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Writer's pictureTony Elvin

Some Like it Hot, with Wine ... for Charity!

Hey folks, thanks for joining us for a real swell party last night, watching a wonderful movie, drinking great wine, dressin' up a little and raisin' money for Cure Leukaemia!


Check out the hot wines we enjoyed below, and where to find them, along with our trivia and gallery. We were delighted to raise £565 on the night.




Our Hot Wines!


Freixenet Brut Royale, Languedoc, France - Tesco £12.50


The Spanish Cava Kings have done it again! After taking the Italian Prosecco world by storm they've now bought some land in Soutern France and created their first French Sparkling wine.


Frothy pearls of bubbles present ripe tropical fruits on the palate thanks to the warm Southern French sun.


Surani 'Pietrariccia' Fiano 2022, Puglia, Italy - Majestic £11.99 or £9.99 as part of a mixed case of six


Sea breezes lower the temperature of these Southern Italian vineyards producing a gentle layer of minerality to this complex white.

Textured and floral this fresh white wine has notes of honey and nuts.


'Men in White Coats' Viognier, Gabb Family Wines, South Africa - Majestic £9.99 or £8.99 as part of a mixed case of six


Elegant, fragrant Viognier, with notes of apricot and white peach. Tony's favourite on the night.


Yalumba 'Galway' Shiraz, Barossa, South Australia - Waitrose £12.99


Sandy soils, some red-clay earth – each adds character. Bright ruby wine aromas of pepper, blackberry, chocolate mocha and vanilla, with hints of liquorice and violets. Savoury, with a gentle sweetness of plums and spice that leads onto soft tannins.


'Carnivor' Zinfandel, Lodi, California, USA - Sainsbury's £11.00


Our favourite wine of the evening. In the central valley of California, warm days, without the cooling Californian coastal fog influence found in Napa produces a bold, juicy, fruity drop.


This Zinfandel is a captivating complement to your favourite red meat, layered with notes of dark cherry, blackberry jam, and perfectly toasted oak.



Our Hot Gallery ..




Some highlights from our Hot Movie Trivia ...


1. When Wilder originally conceived the idea with co-screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond, he originally hoped to cast Frank Sinatra as Jerry/Daphne, the role that went to Jack Lemmon, and Mitzi Gaynor as Sugar, eventually played by Marilyn Monroe. Sinatra apparently lost out on the role after missing a lunch date with Wilder.

2. Al Capone was an inspiration and obvious point of reference for the character of Spats Colombo, the gangster on Joe and Jerry’s heels. Capone gunned down rival gang members in the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day massacre, an incident that is strikingly similar to the events in the film.

3. Monroe’s contract stipulated that all of her films were shot in color, but Wilder convinced her that black and white would be better for “Some Like It Hot” after seeing color screen tests that made Lemmon and Tony Curtis look green and ghastly when in their drag make-up.

4. In order to get comfortable in their costumes, Curtis and Lemmon walked around Goldwyn Studios dressed as women to see how long it would take for them to get noticed. A scene on the train where the duo applies make-up echoes an experience where they used a public mirror and none of the surrounding women complained, convincing them they could fool, or even just pass for women.

5. Curtis and Lemmon hired a male cabaret dancer named Barbette to teach them how to walk in heels. But after a week, Lemmon declined his help after realizing that he wanted to look like a man trying to walk like a woman rather than simply walking like a woman.

6. Curtis proposed that he talk like Cary Grant when playing the “millionaire” role, and Wilder agreed. The results are self-evident in the film, but Grant objected. When he saw the film and Curtis’ impression, he joked, "I don't talk like that."

7. Despite his best efforts, Curtis was unable to maintain the falsetto needed to play Josephine for an extended period of time. As a result, Wilder ended up combining some elements of Curtis’ performance with dubbing by actor Paul Frees to give it the consistency that the film needed.

8. Marilyn Monroe’s problems remembering her lines have grown to epic proportions because she was suffering from alcohol and drug addiction. She apparently required 47 takes to correctly say, “It’s me, Sugar.” In another scene where she asks, “Where’s the whiskey?” Wilder allegedly pasted the dialogue in the bottom of each drawer so she couldn’t miss it. (It still supposedly took 59 tries.)

9. The now-famous closing line, "Nobody's perfect," was originally conceived as a stand-in for whatever Wilder and Diamond could come up with later - which eventually turned out to be nothing. Wilder later wrote his own epitaph inspired by a similar line: "I'm a writer, but then nobody's perfect."

10. Produced outside the Motion Picture Production Code, the film’s story plays not only with the idea of cross-dressing but homosexuality. As a result, the film was banned from being shown in Kansas, and the Roman Catholic Church legion of Decency rated it “Morally Objectionable in Part for All.”

11. 49 years after the release of the movie, a California man found a little black dress in his closet and was shocked to discover that Monroe was once sewn into it for the film. Appraisers for “Antiques Roadshow” determined that the eventual value of the hand-me-down was an estimated $250,000.

12. The first test screening went so badly, they had walkouts. The Studio offered various scenes to reshoot – Wilder refused, said it was a helluva movie and they must’ve shown it in the wrong district. On it's second showing in Westwood LA it got standing ovation so they changed nothing.

13. Curtis was asked why he was more laid back and demure as a woman than Lemmon. He said when Lemon went out like a 20 cent tart they couldn’t both do it so had to underplay the role to compliment Lemmon's performance.

14. Lemmon and Curtis, like us, took their costumes very seriously, they wanted theirs made by Orry-Kelly like Marilyn. Orry-Kelly measured Lemmon in his room, then next door to Curtis and then Monroe. He told Monrose that Curtis had a better ass. Furious, she opened her blouse and said does he have t*ts like these!?

15. American Film Institute ranked this movie no.1 in 100 comedies, Wilder disagreed ‘good but not the best’.

16. You heard the line Some Like it Hot on the beach but in USSR it probably had a more fitting name, it was called 'Only girls are Allowed in Jazz'. More fitting but not better.

17. Monroe was pregnant during the movie and for publicity photos her head was superimposed on to a band member’s body.


Thank you!


We look forward to welcoming you back to another of our events very soon but why not check out our website or sign up to our monthly mailing list to find out about new events first:










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