Horror in Los Angeles: Director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle were found dead in a pool of blood in their Los Angeles home, apparently killed by their son Nick Reiner, who was arrested a few hours later and formally charged with the double homicide. Romy, the youngest of the couple's three children, discovered her parents' bodies with their throats slit on Sunday evening.
According to TMZ, Nick and Rob had a violent argument on Saturday night at Oscar host Conan O'Brien's Christmas party , and Rob and Michelle left the party early.
Larry David, for whom Rob had played a cameo role on the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm, was among the first to pass through police lines into the holiday-decorated Brentwood mansion.
In tears, Billy Crystal arrived at the Reiner house accompanied by his wife: the two had remained friends after filming "When Harry Met Sally", the 1989 cult romantic comedy . Rob, it is remembered today, changed the ending by having the two protagonists marry with the blessing of screenwriter Nora Ephron after having had love at first sight with Michelle on the set: marriage soon followed in real life.
The condolences were shared by actors and filmmakers, as well as by the Democratic political world—among them Barack Obama, presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and California Governor Gavin Newsom. Reiner was a staunch Democrat who fought for a variety of liberal causes, from gay rights to voting rights, freedom of expression, public health care, and gun control—all positions that, posthumously, drew the wrath of Donald Trump.
“Reiner died because of the anger he caused others through his serious, unyielding, and incurable illness, a mind-debilitating disease known as ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome,’” the president wrote in Truth. “He was known for driving people crazy with his furious obsession with Trump, with his blatant paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump administration surpassed every goal and expectation of greatness, and with America’s golden age upon us, perhaps as never before.”
At least two Republicans found these words "indefensible": "This is a family tragedy, not a matter of politics or political enemies," said Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has become increasingly critical of the president in recent months. Her colleague Thomas Massie also challenged his fellow Republicans to defend "inappropriate and disrespectful" comments about "a man who was just brutally murdered."
Behind the double homicide was the drug drama. For months, Michelle had complained that she and her husband "had tried everything" to cure Nick of the drug addiction that gripped him as a teenager. Nick had repeatedly lived on the streets among the homeless, alternating between being homeless and being the son of a family in and out of detox clinics.
Family problems had inspired Being Charlie , a film directed by Rob and written by Nick, which premiered at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival: Charlie is the drug-addicted son of David, an accomplished filmmaker with a passion for politics, just like Rob, who resents how his mother and father forced him into rehabilitation centers. The plot, the director's relatives told the Hollywood Reporter, closely mirrored the interactions between the Reiner parents and their second child.
(Unioneonline)