Ernst Lubitsch coined the term “meet cute”
I was looking up tropes to play with and stumbled on this tidbit. Apparently Ernst Lubitsch coined the term “meet cute”!
Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert meet at the men’s pajamas counter of a department store. Colbert likes to sleep in a man’s pajama top but doesn’t wear the bottoms, so she wants to buy only a top. Cooper sleeps in pajama bottoms and doesn’t want to buy a top. Since the store sells pajamas only as top and bottom sets, it’s inevitable that she and he will choose a pair they both like. This movie was directed by European-born Hollywood director Ernst Lubitsch, who inadvertently invented the term “meet cute” because he had difficulty speaking English.