Reiner says he played 'And So It Goes' pianist after Shaiman, Shaffer passed on the role

NEW YORK, July 14 (UPI) -- Director-producer Rob Reiner says he cast himself as Artie the piano player in And So It Goes because two well-known musicians he considered for the job were unavailable.

Reiner plays a nice-guy, nightclub pianist pining for Leah, the lounge singer he accompanies, in the romantic comedy. Diane Keaton plays the songstress, while Michael Douglas plays Oren, the bad-boy real-estate agent who is also pursuing her.

"I didn't know I had to be in this movie. The first thing I did was, I wanted [composer, arranger and occasional actor] Marc Shaiman. The guy plays piano. I don't play piano! I had to fake it," Reiner told reporters during a recent round-table interview in New York.

"I wanted Marc Shaiman, who has done all of the music for my films, and he wasn't available," the filmmaker added. "Then I tried to get Paul Shaffer, who I worked with on This Is Spinal Tap, and he wasn't available. So, now I'm thinking: 'Oh, my God! Who am I going to get?' I don't have a lot of money, so I have to get somebody who will work for scale. I looked around and found myself. And, so, I did it. I don't really like acting in my own movies, but it's very hard to pass up a chance to wear an undetectable toupee. You didn't notice I was wearing one, right? The whole art of putting on a toupee is it should be undetectable. Nobody should know. I tried on a lot of different types to make sure I just got the right one. There was one that made me look like Hitler. I thought it was bad enough I have to wear a toupee, I don't want to look like the leader of the Third Reich, so I put that one aside."

And So It Goes opens nationwide July 25.