You've Got Mail
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Continuity mistake: In one of the early scenes where Joe Fox and his girlfriend are having breakfast, Joe's orange juice carton moves around the table by itself. Joe's glass seems to refill itself in an instance without any juice leaving the carton and when Patricia throws a newspaper on the table, Joe is holding his glass in his right hand; in the next shot it's in his left. At one point Joe puts the glass down on the table and in the next shot picks it up from the top of his newspaper. (00:04:35)

Continuity mistake: When Meg Ryan's boyfriend is showing her his new typewriter, the amount of paper fed into the typewriter changes between shots. From far away about a quarter of the paper is fed through, but when the shot closes half the paper is fed through, the shot widens again and only a quarter is fed through. (00:19:10)

ACertainShadeofGreen

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Continuity mistake: Tom hands the little girl a red ring to toss on the bottles and you see a green one land (different colour ring leaves her hand and lands on the bottle). The rings keep changing colour throughout the scene. (00:21:57)

Continuity mistake: When Joe takes his aunt and brother to The Shop Around the Corner, Joe is holding two bags of water, each with a goldfish in it (from the carnival) However, in the book store, George asks who belongs to the fish, but there is only one bag with one fish. None of the other characters are holding a fish. What happened to the other fish? On the way out of the book store, Joe has two fish again. (00:23:50 - 00:29:15)

Continuity mistake: When Kathleen and Frank are walking to the party where she meets Joe Fox, they are wearing coats because it is the fall. When they get to the party in an apartment, they don't have any coats on. Where did they go? (00:32:40)

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Continuity mistake: In the dinner party scene where Meg discovers who Tom really is, they are seen walking around a buffet table filling their plates with food. The food on Tom's plate changes in quantity and placement of items on the plate from scene to scene. (00:33:50)

Continuity mistake: When Meg Ryan is waiting to meet her online friend (Tom Hanks), she has a book and a rose to identify herself. As time goes by, she puts the rose in the book. The camera cuts away from her, when it returns to her the rose is sitting on top of the book. (00:59:45)

Continuity mistake: When Tom Hanks meets Meg Ryan in the coffee shop, while she's waiting for her e-mail friend, Tom takes off his overcoat, but in the next shot he takes it off again. (01:00:37)

Continuity mistake: When Meg Ryan is waiting to meet her online friend (Tom Hanks), Tom picks up the rose and puts it in his mouth, but when the camera cuts to a view behind him he is just spinning it. (01:01:40)

Continuity mistake: When Kathleen is waiting for NY152 in the coffee shop, she arranges the book with the flower on top so that it can be easily seen by anyone entering the store. However, the rose starts to fall, so she places it inside the book and turns the book sideways. However, after Joe enters in the very next shot, the rose is on top of the book, (facing the wrong way) which she proceeds to picks up to hide her face. (01:02:25)

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Continuity mistake: When Tom Hanks is agitated over how to explain his absence at the Cafe Lola, he paces back and forth while looking at his computer. When there is a close-up shot of the computer, we see his chair is right in front of it. But when he returns to sit down, the chair is way off to the side of the screen. (01:13:20)

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Continuity mistake: When Joe is on the yacht talking to his father, Joe is mixing up martinis, pours them, and adds an onion to one, and then an olive to the other. The camera cuts away to his father and then cuts back and now the second martini has no olive, so Joe adds an olive again. (01:30:11)

Continuity mistake: When Tom Hanks is going to see Meg Ryan at her place, she puts her robe on and ties it to her right side. When she is trying to escort him out, it is tied to her left side. (01:32:55)

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Continuity mistake: When Joe goes to Kathleen's house when she's sick, there are used Kleenexes in front of the box on the right side of the table and the fruit basket. Joe is in the kitchen making tea, but when he comes into the room, it shows the table again and the Kleenexes are gone. The runner on the table is also suddenly bunched up, despite no-one going near it. (01:38:40)

Continuity mistake: When Joe and Kathleen are eating at an outdoor cafe, the shot of the whole cafe shows it to be extremely windy, but the very next shot of them close up, there is no wind at all. (01:41:40)

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Continuity mistake: After Kathleen (Meg Ryan) and Joe (Tom Hanks) talked about what it would have been like if they hadn't been enemies in the book business, Kathleen says she has to go and heads off to her apartment. During this time, the camera switches back and forth between Joe and Kathleen. Kathleen's right sweater sleeve cuff is by her wrist in one shot and rolled up by her elbow in the next. In the next shot it goes back down again. (01:47:20)

Continuity mistake: At the very end when Joe and Kathleen start to kiss, in the close up of the kiss, you can see a patio umbrella (like at an outdoor cafe) being opened in the background. The next shot we see Joe and Kathleen from far away, and the camera pans up to the sky. If you look in the background during the pan, you can see the umbrella being opened again. (01:54:30)

Continuity mistake: When Joe Fox is thinking about going online (the scene where he is going in circles), the laptop is in the middle of the desk. However, in the over the shoulder shot, when he logs on the laptop is at the edge of the desk. This occurs several times in this scene.

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Continuity mistake: When Joe is on the yacht talking to his father, Joe is mixing up martinis, pours them, and adds an onion to one, and then an olive to the other. The camera cuts away to his father and then cuts back and now the second martini has no olive, so Joe adds an olive again. (01:30:11)

More mistakes in You've Got Mail

Kathleen Kelly: You poor, sad, multimillionaire. I feel so sorry for you.

More quotes from You've Got Mail
More trivia for You've Got Mail

Question: What song are Meg Ryan and her co-workers singing around the piano and does anyone know where I can find the words online?

Answer: The name of the song is "The Instrument Song" and you can get the lyrics here.

Garlonuss

More questions & answers from You've Got Mail

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