48 Fun Facts About Notting Hill

What kind of shop does William Thacker run?

A travel bookshop: the real one that inspired it stood round the corner in Blenheim Crescent, but the film shot its shopfront at an antiques arcade on Portobello Road.

What is the name of the Hollywood star played by Julia Roberts?

Anna Scott nearly went unplayed by Julia Roberts, who has said the pitch sounded awful and that she did not want the part until she met the film-makers and read the script.

What does Will spill on Anna when they collide on the street?

Orange juice was his colleague Martin's order, and the spill is what gets Anna into Will's house across the road, where she changes and, on leaving, kisses him.

Which magazine does Will claim to write for when he is mistaken for a journalist at the Ritz?

Horse & Hound has Will asking Anna whether her film might have had more horses in it, which she says was difficult, as it is set in space.

Whose birthday party does Anna attend as Will's date?

His sister Honey's welcome is the warmest of the night: she tells Anna that she adores her and has long believed the two of them could be best friends.

According to Will, his ex-wife left him for a man who resembles which actor?

Harrison Ford's double gets the blame in Will's opening narration; asked later by Anna why his wife left, he says simply that she saw through him.

Which artist painted La Mariée, the picture Will has as a print and Anna later gives him as the original?

Marc Chagall's picture, Anna says, feels like how love should be; she later brings the original to Will's shop as a gift, and he still turns her down.

According to Anna, 'happiness isn't happiness without' what, as shown in the painting on Will's wall?

A violin-playing goat is Will's own observation: when Anna says the picture feels like how love should be, he points out the animal and she agrees.

Who inadvertently tips off the paparazzi, leading to the photos on Will's doorstep?

Anna blames Will and storms out, and several seasons pass before she returns.

When Anna returns to London, she is making a film based on a novel by which author, on Will's suggestion?

Henry James comes up while Will helps Anna rehearse an action script, which he calls gripping but no classic; months later he finds her in costume on a period film set.

What does Spike call Will that finally makes him change his mind and chase after Anna?

A daft prick is his flatmate's instant verdict on hearing that Will has turned Anna down, and Will uses the same words about himself at her press conference.

At which hotel is Anna's final press conference held?

The Savoy comes as a tip from a hotel concierge, who tells Will that the guest he wants has checked out and is meeting the press there before flying home to America.

In Notting Hill, what is Anna's one-word answer when asked again how long she will stay in Britain?

Indefinitely reverses the answer given minutes earlier, when the room was told that Anna was leaving Britain that very night.

Which restaurant patron, played by Sanjeev Bhaskar in a cameo, does Anna calmly humiliate?

A man disparaging actresses within earshot gets a hesitant telling-off from Will first; Anna then walks over herself and coolly cuts his whole table down to size.

Which comedian has an uncredited cameo as the cashier who serves Will just before he collides with Anna?

Omid Djalili has joked that film-makers kept casting him as Middle Eastern rogues, such as the prison warden in The Mummy; here he is simply the man at a London till.

In Notting Hill, Anna says she is 'just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to' do what?

Love her, she says, after Will has turned her down in his shop; he tells his friends it was the sensible choice, then races across London to take it back.

Which Four Weddings and a Funeral director turned down the chance to direct Notting Hill?

Mike Newell had made the same writer's Four Weddings five years earlier; his refusal handed the job to Roger Michell, until then known for stage work and a BBC Persuasion.

Which American actor makes an uncredited appearance as Anna's film-star boyfriend, Jeff?

Alec Baldwin spent a single day on the London set and took no credit; in his memoir he wrote that the appeal was breathing the same air as Julia Roberts.

Keziah, one of the blind dates Will's friends arrange for him, announces that she follows which diet?

Fruitarian, she explains, means eating only what has already fallen from the tree or bush, which leaves Will asking about the carrots and hearing that they were murdered.

Which cartoon surname, Anna's hotel alias, finally gets Will put through to her room at the Ritz?

Flintstone only surfaces because Will's flatmate belatedly recalls the name she left with her message; Anna explains that she always checks in under a cartoon character's name.

According to Hugh Grant, Notting Hill was inspired by a friend of the writer's who met a celebrity in which shop?

Harrods is where, by Hugh Grant's account, an ordinary man met a very famous woman and took her home to Notting Hill; Grant says the writer let it slip when drunk and will not admit it.

Which Charles Aznavour song opens Notting Hill and, in Elvis Costello's version, closes it?

She plays in Aznavour's own voice only outside America: US test audiences did not respond to it, so Elvis Costello's cover was used at both ends of the film there.

Which Boyzone singer's cover of 'When You Say Nothing at All' from the Notting Hill soundtrack reached UK number one?

Ronan Keating cut the song for the film while still in Boyzone; released as his first solo single, it topped the UK chart for two weeks and launched his career outside the group.

Which Bill Withers song plays as Will strides down Portobello Road through the changing seasons?

Ain't No Sunshine begins as Anna walks out after the press find her at Will's door, and the single walk it accompanies stands in for the months he spends missing her.

Which Britpop band recorded 'Born to Cry' for the European edition of the Notting Hill soundtrack?

Pulp recorded Born to Cry in Sheffield in late 1998, yet the song is never heard in the film itself and was left off the American edition of the album.

What does Will blurt out when he fails to climb the railings of a private garden?

Whoopsidaisies earns Will a ribbing from Anna, who says nobody has used the word for fifty years, and then only little girls with blonde ringlets; he promptly says it again.

Which blockbuster, in its second weekend, kept Notting Hill off the top of the US box office?

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace dwarfed it over the Memorial Day holiday, yet Notting Hill's $27.7 million four-day start was still the strongest opening a romantic comedy had had.

What is the title of the science-fiction film Anna is promoting when Will is ushered into her press junket?

Helix is the space adventure whose cast Will must interview while posing as a journalist; he is reduced to asking its leading man whether he enjoyed making the film.

During its 1999 run, Notting Hill took which record from Four Weddings and a Funeral?

Highest-grossing British film ever applied to worldwide takings only: at British cinemas The Full Monty's £52 million still dwarfed Notting Hill's roughly £30 million.

Notting Hill's three Golden Globe nominations were for Best Comedy or Musical, Julia Roberts and which other actor?

Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts both lost on the night, as did the film, while Rhys Ifans's nomination came from BAFTA instead, for playing Will's flatmate.

Which Marvel villain did Rhys Ifans go on to play in The Amazing Spider-Man?

The Lizard is the alter ego of Dr Curt Connors, a scientist with a missing arm who tries his own limb-regrowing formula on himself.

Rhys Ifans was once frontman of which Welsh band?

Super Furry Animals had Ifans on lead vocals in an early line-up, but he left before they released a record as his acting took off, and Gruff Rhys took over.

Emma Chambers, who plays Honey, is best known as Alice Tinker in which sitcom?

The Vicar of Dibley made her name; in Notting Hill her Honey announces that she has decided to get engaged, and only then tells the groom-to-be that it is him.

Hugh Bonneville, who plays Bernie, later found fame as the Earl of Grantham in which series?

Downton Abbey made Bonneville a star a decade on; in Notting Hill his stockbroker Bernie is the one friend who fails to recognise Anna and pities her for an actor's wages.

Tim McInnerny, who plays Max, played Lord Percy and Captain Darling in which comedy series?

Blackadder's McInnerny takes the wheel here: as Max he drives the friends' dash across London, first lifting his wife from her wheelchair into the car rather than leave her behind.

What colour is the front door of Will's flat, which was later sold at auction for charity?

Blue it did not stay: the original door was auctioned for charity, the replacement was painted black to deter sightseers, and it has since been repainted for the fans.

Notting Hill's writer, Richard Curtis, co-founded which British charity with Lenny Henry?

Comic Relief was set up in 1985 in response to famine in Ethiopia, and Notting Hill's own London premiere was a benefit for it.

On which day of the week does the full Portobello Road Market, including its antiques section, open?

Saturday is the one day every section of the market trades; the road takes its name, by way of an old farm, from Porto Bello, the Spanish port Admiral Vernon captured in 1739.

The Notting Hill Carnival takes place over which weekend each year?

The August bank holiday weekend puts children first: Sunday is the families' day, with the main adult parade held back until the Monday.

At a dinner party, Max offers which prize to the guest with the saddest life story?

The last brownie looks like Will's until Anna enters a claim of her own, citing a diet begun at nineteen and a run of unkind boyfriends, and is cheerfully turned down.

Which future star of The O.C. appears as the child actress Will 'interviews' at the Ritz?

Mischa Barton's character puts Will in his place: asked whether this is her first film, the child replies that it is her twenty-second.

Notting Hill's production designer, Stuart Craig, went on to spend a decade designing which fantasy film series?

Harry Potter kept Craig busy for all eight films, for which he built Hogwarts; Notting Hill, two years earlier, was a rare contemporary job for a designer of period epics.

Where did Notting Hill have its premiere on 27 April 1999?

The Odeon Leicester Square hosted the real charity premiere, with both stars present; the premiere inside the film was staged at the square's Empire cinema at 24 hours' notice.

Notting Hill has been likened to a 1990s London version of which 1953 film?

Roman Holiday pairs a princess with a reporter, yet the writer Richard Curtis says he had not seen it when Julia Roberts's agent praised his script as a tribute to it.

Which Rodgers and Hart standard do Tony and Bernie play on the piano the night Tony's restaurant closes?

Blue Moon is the friends' send-off for Tony's failed restaurant, sung round the piano on the night Will declares he has turned a corner and intends to be impressively happy.

Showing Anna out of his flat for the first time, Will tells her the meeting was 'surreal but' what?

Nice was a word Will regretted at once, groaning over the line as soon as she had gone; Anna quotes it back to him when they part at the Ritz.

Which British production company, also behind Four Weddings and a Funeral, made Notting Hill?

Working Title Films belonged to PolyGram, which Seagram, the owner of Universal, had just bought; that is how Notting Hill came to be released in American cinemas by Universal.

The district of Notting Hill lies in which London borough?

Kensington and Chelsea's Notting Hill was not always smart: in the 1950s it was an area of cheap, run-down lodgings and the scene of notorious race riots.