How Clark Gable, Meg Cabot, and Bachelor in Paradise inspired Maureen Lee Lenker's It Happened One Fight

Maureen Lee Lenker's first novel may be set in the 1930s — but she found inspiration in pop culture of every decade.

Lenker, currently an EW senior writer, makes her fiction debut with It Happened One Fight, a delightfully fizzy romance set in 1930s Hollywood. The book centers on longtime costars Joan Davis and Dash Howard, whose sizzling onscreen chemistry is only outclassed by their offscreen bickering. Joan is ready to finally take charge of her career and distance herself from Dash, only to realize that — thanks to one of Dash's on-set pranks gone wrong — the two are now considered legally married.

The two actors agree to star in one final film together, shifting the production to Reno, Nev., where divorce is legal after six weeks. But first, Joan and Dash have to make it through filming together — and the nagging suspicion that this fake marriage might be built on something real.

JENIFER PRINCE/SOURCEBOOKS CASABLANCA 'It Happened One Fight' by Maureen Lee Lenker

Lenker, who started at EW in 2017 as an intern, built her career covering classic films, Hollywood drama, and swoon-worthy romance novels. So, it's no surprise that her debut is a delightful mix of all of the above. With It Happened One Night hitting shelves on July 11, Lenker breaks down a few of the films, actors, and real-life Tinseltown gossip that helped inspire her novel.

Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder in Bram Stoker's Dracula

Everett Collection Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder in 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'

The original inspiration for It Happened One Fight wasn't a 1930s film, but a project released decades later: Bram Stoker's Dracula, starring Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder. In 2018, Lenker interviewed Reeves and Ryder about their rom-com Destination Wedding, where Ryder told her that she and Reeves might have accidentally gotten married on the set of Dracula in 1992. As Ryder explained, director Francis Ford Coppola recruited a real Romanian priest to officiate their wedding scene, which means that Reeves and Ryder might be legally united in matrimony.

"As soon as I got off the phone, I was racing to my computer, like, 'I have to write this up right now because this is going to break the internet,'" Lenker recalls with a laugh. "And it did! But the idea that someone could be accidentally married for real on set is so fun. It defies reason, but it's actually possible."

Years later, Lenker couldn't stop thinking about Ryder's revelation, and the idea of two actors accidentally marrying on set helped spark her plot. The result, she says, is a story that's essentially "Keanu and Winona, but enemies to lovers in the golden age of Hollywood."

It Happened One Night

Everett Collection Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in 'It Happened One Night'

The book's title, of course, pays homage to one of the most iconic screwball rom-coms of all time: It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. The influential 1934 flick inspired every rom-com to come afterward, setting the tone for every banter-filled, enemies-to-lovers arc since.

"It's around a tight 90 minutes, but it's so charming," Lenker says. "I mean, that movie was released in 1934, and that's only a handful of years after we introduced sound to the movies. But it's so sophisticated and so advanced in terms of filmmaking techniques."

There are nods to the film throughout the book (including that iconic "Walls of Jericho" scene, where Gable hangs a blanket between two separate beds). But perhaps the biggest influence was Gable himself, who helped inspired the book's suave leading man Dash Howard. Lenker says her heroine, Joan Davis, is an amalgamation of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, but Dash is pure Gable, and she pored over Gable biographies for inspiration. In the end, she drew from the actor's persona both on and off screen, from his suave performances in films like Gone With the Wind and Too Hot to Handle to his real-life penchant for mischief.

"He loved to play pranks on set, which was something I didn't really know about him," Lenker adds. "It's very George Clooney-esque. My book opens with an incident in which there's a skunk in a dressing room, and it's had its sprayer removed. Apparently, Clark Gable really did put a skunk in some Hollywood executive's office!"

Meg Cabot

Everett Collection Anne Hathaway in 'The Princess Diaries'

Outside of film, Lenker is a devoted romance reader, and she cites Meg Cabot as the author who first inspired her to write. Cabot is best known for penning hits like The Princess Diaries, The Mediator series, and All-American Girl, and Lenker says Cabot's distinct tone helped inspire some of Joan and Dash's banter.

"I started reading her books when I was like 11 or 12 years old," Lenker says. "That was the first time I read something that voicey, but in a voice that felt like it could be my own. One of the very earliest novels I attempted to write was definitely me just doing my best Meg Cabot impression because I was so in love with her style and her tone. I hope this book has some of that same humor and romanticism because she was definitely a huge inspiration."

Turner Classic Movies

Everett Collection Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney in 'Merrily We Go to Hell'

Lenker calls the beloved TV channel her "first film school." As a kid who wasn't allowed to watch PG-13 or R-rated movies until well into her teens, she grew up binging black-and-white classics on TCM. As an adult, she's become a particular fan of the network's deep library and passion for film history.

"It really laid the groundwork," Lenker adds. "There are so many stars I've learned about or people I've gotten a more nuanced perspective on from watching the network, even in passing or having it on in the background. I can't speak highly enough of all they do for film history and making people curious about things that they might not know. I put a lot of Easter eggs in [the book] that I imagine devoted viewers of TCM might be tickled by."

In fact, Lenker found inspiration in one particular TCM presentation: A few years ago, she attended a screening of pre-Code classic Merrily We Go to Hell at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles. There, she learned that the actor who plays the minister in that film, Neal Dodd, was a real-life reverend who married countless couples on and off screen.

"I'd kind of been thinking, 'Oh, it would be great to set this book in the golden age of Hollywood,'" she explains. "And that was sort of the last piece of the puzzle."

Patti Murin (and Bachelor in Paradise)

Deen van Meer Patti Murin in Broadway's 'Frozen'

Lenker's final inspiration didn't technically influence the writing process, but it still played a key role in bringing It Happened One Fight to shelves. Actress Patti Murin, who originated the role of Anna in Broadway's Frozen, reads the audiobook version, bringing Joan and Dash's playful banter to life.

Lenker explains that she and Murin struck up an online friendship years ago, bonding over their shared love of Bachelor in Paradise. So, the author was thrilled when Murin, a real-life Disney princess, reached out and offered to record the audiobook. "My first introduction to romance was Beauty and the Beast and wanting someone to give me a library," Lenker says with a laugh. "And Patti has played Belle, so that's fitting."

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