Trivia for
Notting Hill (1999) More at IMDbPro »

• The house with the blue door where William lives is real; it once belonged to Notting Hill screenwriter Richard Curtis.
  
  
• During the birthday dinner scene, Anna Scott is asked how much she made on her last film, and her reply is $15 million. This is the amount she (Julia Roberts) was paid for her role in Notting Hill (1999).
  
  
• Despite Thacker's protestations, it seems that his store does *not* just sell travel books. On the shelf in the background (visible clearly in a later scene where he is receiving the gift from Anna), there is a copy of Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels by Roger Sabin. (It's a big orange hardcover.)
  
  
• The book William reads as he sits on the park bench at the end of the movie is "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" by Louis de Bernières. Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001) was to be director Roger Michell's next film after Notting Hill (1999), but he became seriously ill and had to be replaced by John Madden.
  
  
• The blue door was auctioned at Christie's Film and Entertainment sale in London. Soon after, graffiti appeared on a wall close by saying something along the lines of "R.I.P. blue door" next to the new door. The original blue door is now on a property in Hope Cove, Devon.
  
  
• The house with the blue door used in the movie was sold the year following the release of the movie. The original blue door was removed and auctioned. The replacement door was painted black so that no one would recognize it. Soon however, someone later spray painted on the wall next to the door, "This is the Hollywood door." A different house was used when Thacker and Anna are practicing her lines on the roof.
  
  
• Thacker's bookshop is actually an antiques shop in real life, next to a butcher. One or two doors down from the butchers is an office for Richard Curtis' production company.
  
  
• The real Travel Bookshop had a sign in its window saying "We're almost famous." It would sell non-travel books when it fitted in with a theme. For example, selling Martin Amis's "London Fields" when doing a Notting Hill theme.
  
  
• Omid Djalili plays the Cashier at the Coffee Shop (uncredited) - he was filming The Mummy (1999) at the same time at the same studios so was conscripted to fill in the part, very conveniently. (Blink and you could miss him serving Hugh Grant the orange juice that he soon spills on 'Julia Roberts'.)
  
  
• The fictional Anna Scott/Matthew Modine film William and Spike are watching, described by Spike as a classic, is called Gramercy Park, after the in style New York City neighborhood.
  
  
• The rooftop scene in which William and Anna practice her lines for the submarine movie was shortened and edited to remove some swearing from Anna that would have precluded a PG 13 rating. The extended scene is on the DVD.
  
  
• The Marc Chagall painting featured in the movie, and eventually given to William by Anna, is entitled "La Mariée" ("The Bride") and depicts a young bride (and a violin-playing goat).
  
  
• As he explains in the published screenplay, in Richard Curtis's original conception of the story, Honey (Emma Chambers) was a worker in the record store across from his bookshop and Anna's romantic rival for his affections. The film would have ended with William choosing her over the fantasy that Anna represented. Curtis decided that he could not just dismiss Anna, however, and so he made Honey into William's sister instead.
  
  
• David Threlfall was seen for a part for this project
  
  
• Most of Ann Beach's part was deleted.
  
  
• Art Malik was offered a major role.
  
  
• The bit where Anna Scott tells off the diners in the restaurant was not in the script.
  
  
• Director Roger Michell and writer Richard Curtis both said Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts were the first choices for the roles of William Thacker and Anna Scott.
  
  
• Many of the shots of Julia Roberts used in the opening credits came from the show "Entertainment Tonight" (1981).
  
  
• The shots in the lobby of the Ritz were actually filmed at the Ritz, but between 2AM and 4AM so as not to be affected by the real guests.
  
  
• The park bench used in this film now 'lives' in Queens Gardens in East Perth, Western Australia. A local Perth resident anonymously donated the bench to the City of Perth and it now *really does* live in a beautiful garden that is locked at night.
  
  
• There is some stained glass in the film which features the likeness of MTV characters, Beavis and Butt-Head.
  
  
• The long shot where William Thacker walks through Notting Hill during summer, fall, winter, and spring was actually four different shots, all filmed the same day. Computer technology morphed Hugh Grant seamlessly from one shot to the next.
  
  
• Comedian Sally Phillips had a small role as a dog walker, but it was cut from the final film.
  
  

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