his way to a Pacific island.

Which online service's spoken greeting for new email gave You've Got Mail its title?

AOL's cheery voice is what Kathleen waits for each morning: 'my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: You've got mail.'

You've Got Mail traces back to which 1937 Hungarian play by Miklós László?

Parfumerie opened in Budapest in 1937, shortly before its author left for New York; Hollywood filmed its feuding-clerks plot twice before Nora Ephron moved the letters online.

Which director made the 1940 romantic comedy that You've Got Mail reworks for the email age?

Ernst Lubitsch cast James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as Budapest shop clerks who bicker all day without knowing they are each other's adored pen pals.

In the Good Old Summertime, the 1949 musical version of the story behind You've Got Mail, is set in which city?

Chicago at the turn of the century is where Judy Garland lands a job in a music store and clashes with a salesman, Van Johnson, never guessing he is the pen pal she is falling for.

Which 1963 Broadway musical shares its source play with You've Got Mail?

She Loves Me has songs by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, the team behind Fiddler on the Roof; its two feuding clerks find each other through a lonely-hearts advertisement.

What is the name of Kathleen Kelly's bookstore in You've Got Mail?

The Shop Around the Corner borrows the title of the 1940 James Stewart film the story comes from; Joe's family, sizing up the competition, grumble that it has 'been there forever'.

Which film does Joe Fox call 'the sum of all wisdom' while urging Kathleen to 'go to the mattresses'?

The Godfather is 'the answer to any question', Joe writes, and he coaches her with 'It's not personal, it's business'; the advice helps her fight the very chain he runs.

What screen name does Kathleen Kelly use in her emails to Joe?

Shopgirl is what she calls herself to a man she met in a chat room where, she says, they both claimed never to have been before; the pair agree to tell each other nothing personal.

What is Joe Fox's screen name in You've Got Mail?

NY152 comes from his street address, a guess Kathleen waves away as too 'prosaic'; teasing her, Joe suggests her pen pal might be 152 years old, or have had 152 moles removed.

In You've Got Mail, what is the bookstore chain owned by Joe's family called?

Fox Books opens a superstore near Kathleen's shop; Joe predicts the neighborhood will hate it, then be seduced by 'our square footage, our discounts, our deep armchairs and our cappuccino'.

Kathleen's boyfriend Frank Navasky writes a column for which newspaper?

The New York Observer runs Frank's column; when he uses it to defend Kathleen's shop, the piece brings pickets and television crews to the street outside.

Which You've Got Mail character says she once fell madly in love with a man who 'ran Spain'?

Birdie, the oldest hand in Kathleen's shop, will say only that it wasn't meant to be because 'he ran Spain'; her colleagues conclude, appalled, that she means General Franco.

In which famous New York food store does Joe rescue Kathleen from the cash-only checkout line?

Zabar's is where Kathleen, holding only a credit card the night before Thanksgiving, stalls the line until Joe charms the cashier, Rose, into making an exception.

Who peeks through the café window for Joe and tells him that his pen pal is Kathleen?

Kevin reports that she is very pretty, then breaks the news: if Joe doesn't like Kathleen Kelly, he isn't going to like this girl, 'because it is Kathleen Kelly'.

After closing her shop in You've Got Mail, what does Kathleen decide to do?

Write children's books: after a life spent selling other people's stories she starts one of her own, and says it was her anonymous pen pal who first made her think she could write.

What is the name of Joe's dog, whose name Kathleen hears called at the final meeting?

Brinkley was introduced in the first email we hear Joe send, 'Brinkley is my dog. He loves the streets of New York as much as I do', so the name tells her at once who is coming round the path.

Which Jane Austen novel do Joe and Kathleen argue about in You've Got Mail, mirroring their own romance?

Pride and Prejudice is the book Kathleen carries to the café, with a rose in it, so her pen pal can recognize her; Joe, who has struggled through it on her advice, turns up and needles her about Mr. Darcy.

Which actress turned down the role of Kathleen Kelly in You've Got Mail?

Julia Roberts has said she passed on it; the luck had once run the other way, when she landed her Oscar-nominated role in Steel Magnolias after Meg Ryan gave up the part for When Harry Met Sally...

Which Monty Python member's scenes as a reclusive novelist were cut from You've Got Mail?

Michael Palin filmed the part of William Spungeon, a famously reclusive author whom Frank trails around the neighborhood, but the whole subplot was removed before release.

Before filming You've Got Mail, Nora Ephron sent Meg Ryan and Heather Burns to work in which New York shop?

Books of Wonder, a children's bookshop in Manhattan, was the model for Kathleen's store, and the two actresses worked its floor to learn how real booksellers behave.

In which New York neighborhood was most of You've Got Mail filmed?

Manhattan's Upper West Side plays itself, down to a real café on West 83rd Street, though Kathleen's bookshop was really a cheese and antiques store dressed for the part.

Which flower does Kathleen Kelly call 'the friendliest flower' in You've Got Mail?

Daisies are her favorite, embroidered on her handkerchief, and when she is home sick Joe turns up at her door with a bunch of them.

Which film opened the same weekend as You've Got Mail and finished second to it at the box office?

The Prince of Egypt took $14.5 million that weekend to You've Got Mail's $18.4 million; a week later Patch Adams opened at number one and both slipped down the chart.

Which studio released You've Got Mail in December 1998?

Warner Bros. released it; in 2001 the internet company whose software fills the film went on to buy the studio's parent company, Time Warner.

The You've Got Mail soundtrack leans most heavily on which singer-songwriter?

Harry Nilsson has more songs on the album than any other artist, and his 'Over the Rainbow' plays as Kathleen finally learns who her pen pal is.

Which singer-songwriter does Kathleen love, while Joe says he 'could never be with someone who likes' her?

Joni Mitchell's 'River' is the song Kathleen quotes while trimming her Christmas tree; Joe, puzzling over 'Both Sides, Now', asks whether the singer is supposed to be a pilot.

In an early email in You've Got Mail, Joe says New York in the fall makes him want to buy what?

School supplies, and he adds that he would send his correspondent 'a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils' if only he knew her name and address.

Greg Kinnear plays which character in You've Got Mail?

Kathleen's columnist boyfriend, Frank Navasky, would happily reverse the Industrial Revolution; the two finally admit over dinner that neither is in love, and part as friends.

Parker Posey plays Patricia Eden in You've Got Mail; what is Patricia's job?

Publisher: Patricia runs Eden Books at such a pitch that Joe says she 'makes coffee nervous', and her first thought when Kathleen's shop closes is to hire her as an editor.

Which comedian plays Joe Fox's friend and colleague in You've Got Mail?

Dave Chappelle, then in his mid-twenties, plays the colleague Joe drags along to look through a café window at his blind date before he dares go in himself.

Which All in the Family star plays Kathleen's oldest employee and confidante in You've Got Mail?

Jean Stapleton, television's Edith Bunker, plays the shop's veteran, who tells Kathleen that closing is 'the brave thing to do' and a chance to imagine a different life.

Which actor plays George, the young clerk at Kathleen's bookshop in You've Got Mail?

Steve Zahn plays George, who brags about his rent-controlled apartment and, when Kathleen's pen pal stands her up, produces a newspaper suggesting the man is the Rooftop Killer.

Dabney Coleman plays which character in You've Got Mail?

Joe's philandering father, Nelson Fox, is about to marry again when his fiancée runs off with the children's nanny, a turn he and Joe agree is 'incredibly ironic' given his own history with nannies.

Heather Burns, Christina in You've Got Mail, went on to play the heroine's friend in which other comedy?

Miss Congeniality cast her as a pageant contestant who befriends Sandra Bullock's undercover agent; five years later she worked with Nora Ephron again, on Bewitched.

Which award nominated Meg Ryan for a third time for You've Got Mail, after two earlier romantic comedies?

Golden Globe voters had nominated her twice before, for When Harry Met Sally... and for her previous film with the same director, and each time, as here, she went home without the prize.

Nora Ephron co-wrote the You've Got Mail screenplay with whom?

Her sister Delia had also co-written Nora's first film as a director; the pair were carrying on the family trade of their parents, a screenwriting couple whose credits include the Hepburn and Tracy comedy Desk Set.

Nora Ephron earned her first Oscar nomination for co-writing which 1983 film?

Silkwood came about when her friend Mike Nichols asked her and Alice Arlen to script Karen Silkwood's story for Meryl Streep; it was the first feature film she had written.

Nora Ephron's novel Heartburn is a thinly disguised account of her marriage to which journalist?

Carl Bernstein and she once rewrote the script of All the President's Men together; their draft went unused, but it gave her the start in screenwriting that led to her own films.

Nora Ephron graduated in 1962 from which Massachusetts women's college?

Wellesley had her writing for the college newspaper, yet she started out as a mail girl at Newsweek, which at the time did not hire women as writers.

In the 1940 film that You've Got Mail reworks, what does the shop where the feuding pen pals work sell?

Leather goods line the shelves of Matuschek and Company in Budapest, where James Stewart's head clerk and the new salesgirl snipe at each other all day and adore each other by post.

At story time in You've Got Mail, Kathleen reads aloud to the children from a book by which author?

Roald Dahl's tale of 'the great and daring mouse plot' is what Kathleen is reading to a circle of children when Joe first walks into her shop with his young relatives.

In which New York park does Kathleen finally learn who her pen pal is?

Riverside Park, at the 91st Street garden, is where Joe and his dog come round the path; 'I wanted it to be you,' Kathleen tells him through her tears.

Which future Grey's Anatomy star plays Rose, the cashier Joe charms in You've Got Mail?

Sara Ramirez plays the cashier who refuses Kathleen's credit card until Joe turns on the charm, years before winning a Tony and joining Grey's Anatomy.

What is the name of Joe Fox's young aunt, who comes to story time at Kathleen's shop?

Annabel is the daughter of Joe's grandfather, which makes the little girl his aunt; 'We are an American family,' he tells a baffled Kathleen.

From whom did Kathleen Kelly inherit her bookshop in You've Got Mail?

Her mother, Cecilia, ran the shop before her and let six-year-old Kathleen help; Joe's grandfather remembers Cecilia as a lovely woman he may once have dated, 'or maybe we just exchanged letters'.

At which real New York café do Kathleen and her pen pal arrange to meet for the first time?

Café Lalo, on West 83rd Street, is where Kathleen waits with a book and a rose while Joe, outside on the sidewalk, sends a colleague to the window and learns who she is.

While Kathleen prefers her laptop, her boyfriend Frank is devoted to which writing tool?

A typewriter, or rather several: Frank brings home yet another, an Olympia Report electric, and swoons over its whirring while Kathleen asks what it is doing in her apartment.