Director/writer funnyman Judd Apatow has apparently had such a hard time directing the sex scenes between his wife Leslie Mann and Adam Sandler in his upcoming dramedy, “Funny People,” that the filmmaker reportedly asked musician James Taylor to come to the set and play his brand of safe, warm-milk folk.
The report comes from Contactmusic who we refuse to give a link to because a) they consistently jack quotes from the web without an ounce of attribution — good ol’ British press and b) half of their stories turn out to be gossipy bullshit. Now there’s nothing unbelievable in the story, but it’s the principle of the matter.
Apatow apparently invited Taylor to the set and then eventually convinced him to take a small cameo role. “I got what I needed and then I made him perform 30 more songs… I just thought, ‘Oh my God, I can manipulate James Taylor into singing more songs for my amusement. It’s the greatest day ever.’ “
He had to, shooting the aforementioned sex scenes were apparently killing him. [Adam and Leslie] weren’t that uncomfortable having sex with each other onscreen. I’ve never seen two people look so happy. My wife was like, ‘I’m glad it’s not Judd.’ ” (these quotes probably come from five other sources knowing Cmusic).
“Funny People” has a few musical moments in it. Bruce Springsteen is supposed to appear in a dream sequence cameo and other musical references include: Wilco (a concert), Warren Zevon (we knew he would eventually use him), Otis Redding, Paul McCartney’s “With A Little Luck,” the introspective Ted Hawkins song, “Strange Conversation“and Fergie’s song, “London Bridge” are all specifically written into the script.