HOLLYWOOD -- Richard Curtis, the British screenwriter for "Four Weddings and a Funeral," has had a persistent fantasy for years.
"I used to drive across the bridge to Battersea to have dinner with my friends and I would always think, 'What would happen if I turned up with the most famous woman in the world -- say Princess Di or Madonna or someone like that?' " said Curtis, who is 42. "One of my friends would have screamed and enjoyed every moment of it; one would pretend not to be affected, and the third would have no idea who these women were."He continued, "It was, of course, sort of a fairy-tale scenario."
Out of this fantasy, Curtis wrote "Notting Hill," a romantic comedy in which Julia Roberts stars as a movie star (not much of a stretch) who meets a bookshop owner, played by Hugh Grant, in the Notting Hill section of London. Despite their differences, the two have a romance.
"The fame thing isn't real, you know," says the Roberts character.
A reverse Cinderella story, the film, directed by Roger Michell ("Persuasion"), is scheduled to open Friday.
Although not a sequel to the highly successful "Four Weddings and a Funeral," the new film has a similar pedigree. It reassembles a team with Grant, who starred in "Four Weddings," Curtis, and Duncan Kenworthy, who produced the movie.
Curtis said he had been working on the script off and on for five years.
"I'm a very slow writer," he said. "It was interrupted by, among other things, the birth of two children as well as this other job I have working for charity."
Curtis is co-founder and vice chairman of British Comic Relief, for which he works four months a year. The organization raises money through comedy performances to help the poor and disabled in Africa and elsewhere.
Curtis said Grant was the actor everyone wanted for the role of the charming bookshop owner. "It was Hugh or someone no one had ever heard of. We couldn't think of anyone else for the part," he said.
Roberts was also the first choice for her role, but the producers were not sure she would accept. The actress read the script and promptly agreed, asking only for a few changes.
"She wanted it a bit funnier," Curtis said. "Julia said we should lighten her character up. She wanted to crack a few jokes about herself."