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New York fashion designer Melanie suddenly finds herself engaged to the city's most eligible bachelor. But Melanie's past holds many secrets, including Jake , the redneck husband she married in high school, who refuses to divorce her. Sophisticated Melanie Carmichael, a rising New York clothing designer suddenly finds herself engaged to the city's most eligible bachelor. She has skeletons in her fashion-filled closet that include Jake - the backwoods husband she married in high school who refuses to divorce her.
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Sweet Home Alabama Quotes to Relive Your First Love
Tap "Sign me up" below to receive our weekly newsletter with updates on movies, TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes podcast and more. Leaving the building, Seo Yi-kyung heads to her fiancé's office in search of answers. The story is a love triangle involving two childhood Alabama sweethearts who married but became estranged, Jake Perry and Melanie Smooter , and Melanie's boyfriend of 8 months, Andrew Hennings .
The coonhound cemetery was on Moore Street in Crawfordville and the bar was located at Heavy's Barbecue near the town. Glass that forms when lightning hits sand, as in the film, is called fulgurite. Katharine Towne was cast as Witherspoon's character's assistant who ultimately ends up marrying the Patrick Dempsey character, but all other scenes were dropped in the final cut.
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She runs away from her wedding to go find Jake, who is on the same beach where, years ago, ten-year-old Jake had told her that he wanted to marry her "so I can kiss you anytime I want." "The Swampers" is a reference to the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. These musicians, who crafted the "Muscle Shoals Sound", were inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1995 for a Lifework Award for Non-Performing Achievement and into the Musicians' Hall of Fame in 2008.
In addition to the original appearance on Second Helping, the song has appeared on numerous Lynyrd Skynyrd compilations and live albums. Jake's glassblowing shop was filmed at an old mill named Starr's Mill, in Fayette County, Georgia. Wynn's Pond in Sharpsburg, Georgia, is the location where Jake lands his plane. The historic homes shown at Melanie's return to Pigeon Creek were shot in Eufaula, Alabama. The streets and storefronts of Crawfordville, Georgia, were used as the backdrop for the Catfish Festival and other downtown scenes.
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Melanie returns to her parents' house where her father walks in with Andrew. Andrew tells her how sorry he is and how he still wants to marry her. They decide to have the wedding in Alabama and Andrew's mother comes down from New York. On her wedding day, as she is walking down the aisle, her lawyer shows up and explains that Jake has signed the divorce papers, but she has not. Melanie decides to not sign the papers, and that she does not want to marry Andrew, because she still loves Jake, which Andrew understands.
At the time, it had the highest September opening weekend, surpassing Rush Hour. For a decade, the film would hold this record until 2012 when Hotel Transylvania took it. By the end of its run in the United States, Sweet Home Alabama grossed over US$130 million, and another US$53,399,006 internationally.
When she becomes engaged to Andrew, the son of the mayor of New York City, Melanie announces that she has to go back home alone to Alabama to tell her parents in person. As the story goes, “Sweet Home Alabama” was originally intended as a response to Neil Young. Melanie Smooter is engaged to the city’s most eligible bachelor, Andrew Hemmings. However, to make their marriage work, Melanie must return to her hometown in Alabama. This is because she needs to end things with Jake, her ex-husband, who refuses to divorce her.
Melanie Carmichael, an up and rising fashion designer in New York, has gotten almost everything she wished for since she was little. She has a great career and the JFK-like fiancée of New York City. But when he proposes to her, she doesn't forget about her family back down South.
The nickname "The Swampers" was coined by producer Denny Cordell during a recording session by singer/songwriter Leon Russell, in reference to the band's "swampy" sound. Jake refuses to divorce her until one night she gets drunk and explains to everyone in the bar that the reason she married Jake was because she was pregnant, and she later had a miscarriage. When she wakes up the next morning, the divorce papers are laying on her bed signed by Jake. The film starts at a beach in Alabama during a thunderstorm with two children chasing each other who kiss but get struck by lightning. Then it goes to present day with Melanie now a successful fashion designer in New York City.
Melanie follows and gets drunk, insults her old school friends, and outs her longtime friend, Bobby Ray. Jake scolds her and takes her home, preventing her from driving drunk, and Melanie wakes to find the signed divorce papers on her bed. The song remains a staple in southern and classic rock, and is arguably the band's signature song.
In May 2006, National Review ranked the song #4 on its list of the 50 greatest conservative rock songs. In 2002, the song inspired the title and plot of the film Sweet Home Alabama. "Sweet Home Alabama" was a major chart hit for a band whose previous singles had "lazily sauntered out into release with no particular intent." The hit led to two television rock show offers that the band declined.
With a reported budget of US$30 million, it was a box office hit, despite the mixed reviews. Melanie visits Jake, who has repeatedly refused to sign divorce papers over the years since she left for New York. After he orders her out of his house, Melanie empties Jake's checking account, hoping to spur him into ending the marriage. Angry, Jake leaves to meet some friends at a local bar without signing the papers.
During Melanie and Andrew's wedding at the Carmichael estate, a lawyer arrives and halts the ceremony. Melanie confesses that she still loves Jake and cancels the wedding. She and Andrew wish each other well, though Kate berates Andrew and insults Melanie, her family, and the entire town, for which Melanie punches her in the face. Melanie finds Jake at the beach planting lightning rods in the sand during a rainstorm to create more glass sculptures. She tells him they are still married, they return to what would have been Melanie and Andrew's reception, and finally, have their first dance as husband and wife.
