So I saw Meg Cabot speak when she came to St. Louis and I did not do anything like fall flat on my face or embarrass myself horribly (a miracle, considering that the writer I wanted to grow up to be was Meg Cabot). But more importantly, she talked about The Princess Diaries, and I learned several things:

• the movie was being made before the book was published, which she said was very weird for her
• Whitney Houston’s production company was the one that made it, so apparently both Meg Cabot and Anne Hathaway really could regard Whitney Houston as their fairy godmother
• the reason Mia’s father is dead in the movie (he’s alive in the books) is because the original draft of the movie didn’t have that many lines for Mia’s Grandmère. When the production company approached Meg Cabot about this, they said “Julie Andrews wants the part, but she’d like more lines so we think we would have to kill Mia’s father and–” “YES KILL HIM KILL HIM DEAD.”
  
• Which I feel is the only proper reaction to that.
• Also according to Meg Cabot, Anne Hathaway is a sweetheart.