As depicted in the movie, Truman Capote, when appearing as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) in July 1969, announced that Jacqueline Susann looked "like a truck driver in drag". Capote later recanted his insult about Susann, apologizing to any truckers who may have been offended.
Nathan Lane's first screen role was as a theater stage manager in the TV mini-series, Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls (1981), which was executive produced by Irving Mansfield, whom Lane plays in this film. Ironically, in the movie Valley of the Dolls (1967), Richard Dreyfuss made his film debut, playing the same role of the theater stage manager. Dreyfuss would later star with Bette Midler in Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986).