Trivia

This movie narrowly escaped an X rating in the U.S. because of some questionable footage during the Cliveden House orgy scene. Closer scrutiny revealed that two extras were having real sex on a piano in one of the background scenes. Even though the images were blurry, the scene had to be trimmed for all general releases to avoid the restrictive rating, which BBFC censor James Ferman accomplished by defusing the light from a table-lamp in the foreground. The inquisitive-minded will find this sequence about 49 minutes and five seconds into the movie.

There were strenuous efforts made by many politicians to prevent this movie from being made, even though the world-famous events it depicted had taken place more than a quarter of a century earlier. Sir Ian McKellen and Sir John Hurt received numerous letters from famous members of Parliament, asking them to decline their roles. Neither one did. McKellen replied politely to most of these letters; Hurt ignored them, and told journalists that their senders were hypocrites, who were merely anxious to prevent the truth from being told.

Joanne Whalley's husband at the time, Val Kilmer objected to his wife doing the nude scene. Harvey Weinstein hired a body double for the scene. When Joanne arrived on-set, she wasn't happy with how the double looked. So Joanne ended up doing the nude scene herself.

It has been alleged that many British actors and actresses turned down roles in the movie because the subject could have cost them knighthoods and other honors. However, Sir Ian McKellen, already a CBE, was knighted in 1991, two years after this movie was made, and became a Companion of Honour in 2008. Leslie Phillips was awarded the OBE in 1998 and promoted to a CBE in 2008, while Sir John Hurt was awarded a CBE in 2004 and knighted in 2015.

Although billed in the cast as "Matinee Idol", Trevor Eve's character is named David Fairfax, Jr. It is a reference to Douglas Fairbanks Jr.'s real-life role in the Profumo affair. He was not named in this movie for legal reasons.