Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan will pay tribute to filmmaker Rob Reiner at the Oscars.
Barbra Streisand is also in talks to honor Robert Redford.
The Academy Awards will be held on March 15.
While most late actors and filmmakers have to make do with a mention during the In Memoriam section of each year’s Academy Awards, some are considered worthy of more of a spotlight.
Rob Reiner, the director of ‘When Harry Met Sally…’ and other classics, who was murdered at his home along with his wife Michele in December, has been selected as one of those, with the movie’s stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan to be joined by others who worked with the filmmaker on stage.
(L to R) Rob Reiner and Christopher Guest in ‘This Is Spinal Tap.’ Photo: Embassy Pictures.
Following Rob and Michele’s deaths, a group of the director’s closest friends and collaborators, including Crystal, Larry David, Martin Short and Albert Brooks, released a joint statement:
“Absorbing all he had learned from his father Carl and his mentor Norman Lear, Rob Reiner not only was a great comic actor, he became a master storyteller. There is no other director who has his range. From comedy to drama to ‘mockumentary’ to documentary he was always at the top of his game. He charmed audiences. They trusted him. They lined up to see his films. We were their friends, and we will miss them forever. Each man’s life touches so many other lives, and when he isn’t around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?’ You have no idea.”
When and where can I see the Oscars this year?
The Academy Awards will air live March 15th on ABC and Hulu.
The 98th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien, will take place on March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The ceremony will be televised live by ABC and streamed on Hulu.
Movies and TV Featuring or Directed by Rob Reiner:
Following last year’s decent if unspectacular return to Oscar standard behavior, the 2025 ceremony was one heralded with some trepidation. There was a new host (comedian and talk show veteran Conan O’Brien), the need to pay tribute to Los Angeles in the wake of the devastating wildfires and speculation as to whether many of the categories would break the way they have in other awards shows.
As it turned out, it was a giant night for one movie which, while it had certainly been seen as a major contender, hadn’t been performing that way elsewhere. Some history was made and while the speeches had a political flavor at times, the show itself largely eschewed politics (beyond one smart gag about a certain sitting president and his attitude to Russia).
All said and done, despite a hefty running time (three hours and 45 minutes all told), this year’s Academy Awards is likely to be seen as largely a success. Read on for more of our thoughts…
Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the long-running stage musical may only have picked up a couple of trophies on the night (more on one of them below), but following a middling montage celebrating movies set in Los Angeles, the movie’s stars, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, kicked off the show properly with a blast of nostalgia and then smart use of ‘Wicked’s standout song.
The pair began with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” before segueing into “Defying Gravity” and the stylish presentation combined with powerhouse pipes proved to be just the right mix of celebration and spectacle.
There were the usual concerns in some quarters when Conan O’Brien was announced as this year’s Oscars host –– would he be too intellectual for audiences, was he enough of a “name”? As it turns out, he might just have scored a regular gig (assuming he wants this much pressure every year). Because by all estimations, he was a stellar emcee for the night.
Opening with a ‘Substance’ gag that was fairly expected but still played well, O’Brien’s monologue set the right tone: witty, entertaining and as usual, full of his trademark self-deprecating humor.
From threatening long-winded speeches with ‘Conclave’ star John Lithgow looking sad and disappointed to ejecting a tracksuit-clad, cheery Adam Sandler from the audience, he was assured and calm.
There were also solid gags about Timothée Chalamet’s yellow suit and bike safety, and a funny bit about promising to show stars’ early headshots if they rambled (Chalamet again, with an ultrasound image).
Later in the show there was the crack at Trump via a mention of ‘Anora’ (“I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian”) and a promise that the show was not made using A.I. (“We would never do that; we used child labor — hey, they’re still people!”)
6kPq40od
Yet despite a funny musical number (featuring a dancing Deadpool and a ‘Dune’ sandworm on piano) about not wasting the audience’s time, the show still ran very long, though that was more on the producers than the host. Which bring us to…
Perhaps the most egregious example of padding was the choice of the tribute to the music of James Bond. Introduced by former ‘Die Another Day’ star Halle Berry, it was a mishmash of performance art (Margaret Qualley showing off her well-honed dancing abilities) and karaoke night for the likes of Doja Cat and Lisa from Blackpink.
It’s a little ironic that the celebration of the venerable espionage franchise comes just as it has been fully swallowed up its corporate overlords at Amazon.
Also given special memorial treatment was music icon Quincy Jones, but despite a classy intro from Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, the choice of “Ease on Down the Road” from ‘The Wiz’ was a vaguely confounding one.
Still, if the opening montage fell flat, the respect for First Responders (who have been more a staple of recent award shows than Karla Sofía Gascón) worked much better. Initially seeming like a now-traditional wave-and-accept-applause moment, O’Brien and his writing team turned it around by having fire officers and others read out jokes he thought were too mean, including LAFD Captain Eric Scott kicking off the bit with, “well, our hearts go out to all of those who have lost their homes… and I’m talking about the producers of ‘Joker 2.’ ”
If last year was all about big-budget blockbusters with “Barbenheimer,” 2025 was the year indies struck back.
Sean Baker’s ‘Anora,’ whose combined budget ($6 million) and box office ($40.9 million worldwide) would barely cover some of the salaries for some of the giant movies, went on to take five statuettes, including Best Picture, Best Director for Baker (who also scored Best Original Screenplay and Editing) and Mikey Madison named Best Actress.
mF6ytgKq5I0FWjBWzwNvH2
Baker became the first person since Walt Disney in 1954 to win four Oscars in one night (and the first for one movie they have personally directed), and showed that the Academy was ready to root for the little guys again.
Madison’s win was something of a surprise itself –– while she’d been going toe-to-toe with ‘The Substance’ star Demi Moore all awards season –– there had been a narrative of Moore’s legacy forming around the Best Actress gong. Yet it was Madison who ended up taking the stage for a teary, heartfelt speech.
Madison wasn’t the only winner to express her feelings. While the Oscar stage is no stranger to strong emotion, there was the usual blend of politics and heart-string plucking.
Baker used his various triumphs as a combined rallying call to support movies big and small and for seeing films in theaters in this age of shrinking windows and streaming dominance.
Best Documentary Feature ‘No Other Land’s Palestinian co-director Basel Adra called for an end to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, while his Israeli collaborator Yuval Abraham insisted that there can be peaceful solution to the war in Gaza that honors both Palestinian and Israeli people, adding that “the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path. Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe and Basel’s people can be truly free?”
There were shoutouts to sex workers and immigrant children, while Team ‘Brutalist’ (especially composer Daniel Blumberg) seemed surprised and overawed by their wins, giving real, nervy speeches.
Kieran Culkin accepts the Oscar® for Actor in a Supporting Role during the live ABC Telecast of the 97th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025.
And then there was the comedic speech of the night, with predicted Best Supporting Actor winner, ‘A Real Pain’s Kieran Culkin proving once more to be anything but on stage. He was enthusiastic and funny, and got further laughs by pointing out to his wife, Jazz Charton that they’d talked about having more children after his Emmy win, and that she’d mentioned she’d only consider a fourth child if he won an Oscar. Whoops!
Culkin wrapped up his moment in the spotlight with:
“You remember that, honey? You do? Then, I just have this to say to you, Jazz, love of my life, ye of little faith. No pressure. I love you. I’m really sorry I did this again. And let’s get crackin’ on those kids. What do you say? I love you!”
Best reaction to that? Culkin’s former ‘Succession’ co-star J. Smith Cameron, who played the long-suffering Gerri Kellman to his foul/motormouthed Roman Roy, offering the perfect tweet:
For the most part this year, the presenters did not embarrass themselves and the bits were relatively painless.
We got Ben Stiller slowly being swallowed by scenery to introduce Best Production Design, June Squibb admitting she’s being played by ‘Nosferatu’ star Bill Skarsgård in prosthetics whenever she’s at an event and Robert Downey Jr. following Conan’s comedic lead and then going sentimentally honest handing out Best Supporting Actor.
Some awards, such as Best Costume Design were presented by the stars of the nominees’ movies, and that proved to be a mixed bag, since they worked on an emotional level, but tended to drag a little. Thank goodness then, for John “I love a roomy cassock” Lithgow and ‘Wicked’s Bowen Yang bringing the funny.
A highlight? Rock icon Mick Jagger taking the stage to present Best Original Song, full of jokes about how Bob Dylan was asked to do his job first (which was true; the Academy offered the subject of ‘A Complete Unknown’ to host and perform, and he turned them down).
Was this the start of a stealth campaign to get Jagger a belated, throwback Oscar for ‘Freejack’? Your guess is as good as ours. And our guess is, “maybe?”
Sean Baker wasn’t the only filmmaker making history on Oscar night. ‘Wicked’ costume maestro Paul Tazewell became the first black person to win his category, making emotional note of the fact.
And while we all knew she would scoop her trophy (despite, er, being much more a lead than a supporting turn), Zoe Saldaña was gracious in victory and was clearly moved by becoming the first American of Dominican descent to win an Oscar as one of two for ‘Emilia Pérez.’
‘Flow’ surprised in the Animated Feature category, and became the first Latvian Oscar winner. “Ball’s in your court, Estonia,” quipped O’Brien after the team left the stage.
Proving that stars don’t have to just recreate classic scenes for Super Bowl commercials, ‘When Harry met Sally’ leads Billy Crystal (no stranger to Oscar hosting, he quipped “I used to work here,” following Ryan’s question of how long ago with “nine tuxedos…”) and Meg Ryan came on stage to give out Best Picture.
They were a classy, classic wrap to a successful event, which ended with ‘Anora’s Best Picture triumph.
(L to R) Billy Crystal and Jacobi Jupe star in ‘Before’.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Billy Crystal and Jacobi Jupe about their work on ‘Before’, how Crystal developed the idea for the series and playing a different type of role than he has in the past, Jupe’s approach to his character and performing in the “scary scenes”, and what it was like for the two actors to work together.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Crystal, Jupe, Judith Light, and Rosie Perez.
(L to R) Jacobi Jupe and Billy Crystal in ‘Before,’ premiering October 25, 2024 on Apple TV+.
Moviefone: To begin with, Billy, can you talk about developing the idea of the series and having the opportunity to play a role different than anything you’ve done before?
Billy Crystal: The first idea was mine. It kicked off the chain reaction that ends up being this series. We had this notion of this pediatric psychiatrist working with a troubled kid who’s presenting in a very specific way, and that was the mystery of what’s he experiencing? It asked questions about, have we been here before? It got mysterious. So, then my co-EP, Eric Roth, who’s a great writer, brought in Sarah Thorp and he said that she can write this. “Listen to the first two beats of this idea,” he said to her, which was a psychiatrist, troubled kid, and where’s he from? She, in 10 days, came in with this notion that laid out Eli, and his journey with Noah. In the middle of it, I said to her, “Okay, I’m going to do it.” I wasn’t looking to play the guy, but I so was taken with Sarah’s vision that I said I’m in. It wasn’t like I want to play something different it was just, boy, this is great. I’ve been acting a long time and I’ve done different things always, and this was just another one of them. But in a world that I had never ventured into before.
MF: Jacobi, can you talk about your approach to playing Noah and what it was like for you personally shooting the show’s scarier scenes?
Jacobi Jupe: Noah on screen is scary and all the things that he sees and does is scary. But I wouldn’t say I did get scared by it because that’s movie magic, to make it look scary when it wasn’t that scary. But I found it cool. It was always exciting and fun, and I would always get to do crazy stuff. I don’t know, just speak in weird, crazy voices and scream. But I’m always kind of calm inside and then I become angry on the outside sometimes. The character is very extreme. He’s very extreme.
(L to R) Jacobi Jupe and Billy Crystal in ‘Before,’ premiering October 25, 2024 on Apple TV+.
MF: Billy, what was it like working with Jacobi and what did you learn from the experience?
BC: The thing about Jacobi that I’m so taken with, being such a young actor, he would always ask the director, why am I saying this? If the truth didn’t line up with what he had to play, like any veteran actor, he would have trouble. So, it always had to be the truth for him, which for all of us is “Why am I saying this?” Then if I got it, then you can play it freely and honestly. His range is fantastic in the show, but it was based in, it had to be the truth. That’s just a basic lesson for any actor. Is it the truth? Then I can do it.
MF: Finally, Jacobi, is Billy fun to work with? What is he like as a scene partner?
JJ: He’s the best. He is hilarious. He’s good at thrillers. He’s good at other stuff too. He’s such a fun guy and so incredibly talented.
QracfQLDzYp7zX1WFUhn67
What is the plot of ‘Before’?
A recently widowed child psychologist (Billy Crystal) meets with his next client (Jacobi Jupe), who seems to be connected in some fashion to his past.
Jimmy Kimmel to Host the 95th Oscars. Photo: ABC/Jeff Lipsky.
Given that the first time Jimmy Kimmel hosted the Oscars, we got the memorable ‘La La Land’/’Moonlight’ Best Picture mix-up, you might think he’d be wary of coming back.
But that was in 2017, and Kimmel actually came back in 2018 for a less dramatic ceremony. Now, after five years away, he will once more lead the show for the 95th Oscars, which will be held next year.
The announcement was made by Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, the executive producers and showrunners for the next show.
Kimmel, who hosts popular late-night show ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ joins a three-peat club that also includes Jerry Lewis, Steve Martin, Conrad Nagel and David Niven. He has some way to go, however, to compete with the likes of Billy Crystal, who has wrangled the show nine times and Bob Hope, who hosted 11 times in his career.
“Being invited to host the Oscars for a third time is either a great honor or a trap,” Kimmel says in a statement. “Either way, I am grateful to the Academy for asking me so quickly after everyone good said no.”
“We’re super thrilled to have Jimmy score his hat trick on this global stage,” Weiss and Kirshner said in a joint statement. “We know he will be funny and ready for anything.”
“Jimmy is the perfect host to help us recognize the incredible artists and films of our 95th Oscars,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Janet Yang enthuse. “His love of movies, live TV expertise, and ability to connect with our global audiences will create an unforgettable experience for our millions of viewers worldwide.”
Chris Rock presents the Oscar® for Documentary Feature during the live ABC telecast of the 94th Oscars® at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 27, 2022. Photo Credit: Blaine Ohigashi / A.M.P.A.S.
Naturally, neither the Academy nor the producers are speaking as to whether anyone was asked before Kimmel, though there had been speculation that producers reached out to Chris Rock in the wake of last year’s Will Smithslap incident.
The Academy and those running the show have struggled with plummeting ratings and finding the right hosts in recent years. In 2020, the show relied on a variety of hosts after first choice Kevin Hart left the gig under fire for problematic attitudes on social media.
In 2021, the pandemic forced the ceremony out of its usual Dolby Theatre home and once again employed a changing roster of presenters instead of the traditional host for a muted ceremony. This year represented a return to a more normal ceremony, albeit with three hosts – Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes.
The 95th Oscar nominations will be announced on January 24th, 2023, with the ceremony to be held on March 12th.
Will Smith accepts the Oscar® for Actor in a Leading Role during the live ABC telecast of the 94th Oscars® at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 27, 2022. Photo Credit: Kyusung Gong / A.M.P.A.S.
CcMirhSw
Hollywood is mourning another loss today as it was announced that comedian, actor and director Bob Saget was found dead on Sunday, January 9th in his Orlando hotel room at the age of 65. Saget, who was on a stand-up comedy tour and had performed Saturday night in the Jacksonville area, was found unresponsive and while cause of death is not known at this time, authorities have ruled out foul play or drug use.
After graduating from Temple University in 1978, Saget began his stand-up career in Los Angeles at the Comedy Store, and unlike the squeaky-clean image he would eventually achieve from his television work, his act was very dirty. Saget would go on to briefly co-host CBS’ ‘The Morning Program’ before leaving to star on the ABC comedy ‘Full House,’ which would make him a household name.
For eight seasons from 1987-1995 Saget played widower Dan Tanner, who along with his best friend Joey (Dave Coulier) and brother-in-law Jesse (John Stamos), raised his three daughters (played by Candace Cameron, Jodie Sweetin and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen). In 1989, at the height of the show’s success, Saget became the first host of the massively popular ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos,’ which he hosted until 1997.
Saget studied film in college and received a student Academy Award for documentary merit for his film, ‘Through Adam’s Eyes,’ which was based on his nephew’s facial reconstructive surgery. In 1998, he made his feature length directorial debut with the cult classic comedy ‘Dirty Work,’ which starred Norm Macdonald, Artie Lange, Chris Farley, Don Rickles, John Goodman, Adam Sandler, and Chevy Chase. Saget would also go on to write and direct the spoof-documentary, ‘Farce of the Penguins.’
25666
Back on television, Saget would appear as an exaggerated version of himself on four episodes of HBO’s ‘Entourage,’ before providing the adult voice of Ted Mosby in narration for nine seasons on CBS’ popular series, ‘How I Met Your Mother.’ The actor would eventually return to Netflix’s revival series, ‘Fuller House,’ reprising his role as Dan Tanner from 2016-2020. Most recently, Saget was featured on an episode of the Showtime series ‘Shameless,’ as well as competing on Fox’s ‘The Masked Singer’ as the Squiggly Monster but was eliminated after his second appearance.
Both of Saget’s ‘Full House’ co-stars, John Stamos and Dave Coulier, tweeted about the passing of their friend. “I am broken. I am gutted. I am in complete and utter shock. I will never ever have another friend like him. I love you so much Bobby,” said Stamos. While Coulier tweeted, “My heart is broken. I love you, Bob.”
Dozens of comedians have also shared their memories of Saget, including Jim Carrey. “Beautiful Bob Saget passed away today at 65. He had a big, big heart and a wonderfully warped comic mind. He gave the world a lot of joy,” Carrey tweeted. Tim Allentweeted, “Terribly sad news great friend, great comedian and wonderful man Bob Saget passed. Hit me hard. Prayers and my open heart to his family.” Billy Crystal added on his Twitter account, “I’m shocked and saddened to learn that Bob Saget is gone. A great friend and one of the funniest and sweetest people I have ever known. My love to his beautiful family.”
Director Judd Apatow also tweeted about Saget’s passing. “Bob Saget was so kind and when you spent time with him he made you laugh hard. He loved to be funny and he was hysterical. He was also there for everyone. A beautiful soul.” While legendary television producer Norman Leartweeted, “Bob Saget was as lovely a human as he was funny. And to my mind, he was hilarious. We were close friends and I could not have loved him more.”
One of the most beloved romantic comedies of all time is now 30 years old. “When Harry Met Sally” is a terrific reminder that the best rom-coms are truly timeless. Celebrate this anniversary with some fun trivia about the making of this modern love story.
1. Both director Rob Reiner and writer Nora Ephron drew from their own personal lives while making the film. Ephron based Sally on herself and several friends, while Reiner’s struggle with his divorce influenced the portrayal of Harry.
2. Reiner has a cameo in the film during the New Year’s Eve scene. He’s the unseen person announcing that the new year is happening in ten seconds.
Columbia Pictures
3. Ephron originally envisioned the movie’s title as “When They Met.” Other potential titles included “Boy Meets Girl,” “Just Friends” and “Words of Love.”
5. Katz’s Deli still pays tribute to the film’s most famous scene by displaying a sign that reads “Where Harry met Sally… hope you have what she had!”
Columbia Pictures
6. That fake orgasm scene was added to the movie on the fly after it was decided Sally needed more to talk about in the deli. Meg Ryan chose the topic of conversation and Billy Crystal came up with the line, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
7. It took no fewer than 60 takes to pull off the scene where the four characters are talking on the phone simultaneously.
Columbia Pictures
8. Harry can be seen the Stephen King novel “Misery” in one scene. Ironically, Reiner went on to direct the film adaptation after completing “When Harry Met Sally.”
9. The scenes featuring couples relating how they met were performed by actors, but the material itself was taken from real-life testimonials Reiner collected.
“Monsters, Inc.” is back in business, with a new animated series featuring almost the entire original voice cast of the beloved Pixar flick in development for Disney’s upcoming streaming service.
Here’s the breakdown for “Monsters at Work,” and who’s who among the cast, per THR’s report:
‘Monsters at Work’ picks up six months after the original movie with the power plant at its center now harvesting the laughter of children to fuel the city of Monstropolis. The series follows Tylor Tuskmon (Feldman), an eager and talented mechanic on the Monsters, Inc. Facilities Team who dreams of working on the Laugh Floor alongside Mike and Sulley.
Tran will voice Val Little, Tylor’s lifelong friend and confidante; Winkler will give life to Fritz, the scatterbrained boss; Neff will voice Duncan, an opportunistic plumber; Ubach is Cutter, the officious rule follower; Stanton is Smitty and Needleman, the bumbling custodial team; and Tyler voices Tylor’s mom, Millie Tuskmon.
We’re especially excited to see Tyler among the cast, since she’s excellent on long-running FX animated spy spoof series “Archer.” The language on this show will probably be a bit cleaner than Lana’s, though.
“Monsters at Work” is set to premiere on Disney+ sometime in 2020. An exact launch date for that service is currently unknown, but it’s expected to arrive at the end of this year. Additional details are expected to be revealed during a Disney investor presentation this week.
Inconceivable! It’s inconceivable that it’s been 30 years since the release of “The Princess Bride,” on Sept. 25, 1987.
Rob Reiner‘s beloved and hilarious fairy tale wasn’t a huge hit in theaters, but it did make stars out of Cary Elwes and Robin Wright, become a cult favorite, and generate about a fabillion memes from its endlessly quotable dialogue.
Still, even though you’ve watched “The Princess Bride” on cable over and over and over, there are still some behind-the-scenes secrets. Read them all now or savor them slowly… as you wish. 1. Screenwriter William Goldman wrote the novel in 1973, inspired by storytelling requests from his two little girls. One wanted a story about a princess, and the other wanted a story about a bride, so he combined the two.
2. Over the years that the film was in development, several different directors were attached, including Richard Lester, François Truffaut, Norman Jewison, John Boorman, and Robert Redford (star of the Goldman-scripted “All the President’s Men“). A then-unknown Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered to play Fezzik, A similarly obscure Colin Firth was to play Westley; Christopher Reeve was also interested in the part. Danny DeVito, and then Richard Dreyfuss, were supposed to play Vizzini. And Sting was to play Prince Humperdinck. 3. Reiner, a longtime fan of Goldman’s novel, got the assignment after the successes of “The Sure Thing” and “Stand By Me” allowed him to make the project of his choice for 20th Century Fox. He had no idea how many other directors had struggled and failed to bring the story before the cameras.
4. Of course, wrestler André the Giant, at 7’4″ and 520 pounds, was more physically suited to play the giant Fezzik than Arnold. But his thick French accent made his initial line readings all but incomprehensible. Reiner recorded all of Fezzik’s dialogue for him on cassette tape, and the wrestler learned his lines phonetically. 5. Elwes was dashing enough to play Westley, but could he be funny? He proved he could during his audition by rocking an impression of Bill Cosby‘s Fat Albert.
6. When Westley says, “Life is pain,” he’s not kidding; in fact, you can see Elwes favoring his left leg in that scene. That’s because he broke his toe in an ATV ride, taken at André’s urging. Elwes didn’t tell Reiner about the injury at first, fearing he’d be fired and replaced. 7.Mandy Patinkin lobbied to play Inigo Montoya because he knew how the fatherless fighter felt, having lost his own dad at a young age 14 years earlier.
8. Elwes was seriously injured again during Westley’s swordfight with Christopher Guest‘s Count Rugen. Guest was supposed to clock Elwes with his sword handle, but he was holding back so as not to hurt his co-star, and it looked fake. Elwes told Guest to deck him for real, and he woke up in the emergency room, getting stitches sewn in his head by the same doctor who’d treated his toe. Elwes said the medic remarked, “Well, Zorro! You seem to be a little accident-prone, don’t you?” At least the realism worked, and the take of Guest knocking out Elwes is the one Reiner used in the film. 9.Wallace Shawn‘s Vizzini may be the veteran character actor’s most memorable role, but he was nervous throughout the shoot, knowing he’d been the third choice to play the Sicilian self-styled genius, and he expected every day that Reiner would fire him.
10. Screenwriters are seldom invited to the sets of their own movies, but Reiner invited Goldman to come to Derbyshire, in the English countryside, where “Princess Bride” was shooting. Goldman prayed for the production’s success, but his supplications were too loud and ruined a couple takes. He ruined another, during the scene where Buttercup’s (Robin Wright) dress ignites, by exclaiming, “Oh my God, her dress is on fire!” 11.Billy Crystal based Miracle Max on a combination of his own grandmother and baseball legend Casey Stengel. He and Carol Kane (Max’s wife, Valerie), worked out a whole backstory in private regarding their centuries-long marriage.
12. So during their lone sequence in the film, Crystal was able to improvise for hours, riffing dialogue that was mostly too R-rated for the family-friendly film. The director’s own laughter ruined several takes. Elwes, who was supposed to be lying “mostly dead,” also couldn’t stop cracking up and had to be replaced by a dummy. Patinkin had such a hard time holding in his laughter that he bruised a rib. 13. Years of wrestling had left André in constant pain, and he was too weak to hold up Elwes and Wright as the script required. When you see Westley hanging on Fezzik’s back, you’re either looking at Elwes and a stunt double for André, or at Elwes standing on a hidden ramp. When Fezzik lifts Buttercup, Wright is actually being hoisted by hidden cables.
14. The swordfighting tactics mentioned during Inigo and Westley’s epic duel are real, taken by Goldman from centuries-old fencing manuals. The sequence was one of the last ones filmed, in order to give Elwes and Patinkin plenty of training time. 15. Both actors took the fight very seriously and trained for months under Peter Diamond and Bob Anderson (the stunt coordinators who’d choreographed the lightsaber duels in the first “Star Wars” trilogy), learning to wield a sword with either hand. As a result, they were able to film it almost without stunt doubles; except for one acrobatic flip, that’s really Elwes and Patinkin doing all that swashbuckling.
16. But the routine they prepared was too short by half. Diamond and Anderson had demonstrated it in slow motion, but it actually ran under 90 seconds. Reiner needed the duel to last another minute and a half, so, at the 11th hour, the stars turned to old Errol Flynn films for inspiration and added more moves. 17.Fred Savage and Peter Falk, as the grandson and grandfather reading the story, never met the rest of the cast. Their scenes were filmed last.
18. There’s an Easter egg in the movie for fans of Reiner’s debut film, mock rock doc “This Is Spinal Tap.” A baseball cap nearly identical to the one Reiner wore in the film, with the logo of the USS Coral Sea, can be seen hanging in Savage’s bedroom. Like many rockers, Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler was a “Tap” fan, and he agreed to score “Princess Bride” on the condition that Reiner work the hat into the new movie. Reiner no longer had the old prop, but he went to great pains to mock up a similar cap — only to learn after the shoot that Knopfler had been kidding. 19. The movie cost $16 million to make, a modest budget even in 1987. It earned back just $31 million in North American theaters.
20. “The Princess Bride” earned one Oscar nomination, for Willy DeVille’s song “Storybook Love.” It lost to “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from “Dirty Dancing.” 21. The movie’s cult of fans was all-encompassing. Elwes recalled getting a compliment on the film from Pope John Paul II, who referred to the movie as “The Princess and the Bride.” Shawn said that someone comes up to him and says, “Inconceivable!” at least every three days, while Patinkin has claimed that no day goes by when someone doesn’t ask him to say, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!”
22. Reiner said he was eating dinner one night with his “When Harry Met Sally” screenwriter, Nora Ephron, and her husband, “Goodfellas” screenwriter Nick Pileggi, at a restaurant in New York’s Little Italy. Pileggi had recommended the eatery because mafia boss John Gotti was a regular there, and sure enough, Gotti was there that night with his crew. One of the mobsters shouted at Reiner, “You killed my father! Prepare to die!” The man added, “‘The Princess Bride!’ I love that movie!” Recalled Reiner, “I almost s**t in my pants. When you penetrate guys like that, you know you’ve made it.”
It’s hard to imagine being nostalgic for a midlife crisis. Nonetheless, it’s been 25 years since Billy Crystal conceived of, produced, and starred in the funniest midlife-crisis movie ever. A quarter-century after the release of “City Slickers” (on June 7, 1991), fans remember it fondly for its story of three tenderfoot cowpokes out of their depth, for Jack Palance‘s wonderfully hard-bitten trail boss, and for generating one of the most memorable moments in Oscar history.
In honor of the film’s 25th anniversary, we’ve rounded up these little-known “City Slickers” facts.
1. Crystal came up with the idea for the movie while watching a TV show about middle-aged men going on life-changing fantasy vacations. He borrowed the plot from John Wayne‘s “The Cowboys,” reimagined it as a comedy, and hired screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel to craft it into a screenplay. The two writers were too lazy to visit an actual dude ranch to do the research; they wrote the script first, then phoned a dude ranch owner to check on their story’s plausibility. 2. When Crystal was a kid, his dad ran a popular Manhattan record store and knew a lot of jazz musicians, and seven-year-old Crystal had no less than Billie Holiday for a babysitter. He sat on her lap when he went to see his first movie, the classic 1953 Western “Shane.” Crystal never forgot Jack Palance’s Oscar-nominated performance as the heavy, which is why Palance was Crystal’s first choice to play Curly in “City Slickers.”
3. Initially, Palance was unavailable, so Crystal sent the script to Charles Bronson. Far from being flattered, the veteran movie tough-guy was insulted. Bronson cussed out Crystal, complaining of the proposed role, “I’m dead on page 64!” Fortunately, Palance’s schedule cleared up. 4.Rick Moranis was initially supposed to play Daniel Stern‘s part, but he had to drop out because of his wife’s cancer diagnosis.
5. Yes, that’s a 10-year-old Jake Gyllenhaal making his film debut as Crystal’s son. “He was always performing,” Crystal recalled of the boy’s on-set behavior. “He would sing from ‘South Pacific,’ and we’d all go, ‘He’s gay, he’s going to be gay.’” 6. Crystal’s softball team pal and “When Harry Met Sally” co-star Bruno Kirby rounded out the cast, even though he was allergic to horses and had to get an allergy shot every day on the set.
7. Crystal’s “best day of my life” story actually happened to him. He really did go to Yankee Stadium with his dad, and he even got Mickey Mantle to autograph his program. The birthday call from his mom (voiced by Jayne Meadows) was also an annual ritual for Crystal, and the story Meadows tells of the events surrounding her son’s birth is really the story of Crystal’s entry into the world. 8. “City Slickers” cost a reported $27 million to make. It earned $124 million in North America and a total of $179 million worldwide.
9. The film was credited with spurring an increase in cattle ranch vacations. Among those influenced was co-star Daniel Stern himself, who bought himself a cattle ranch. 10. When his “City Slickers” performance won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor — 38 years after his previous nomination, for “Shane” — Palance famously wowed the Academy Awards audience and host Crystal with a celebratory round of one-armed push-ups. Turns out the 73-year-old was re-enacting the display he’d given to the film’s insurers to prove he was fit enough to play Curly.
Should we feel bad for Eddie Huang? The restaurateur whose memoir about his childhood inspired the current ABC sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat” went on a multi-post Twitter rant after this week’s episode, complaining that, since the pilot, the show has drifted far from the reality of his own experience, to the point where “it got so far from the truth that I don’t recognize my own life.“
That’s certainly unfortunate, even for a guy who received a tidy sum for the TV rights to his autobiography. No one wants to see his or her experience distorted and broadcast to millions. Then again, what did he expect? It’s a network sitcom. It’s generally going to avoid any bleak reality that can’t be resolved in 22 minutes.
This sort of biographical distortion has been an issue for sitcoms since the dawn of television, since the format simply doesn’t lend itself easily to the complexities and messy structure of an individual’s real life. That hasn’t stopped TV auteurs through the ages from trying to base sitcoms on their own lives or the biographies of others. The solution has usually been to create a highly fictionalized version of the person who inspired the show, with just enough real-life biographical details so that viewers recognize the character’s source.
For instance, on “I Love Lucy,” Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz played characters who loosely resembled themselves, the Cuban bandleader and the ambitious redhead. Sure, Lucy RIcardo wasn’t actually in showbiz like Lucille Ball (though she desperately wanted to be), but in her endless scheming, you can see the drive and persistence of the real Ball (who owned her show and was a pioneering TV producer), trying to make it in a sexist world that tended to belittle her efforts.
In another classic sitcom, “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” Carl Reiner dramatized his life as a TV comedy writer and young suburban husband by creating the character of Rob Petrie and giving the role to Van Dyke. In other words, Reiner’s approach was to play up all the funny parts of his life (and give them to a gifted comic performer) while leaving out the grimmer parts completely.
On “The Cosby Show,” Cliff Huxtable was an obstetrician, not a comedian, but the family it portrayed (with four daughters and one son) was clearly based on Bill Cosby’s own. Much of the dialogue was taken directly from Cosby’s own autobiographical stand-up routines. But he was less interested in accurately depicting his own life than in offering universal situations everyone could appreciate.
The success of “Cosby” made possible “Roseanne,” which was also based on its star’s own autobiographical stand-up comedy routines. And those two shows, in turn , led to a slew of comedians getting deals to create shows out of their own stand-up material. (Many failed, with the noteworthy exception of “Seinfeld.”) But of course, no matter how accurate these series were in conveying the lives of their stars back when they were still struggling, the shows ceased to be true-to-life the minute the stars became rich and famous. Today, IFC’s “Maron” seems to be entirely about comedy podcaster Marc Maron’s ambivalence about his own sudden mid-life success. But back in the 1990s, “Roseanne” was unique in trying to address this problem. In the final season, Roseanne Barr’s character suddenly went from blue-collar striver to pampered diva… and everyone hated it.
One approach to the autobiographical sitcom was to go the opposite direction, away from verisimilitude and toward absurdity and surrealism. On “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Larry David is playing a version of himself, but one whose obnoxious behavior gets him into outlandish situations. On “30 Rock,” Liz Lemon was clearly modeled on Tina Fey herself (the head writer at a sketch comedy show based at NBC’s Rockefeller Center headquarters), but those basic biographical details were just a framework for relentless barrages of jokes and for flights of fancy that pushed past the boundaries of plausibility into cartoonish parody. “Bored to Death,” which ran three seasons on HBO, was about a Brooklyn writer named Jonathan Ames (played by Jason Schwartzman), just like the show’s creator, but the real Ames does not moonlight as a private eye. And current ABC hit “The Goldbergs” — ostensibly drawn from the home movies of series creator Adam Goldberg’s childhood — is set in a fantasy version of the 1980s in which all the decade’s pop cultural landmarks (from “Ghostbusters” to New Kids on the Block) seem to have occurred simultaneously.
There has been an explosion in recent years in autobiographical and biographical sitcoms; indeed, the TV graveyard is littered with such series, many of which lasted less than a season (“Partners,” “Ben and Kate,” “How to Live With Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life,” “Growing Up Fisher.”) Currently on the chopping block is “The McCarthys,” which creator Brian Gallivan based on his own family. It’s a good illustration of how hard it is to make a sitcom that’s true to one’s own life. Before the show even debuted, Gallivan told reporters that the sitcom required him to add character flaws to his relatives for dramatic purposes, that the show didn’t work without a laugh track, and “”that sitcoms also require heartwarming moments so I had to add those.” As far as Gallivan’s experiences as a gay man in an often hostile environment, he said, “I know there are dark sides of that, but I feel there are dramas, and other shows, that can handle that better than we can.”
At least there are other gay characters in sitcom-land. Much has been written, however, about how “Fresh Off the Boat” is only the second sitcom — and the first in more than two decades, since Margaret Cho’s semi-autobiographical “All American Girl” — to address the Asian-American experience. (As if there’s only one such experience.) So the show has an especially large burden to bear; it has to represent not just Huang’s experience but that of all Asian-American families. Cho has written and spoken extensively about how her show failed in part because ABC made her rely on tired stereotypes. Two decades later, “Fresh” makes a point of subverting those stereotypes. Still, as Huang tweeted, “I’m happy people of color are able to see a reflection of themselves through #FreshOffTheBoat on @ABCNetwork but I don’t recognize it.”
It must be tough to be the only sitcom out there representing the experiences of a particular group of viewers, without any others to share the burden. Right now, also on ABC, “Cristela” is a modest new hit, based on the life of its star, comic Cristela Alonzo. Unlike Huang, Alonzo has said she insisted on — and got — complete creative carte blanche from ABC to make the show as true to her family’s lives, and to the lives of Hispanic Americans, as she wished Then again, the striving, struggling Cristela on the series isn’t in showbiz; she’s in her sixth year of law school. Still, even if “Cristela” isn’t drawing the kind of complaints from its creator or its viewers that “Fresh” is, it’s still trying to do a lot more than a network sitcom should be expected to do.
Thursday night, two season premieres on FX offered yet another approach. First up was the series debut of “The Comedians,” with Billy Crystal and Josh Gad playing themselves — two comic actors putting together a comedy series for FX. Of course, we’ve learned over the years, on series from “The Larry Sanders Show” to “Entourage” to “Episodes,” that the stars who appear on sitcoms as themselves are usually playing the least flattering version of themselves, for comic purposes. So “The Comedians” may have only a glancing connection to Crystal and Gad’s real lives.
And then there was the Season 5 premiere of “Louie,” maybe the only half-hour comedy that has figured out how to portray its source’s life, warts and all, and come off as both entertaining and true to life. Louis C.K.’s show is autobiographical when it wants to be and clearly fanciful at other times. It also doesn’t always feel the obligation to be funny, but rather to mine bleak events for drama as well. And the stories are as long or short as they need to be, whether it’s 12 minutes or six episodes. In other words, to reflect his own life, C.K. has had to push the boundaries of what a sitcom can do — to the point where it’s barely recognizable as a sitcom any more.
It’s doubtful that a network would embrace a show like “Louie” that’s so mercurial in form and tone, but if the next Eddie Huang wants a series that’s true to his own life and still occasionally funny, maybe a “Louis”-type show, a sitcom-plus, is the way to go.
%Slideshow-275848%
Inconceivable! It’s inconceivable that it’s been 30 years since the release of “
1. Screenwriter 
3. Reiner, a longtime fan of Goldman’s novel, got the assignment after the successes of “
5. Elwes was dashing enough to play Westley, but could he be funny? He proved he could during his audition by rocking an impression of 
7. 
9. 
11. 
13. Years of wrestling had left André in constant pain, and he was too weak to hold up Elwes and Wright as the script required. When you see Westley hanging on Fezzik’s back, you’re either looking at Elwes and a stunt double for André, or at Elwes standing on a hidden ramp. When Fezzik lifts Buttercup, Wright is actually being hoisted by hidden cables.
15. Both actors took the fight very seriously and trained for months under Peter Diamond and Bob Anderson (the stunt coordinators who’d choreographed the lightsaber duels in the first “
17. 
19. The movie cost $16 million to make, a modest budget even in 1987. It earned back just $31 million in North American theaters.
21. The movie’s cult of fans was all-encompassing. Elwes recalled getting a compliment on the film from Pope John Paul II, who referred to the movie as “The Princess and the Bride.” Shawn said that someone comes up to him and says, “Inconceivable!” at least every three days, while Patinkin has claimed that no day goes by when someone doesn’t ask him to say, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!”
It’s hard to imagine being nostalgic for a midlife crisis. Nonetheless, it’s been 25 years since 
2. When Crystal was a kid, his dad ran a popular Manhattan record store and knew a lot of jazz musicians, and seven-year-old Crystal had no less than Billie Holiday for a babysitter. He sat on her lap when he went to see his first movie, the classic 1953 Western “
4. 
6. Crystal’s softball team pal and “
8. “City Slickers” cost a reported $27 million to make. It earned $124 million in North America and a total of $179 million worldwide.
10. When his “City Slickers” performance won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor — 38 years after his previous nomination, for “Shane” — Palance famously wowed the Academy Awards audience and host Crystal with a celebratory round of one-armed push-ups. Turns out the 73-year-old was re-enacting the display he’d given to the film’s insurers to prove he was fit enough to play Curly.