as Mia's Flame Justine Wachsberger as Passing Student Andy Umberger as Secret Service Supervisor Kent Shocknek as Contentious Reporter Vera Wang as Herself Conan O'Brien as Himself Joan Rivers as Herself Melissa Rivers as Herself Jay Leno as Himself Forest Whitaker as Narrator Production The film began development in March 1999, when actor Jerry O'Connell sold a screenplay he had written to Regency Enterprises for a six figure sum, with O'Connell also intending to star in the film. Originally to shoot in the summer of that year, the project was pushed back to the spring of 2000 (under the direction of Brian Robbins) to allow O'Connell to film Mission to Mars, and then Rob Thomas was hired to rewrite the script. For unknown reasons, the film was not produced at that time, although O'Connell later received a "story by" credit for the film from the Writers Guild of America. (The film's original producer, Mike Karz, was also credited as a producer in the final print of the film.) Filming began on June 2, 2003 on a budget of $30 million, and continued into July. The film was shot on location in Southern California. For the opening scene, where Samantha descends a red-carpeted stairway, the lobby of the Los Angeles Theatre in Los Angeles was used, while the auditorium of the building was used for a scene where Samantha and James go to see a movie. On-campus scenes were shot at UCLA, and the Huntington Library in San Marino stood in for the exterior of the building in the first scene. Reception Critical response The film received negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives it an 8% approval rating based on reviews from 86 critics, with an average rating of 3.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "First Daughter is a bland and charmless fairy tale that fails to rise above the formula". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 31 out of 100 based on reviews from 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Reviewer Mike McGranaghan pointed out that the film was very similar to that of the concurrently-made film Chasing Liberty, which coincidentally had the working title First Daughter, and which also involved a plot where the President's daughter tried to experience life away from the White House. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times gave the film a negative review and wrote it "Plays more like a nightmare than a