‘This is huge,’ Billy Crystal, Queen Latifah earn Kennedy Center honor
President Joe Biden attended the star-studded Kennedy Center Honors event that awards artists for lifetime achievement.
We’ll have what Gayle King’s having.
By that, we mean the “CBS Mornings” anchor took actor and comedian Billy Crystal, of “When Harry Met Sally” fame (among a long list of credits), back to Katz’s Delicatessen for the first time since the filming of the movie.
“I haven’t been here since we actually shot the movie,” Crystal told King before the pair sat down to lunch at the same table.
He reflected on the meaning of the movie: “It’s actually more important as time goes by, because people fall in love everyday. People fall out of love everyday. People find each other, they lose each other every day. And new generations keep finding ‘When Harry Met Sally‘ … They keep discovering it, and we’re forever young in that movie. And we represent them. They relate to us.”
King is profiling him and each of this year’s other Kennedy Center Honorees, including singer Dionne Warwick; actress, singer and rapper Queen Latifah; soprano Renée Fleming; and singer and songwriter Barry Gibb. The Kennedy Center Honors ceremony took place on Dec. 3 but airs on Dec. 27 on CBS.
Katz’s Deli, of course, is home to one of the movie’s most iconic scenes, where Sally (Meg Ryan) fakes an orgasm in front of Harry (Crystal). Director Rob Reiner’s mother played a woman at a nearby table who jokes, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Did you know that Crystal, 75, came up with those unforgettable words? “I’ll have what she’s having” from the 1989 romantic comedy has reverberated across generations – so much so that a key component of Crystal’s Kennedy Center Honors showcase took place at a makeshift Katz’s Deli.
While co-star Ryan didn’t quite repeat her performance from the film, she had some fun at Crystal’s expense during an appreciation for Crystal during the ceremony.
“The scene came really naturally to me, and I really have Billy to thank for that,” she said, sending the audience into instant snickers. And again, when she joked she’d never been around anyone who made faking an orgasm easier.
Then, she got sappy: “As his wife Janice has known for over 50 years, falling in love with Billy is a pretty easy thing to do.” (Awww.)
Jay Leno, Bob Costas, Whoopi Goldberg (who shouted out the duo’s late “Comic Relief” partner, Robin Williams), Lin-Manuel Miranda, Robert De Niro (who struggled reading the teleprompter all night) and Reiner, too, all offered heartfelt words for a big-hearted human at the Kennedy Center Honors.
“My life is better because Billy Crystal has been in it,” Reiner said. “Love you, Bill.”
In case you missed: Meg Ryan pokes fun at Billy Crystal, Missy Elliott praises Queen Latifah at Kennedy Center Honors
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