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On June 10, 1993, Donna Douglas and her partner Curt Wilson in Associated Artists Entertainment, Inc., filed a $200 million lawsuit against Disney, Whoopi Goldberg, Bette Midler, their production companies, and Creative Artists Agency, claiming that this movie was plagiarized from the book "A Nun in the Closet", owned by the partners. Douglas and Wilson claimed that they had developed a screenplay for the book in 1985, and submitted it to Disney, Goldberg, and Midler three times in 1987 and 1988. They also claimed that the movie contained more than 100 similarities and plagiarisms from the book and screenplay. In 1994, Douglas and Wilson declined a $1 million offer to settle the case. The judge found in favor of Walt Disney Pictures and the other defendants. Wilson stated at the time, "They would have had to copy our stuff verbatim for us to prevail."
When Paul Rudnick was writing the screenplay, Bette Midler (who was attached to star at the time) suggested he go to a real-life convent to do research. He went to stay in the Regina Laudis Abbey in Bethlehem, Connecticut. The Prioress, Mother Dolores Hart, O.S.B., had been an actress, singer, and dancer, appearing in movies including King Creole (1958) and Where the Boys Are (1960). Mother Hart is still the only known nun to be a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and she and her fellow nuns enjoy watching her Academy screeners every year.
The Rolling Stone Magazine cover shown during the closing credits is real.
Whoopi Goldberg hired Carrie Fisher to re-write her dialogue, which led to many arguments with Disney executives. Fisher later told Goldberg, "You're getting into a pissing contest with people who have actual dicks."
This movie was later turned into a stage musical. Whoopi Goldberg appeared in a limited run of the London performance, this time playing Mother Superior.
An opening scene shows Deloris as a young girl, played by Isis Carmen Jones. Later the same year, Jones played a "de-aged" version of Goldberg's character Guinan, in the Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) episode Rascals (1992).