At the time of the film's theatrical debut, the phone number featured on Walter's television show (1 800 BET ON IT) was the number of an actual sports advice service.
Rene Russo's husband, Dan Gilroy, wrote the part of Al Pacino's wife Toni especially for Russo and tailored it to fit her perfectly. He even used Russo's real-life sister's name Toni as the name of the character.
One of the movie's producers, David C. Robinson (the son of the owner of the studio that made the movie), and his wife, Susan Ward, appear in non-speaking, uncredited cameos in the movie's opening scenes.
The film was based on the true story of Brandon Link who used the alias Mike Anthony. In the movie his names were changed to Brandon Lang and John Anthony. The real Brandon Link had a non-credited cameo appearance as "Man Greeting Brandon #1"