It’s a famous story. Back in 1989 when Nora Ephron and Rob Reiner were coming up with When Harry Met Sally, Meg Ryan swapped some of the tight writing to move the scene about faking orgasms to a diner. She also suggested she fake an orgasm publicly, which was not in the script. Rob Reiner then cast his already-famous mom Estelle in the scene, and she ended up with one of the most iconic lines in the movie, and in rom-com history as a whole. But filming an orgasm scene in front of your mom is not for the faint of heart.
Rob Reiner recently appeared on 60 Minutes as part of the press run he’s been doing for Spinal Tap 2, but forget exploding drummers, because what I was really interested in was the story about his mom and how it impacted one of the best rom-coms of all time. Luckily, CBS’ Lesley Stahl had to ask him about the famous scene from the room-com starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. While the scene ultimately became iconic, it was more than a little awkward filming it in front of cameras and other people.
