ANOTHER SCREEN ICON, Tony Curtis, is having a great time on the road this summer in the stage musical version of his classic 1959 hit, "Some Like It Hot."  The show - Tony's stage debut - is cleaning up, and Curtis will probably reap more money from this venture than from all his movie work combined. In the film, Tony played one of two musicians on the lam, trying to avoid gangsters by joining an all-girl band in drag (Jack Lemmon was his partner in cross-dressing). On stage, he takes the Joe E. Brown role of the eccentric millionaire Osgood Fielding. This means Tony gets to utter one of the great lines of all time, "Nobody's perfect," when he discovers the "woman" he's hot for is really a man. The show, now in Dallas, is booked cross- country for a year; it opens at Wolf Trap in Washington, D.C., Aug. 27.

     Tony is a man of emotional extremes - he can go from boasting egocentrically to literally bursting into tears when recalling a good review (I saw this happen in a recent A&E "Biography" on Tony). He says of this new experience, "I'm having an excellent time. I sing - or what I think is singing - and dance. It is all really pleasant for me. In a strange way, it is very moving to me to revisit this material so many years later. I listen to the dialogue, and I can hear Jack's voice and Marilyn's voice. It's lovely."

     Speaking of Marilyn Monroe, don't get Tony started on the infamous "kissing her was like kissing Hitler" remark. He is violent in his denial of this slur, claiming it was the studio trying to discredit Marilyn because she was so troublesome - late, distracted, etc. - during production. With great emphasis, he says: "It so offends me."

     Monroe herself did believe Tony said it - she referred to the remark, but not Tony by name, in her final interview - so if he didn't, it is truly unfortunate. Let's give Tony, a vigorous 77-year-old survivor of Hollywood's glitter years, the benefit of the doubt.
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.