Inquisitor 1232: Bottoms Up! by Charybdis

Not so hard this week, but enjoyable for all that. And a deft handling of the thematic elements, so thanks to Charybdis for this puzzle.
 
The entry at 25a & a jumbling of 1a together lead to the other unclued entries. A commercial association with 13d is illustrated by 7 letters to be highlighted. (I noted the minor asymmetry produced by the unclued 27d and 37d splitting the 6 cells that didn’t quite match 2d.)

I made steady progress, but was a bit held up figuring out the wordplay for 7d (and a couple of others), and also solving 4d and 12a. Quite soon there was enough to feel confident about LEONARD for 25a, and some jumbling of ROSSITER at 1a; there was REGINAL appearing at 23d, but where’s the D? Ah, there it is, followed by PERRIN going up at 8d: The Fall and Rise of REGINALD PERRIN – neat. And then there was DAMP, suitably Rising at 27d, described by ROT RISES as the jumbled entry at 1a. JOAN COLLINS at 13d became obvious – those adverts for some vermouth or other, Martini maybe – but more of that later.

So, still 2d and the mysterious IU at 37d to deal with, and I’ve run out of Leonard Rossiter connections … and then it dawned: ARTURO UI would fit upwards – the full title of Brecht’s play is The Resistible Rise of ARTURO UI, and apparently, LR played the title role in the UK premiere in the late 1960’s. Back to the highlighting … CINZANO is the drink that LR inevitably spilt down JC’s cleavage (nod to Google & Wikipedia) – and so we find it, diagonally up & to the left from the C of Collins.

All rather elegant. Bottoms Up to Charybdis!

Across
No.	Answer	Wordplay
6	ROANS	ROMANS (book) − M(etres) {cross ref.: 9 = STEEDS, horses}
10	ERNEST	ERNE NEST (eyrie, eagle’s nest) − EN (space)
11	TITBIT	TIT (little bird) BIT (took the bait)
12	SUMATRA	SINATRA (Frank) with SIN (moral shortcoming) → SUM (problem)
14	BORE	double definition
15	ET AL	LATE (departed) rev.
17	OEUVRE	[OVERTURE − RT]*
18	DRALON	NO LARD (better than low-fat?) rev.
19	TARN	TAR (sailor) + N(avy)
21	INWRAPS	I(sland) [PRAWNS]*
22	ARNOLD	[ORLANDO − O]* {ref.: Matthew Arnold, British poet, 1822-1888}
24	CAULDS	AULD (old, Scots) in C(entral) S(cotland)
29	STIR	(a)ST(a)IR(e)
30	LEGUME	GUM (stick) in LEE (shelter)
31	BICORN	BIN (container) around COR (homer, Hebrew measure)
32	NYAS	NY (New York, city) AS (like)
33	IN ON	IN(itiati)ON
34	MILORDS	M(illions) + R(and) in [SOLID]*
35	NANDUS	(ira)N AND (together with) US (America)
36	NIRLIE	N(ew) (g)IRLIE (dolly bird)
38	GLENS	G(ood) LENS (camera component)
39	WASTEFUL	WAS TEARFUL (became weepy) − A R(un)
Down
No.	Answer	Wordplay
1	RESEDA	[RED SEA]*
3	REALLY	RE-ALLY (band together again)
4	STRONG DRINK	STRONG (powerful) DRINK (sea)
5	ENANTIODROMIA	[ONE + ADMIRATION]*
6	RIVER WATER {two words!}	[WEAVER + IT]* in R(afte)R
7	ABOVE ALL	“t” (“top of tree”) is ABOVE ALL in “tall”
9	STEEDS	T(ime) in SEEDS (sows)
16	ZOOLATROUS	[TAILOR − I + OUZOS]*
20	SNOW CONE	[CLOWNS − (fi)L(ms)]* + ONE (individual)
25	LOBING	B(ook) I (one) in LONG (pine)
26	IGNORE	[REGION]*
28	VESSEL	CARVED − CARD + LESS rev.