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Orange Is The New Black facts to mark the release of Season 3

Orange Is The New Black facts to mark the release of Season 3

Bodybuilders. Lesbians. Crime. This show has it all. Happy binge watching.

(Picture: Getty)

Piper Kerman, who wrote the prison memoir Orange Is The New Black is based on, did not have many complaints about the TV adaptation of her work. But series creator Jenji Kohan said Kerman, pictured above with the actress who plays her, Taylor Schilling, did have one note to feedback - she felt the prison guards “weren’t big enough aholes”.**

Taylor Schilling drew on her father’s experience as a district attorney to prepare for the role of Piper. “I was always hearing stories about prisoners and prison guards”, she told Vulture. “ It wasn’t that foreign to me that correctional officers are not always on their best behaviour.”

Larry really did write a New York Times column about his and Piper’s relationship while she was in prison. You can read it here.

The real-life inspiration for the character Alex was Piper's ex-lover Catherine Cleary Wolters. Unlike in the show, Wolters said she and Piper only spent five weeks in the same prison, telling Vanity Fair: “We did not have sex in prison. Not even a little bit.” Wolters is now working on her own memoir, Out of Orange.

Laura Prepon, who plays Alex, originally auditioned for the role of Piper. Prepon is a scientologist who has been linked to Tom Cruise.


The faces in the opening credits are of real former female prisoners. Regina Spektor wrote the song 'You've Got Time' especially for the series.

Series creator Kohan managed to sneak in an American Pie reference into this scene with Jason Biggs.


Actress Taryn Manning has fake rot painted on her teeth to play meth user Pennsatucky.

(Picture: Getty)

Matt McGorry, who plays guard Officer Bennett, used to be a bodybuilder. You can see video evidence of this here.

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