Although they play teacher and student, Emily Blunt is only a year older than Kevin Zegers.
Each cast member was required to read the said book they had to discuss in the picture.
The real volume of the complete works of Jane Austen was more expensive than the production could afford to buy. Instead, a volume of Shakespeare plays with a fake cover was used. Hugh Dancy was reading these and he says in the DVD commentary that he got all the way through the histories and tragedies during the shoot.
In Allegra's hospital room during the Sense & Sensibility book club meeting, she is wearing the purple scarf that Bernadette is seen knitting during the Emma and Mansfield Park book club meetings.