It's a tale as old as time: Lucky girl meets boy. Girl kisses boy. Boy accidentally steals girl's luck.
So, that's not exactly a story as classic as, say Beauty and the Beast, but it does date back all the way to 2006 when Just My Luck was released. Fresh off of her breakout role in Mean Girls, an 18-year-old Lindsay Lohan starred as the most fortunate woman alive who loses her luck when she falls for Chris Pine at a masquerade ball. You know, as one does.
The rom-com-gone-wrong was directed by Donald Petrie, who was coming off of a hot streak with How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Miss Congeniality. Paired with two of Hollywood's hottest young stars, Just My Luck seemed destined for box office success. Unfortunately, someone must've walked under a ladder on the set because the movie failed to charm critics or theater-goers and had more drama than comedy going on behind the scenes.
So grab your four-leaf clover and rub your lucky rabbit foot as we reveal some secrets about Just My Luck in honor of its 15th anniversary...
1. The movie was originally titled Lady Luck.
2. The script was penned by I. Marlene King, who would go on helm the hit series Pretty Little Liars, and Amy B. Harris, a producer on Sex and the City who was the showrunner on The Carrie Diaries, its CW spinoff.
3. Only her second non-Disney movie after 2004's Mean Girls, Lindsay Lohan was paid $7.5 million for her turn as Ashley. Just My Luck would go on to gross just $38 million worldwide.
4. Bruce Willis was credited as a producer on the movie. Yes, that Bruce Willis. And at the time, rumors surfaced that Willis, then 51, and Lohan, then 18, were allegedly caught canoodling at the premiere party for his 2005 movie Hostage, but they were swiftly shot down.
"She is not interested in Bruce Willis in any way but as the producer of her next film," her rep told Page Six. Willis' spokesperson. "He met Lindsay for the first time at the Hostage launch party and is certainly not dating her."
5. Chris Pine, who'd go on to become a major star thanks to hit movies such as Star Trek and Wonder Woman, reflected on working with Lohan in a 2014 interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
"It was a real cyclone of insanity, like being around The Beatles," Pine said. "It was fascinating to watch, and in hindsight it's really a distinct moment in someone's life when you see what's really wonderful about what we get to do and what's really dangerous about it."
6. While filming, several crew members who worked on the movie during its time in New Orleans spoke out about Lohan's on-set behavior.
"I've never seen anything like this," one told The Louisiana Times-Picayune. "She is making our lives a living hell. It's just not professional."
7. A local actor also spoke to the publication, alleging that Lohan would sit in the corner while everyone else was rehearsing for a scene, with her stand-in doing her lines.
8. Because of Lohan's popularity at the time, filming on location proved to be challenging. "The fans were not as big of a problem as the paparazzi," director Donald Petrie told Fox Movie Channel in a 2006 featurette. "She would basically be surrounded at any given time."
9. But the movie's poster, which featured a winking Lohan, was actually a paparazzi pic taken while production was in NYC. The snap reportedly even inspired the film's tagline, "Everything changed in the wink of an eye."
10. Lohan experienced her own spell of bad luck while filming, revealing during a press conference, "I twisted my ankle, when we were shooting in New York, my right foot, and it's really ironic, because the film's called Just My Luck."
11. And Lohan broke out in a rash while filming the scene with an overflowing washing machine, saying, "I started breaking out in hives all over from the soap."
12. A prank Lohan pulled on Petrie ended up inspiring him to add a similar scene into the movie.
"I'll tell you one thing that scared the poop out of me. Lindsay is walking along with me on the street and turns a corner and walks smack dab into a glass wall," Petrie revealed during a press conference. "I thought, 'Oh my God, a broken nose,' and she's laughing at me. She did it supposedly on purpose."
13. Because Lohan had to kiss several different actors during the movie, Petrie allowed the star to have final say in casting. "There were times when I would even cast three or four guys and not tell the guys which one was the lucky guy," Petrie revealed. "They didn't know going into the scene. I just said to Lindsay, 'Pick, pick.'"
Lohan added, "'Pick,' like it was so comfortable!"
14. Lohan bonded with Samaire Armstrong and Bree Turner, the two actresses cast as her character's best friends, so much that they were with her when she got her first tattoo.
"I got 'La Bella Vida,'" Lohan revealed during a Q&A. "They said it was something else, like the beautiful view, and it's on my lower back. It was for my grandfather, it means a beautiful life."
15. Armstrong and Lohan also bonded over their shared love of music, even writing songs together during their downtime. Turner and Lohan, meanwhile, gifted each other with jewelry. "Bree got me a really nice ring that I still have," Lohan revealed during a press conference. "I got her a good luck charm." Never know when you're going to need one.
Just My Luck is streaming on HBO Max and Hulu.