Trailer
Plot summary
Yvonne Biasi waits tables at a diner in New York City and is newly bankrupt: her estranged husband Eddie used her credit card for $12,000, and a court held her responsible for the full amount. Charlie Lang is a police officer who lives in Queens, generous with everyone but married to Muriel, who works in a hair salon and never stops complaining about money. Unable to leave a tip one evening, Charlie offers Yvonne double the next day or half of his lottery ticket's winnings. The ticket wins $4 million. Charlie keeps his promise and shares the prize, and Muriel wants the whole fortune for herself.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about It Could Happen to You (1994)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The premise came from a real 1984 tip in Yonkers, New York: a police officer who was a regular at a pizzeria suggested he and the waitress split a lottery ticket instead of him leaving a tip, each choosing three of the six numbers. It won a $6 million prize and he honored the verbal deal, splitting it evenly.
- Because everything past that premise was invented, the two real people behind it never had to authorise the film and collected no royalties from it. The closing credits carry a disclaimer noting that both were happily married to their own spouses at the time of production.
- The diner where Bridget Fonda's Yvonne waits tables was not a real one: the crew built it in a parking lot at N. Moore Street and West Broadway in Tribeca. While it was shooting there the picture was still called "Cop Gives Waitress Million Dollar Tip".
