Born Yesterday

Born Yesterday is a 1993 American romantic comedy about Billie Dawn, a former showgirl whose blunt manners and lack of polish cause trouble in the upper circles of Washington, D.C. Her boyfriend, the wealthy and unscrupulous businessman Harry Brock, is trying to pass off his dealings through respectable channels, and her social blunders threaten to expose him. He hires Paul Verrall, a cultured journalist, to educate her and make her presentable. The arrangement does not go as planned, as Billie takes to the lessons more eagerly than anyone expected and begins to form her own opinions.

The film is directed by Luis Mandoki, its third feature following White Palace in 1990. Douglas McGrath wrote the screenplay, and D. Constantine Conte produced it for Hollywood Pictures and Touchwood Pacific Partners 1. Melanie Griffith plays Billie, with John Goodman as Harry and Don Johnson as Paul, supported by Edward Herrmann, Max Perlich and Michael Ensign among a credited cast of 44. The film was released on March 26, 1993, and runs 100 minutes.

Audience reception was modest: it holds a rating of 5.2 out of 10 from around 4,400 votes on IMDb and 5.3 out of 10 from about 100 votes on TMDB. A critics' rating of 4.1 out of 10 from 28 reviews places it below even those audience scores, and its worldwide box office of 18 million dollars reflects a limited theatrical showing.