Synopsis

Overprotective mother Daphne Wilder worries that her youngest daughter, Milly, will repeat her romantic mistakes and end up alone. Without Milly's knowledge, Daphne places an online personal ad and selects a seemingly ideal match. But Milly also begins seeing Johnny, a musician Daphne rejected, forcing mother and daughter into a tangled struggle over love, independence, and the limits of parental interference.

Factoids & Trivia

• The story originated when co-writer Karen Leigh Hopkins overheard a mother in a dentist's waiting room describing how she arranged dates for her daughter. Hopkins and Jessie Nelson quickly developed the idea into a screenplay.

• Diane Keaton was introduced to the project through Jessie Nelson, whose daughters attended the same Los Angeles school as Keaton's children. After reading the script, Keaton accepted the role of Daphne and also contributed notes during development.

• The daughters' names - Maggie, Milly, and Mae - were inspired by e.e. cummings' poem "maggie and milly and molly and may."

• The Wilder women sing together in two scenes. The production notes emphasize that the musical moments were built around the performers' real singing abilities, with Lauren Graham's college choir experience helping her handle the vocal arrangements.

• The elaborate cakes were created by Los Angeles specialists The Cake Divas. Joan Spitler eventually appeared on screen as one of Daphne's assistants and served as a stand-in for Diane Keaton during some cake-decorating shots.

• Principal photography began on December 5, 2005, and concluded on February 3, 2006. Los Angeles locations included Venice, downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Hancock Park, Brentwood, Eagle Rock, and the Japanese American National Museum.

• The film was released in the United States on February 2, 2007. It earned approximately $69.5 million worldwide despite receiving generally unfavorable reviews from critics.