To help Hathaway feel more comfortable on set, many of its props belonged to the actress' family. Mia's photograph of her late father is a photograph of Hathaway's own father, Gerald Hathaway. Gerald also briefly portrays the character during a flashback sequence in which he writes a letter to Mia. Mia's pet cat Fat Louie was portrayed by four different cats, one of whom was owned by Hathaway herself. Each cat served a different purpose: one was meant to be carried, another sat still for extended periods of time, a third was used for jumping and stunts, and the final (Hathaway's) is featured during the film's final scene. During the state dinner in which a guest's arm catches fire, the fire was intended to be extinguished once the actor placed his arm in a nearby ice bucket. However, when the fire persisted, Hathaway panicked and doused it with a glass of water, an improvisation that was kept in the film. Hathaway tripped and fell while filming a scene in which she is walking atop bleachers during the rain, but continued to recite her lines as though nothing had happened. Marshall found the unscripted incident funny and decided to retain it. Matarazzo, who had been filming the scene with Hathaway, identified this moment as "a testament to the kind of person that she is, not just professionally but personally… You fall, you laugh, and you keep going". She also identified this as her favorite moment while filming. While filming the final dance sequence, the crew played Madonna's "Like a Prayer" (1989) for the cast to dance to; multiple takes were required because the cast kept instinctively lip syncing its lyrics. The track was dubbed by a different song in the final edit.