A minor earns promotion for pointing out that there is no reason why Tony Blair should not be black. England has lots of blacks, he says, and if it doesn't have a black Prime Minister perhaps it should have. Nicolas Cage offers to play Blair in blackface. Various cosmetics are tested, as well as the option of changing Cage's skin colour after the film's completion, by computer-morphing. However, in the end, it is decided that a black Nicolas Cage might invite ridicule and lower the film's tone, so Eddie Murphy is drafted in to replace him.
Cage sues the studio.
More executives are fired. Eddie Murphy says he is tired of playing comedy roles and hopes his performance, as 'the President of England' will showcase his talent for dramatic roles. Following her break-up with Danny DeVito, Patsy Kensit quits the film. This poses almost insuperable problems for the producers, who had enlarged her role considerably. A script doctor called Jared Fleisch, best known for his work on ER and other medical dramas, is called in.