Frederick M. Brown/Getty ImagesTimes have certainly changed since When Harry Met Sally... premiered in 1989, and so have sex scenes on camera!
Billy Crystal, who once sat across from Meg Ryan during that iconic "I'll have what she's having" delicatessen scene, is not a prude by any means, but a comment he made Sunday during the Television Critics Association's winter press tour certainly got people talking...
To backtrack a moment, Crystal was asked if it was "difficult" playing one of TV's first openly gay characters on Soap in 1977. He was also asked if he had "any thoughts on what's happened to television since then."
Crystal admitted it was "awkward and tough" playing the role, reminding audiences that the late '70s were very much "a different time" from today. He then commented on how certain types of scenes have become more intense over the years, saying, "I've seen some stuff recently on TV in different kinds of shows where the language or the explicit sex is really, you know, sometimes I get it, and sometimes I just feel like, 'Ah, that's too much for me.'...Sometimes it's just pushed a little too far for my tastes, and I'm not going to get into which ones they are."
Some media outlets perceived the 66-year-old actor's comments to be homophobic or anti-gay, but this was certainly not his intent. Crystal explained himself in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter, saying, "What I meant was that whenever sex or graphic nudity of any kind (gay or straight) is gratuitous to the plot or story it becomes a little too much for my taste."
There you have it.
—Reporting by Sydney Bucksbaum