In the beginning of the movie, Viktor Taransky (
Al Pacino) is removing all the red candies from a bowl of assorted colored candies. He subsequently has a heated conversation with
Winona Ryder's character, and it's revealed that this demanding actress's contract specifies that in addition to having the largest trailer on the studio set, she must always be provided with these candies with the red ones removed. This is an obvious reference to a famous 1982 contract rider for the rock group
Van Halen, who required that at each concert they be provided with specific foods and drinks including a bowl of M&Ms with all the brown ones removed. (It should be noted that this unusual request wasn't itself important. Rather, Van Halen's crew used the presence or absence of brown M&Ms as an obvious "red flag" indicating whether the remainder of Van Halen's requests would be honored. If the brown M&Ms were absent, Van Halen's group could be reasonably sure that their requests for towels, ice, yogurt, etc. would also be honored.)
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