2025 takes its toll
Every year about this time it seems that all the built-up bad news makes me eager for the last year to be done and gone. Underlying that is a vain, unexpressed hope that the next year will be better. It usually isn’t.
As strings of news updates rolled in Sunday morning from shootings in Providence and Sydney (the latter a terrorist attack targeting a Hanukkah celebration, I suggested that there were likely many others killed over the weekend whose deaths were not newsworthy enough for press mention. Then last night came news that police found award-winning actor/director/activist Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer dead in their Los Angeles home, victims of an apparent double homicide. The year 2025 can’t end soon enough.
More updates. More police statements. Investigations are ongoing, etc.
Movies are Dennis Hartley‘s lane, so I’ll stay out of it. The internet will be flooded anyway with remembrances of Reiner’s film legacy and cultural impact. We can all quote lines from his films. More importantly, Reiner and his wife were, by all accounts, warm, decent human beings in a business too often characterized by people who are not.
The New York Times offers statements from colleagues and longtime friends:
Kathy Bates, who starred in Mr. Reiner’s “Misery,” based on the Stephen King thriller, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter that she was “absolutely devastated” after the director and his wife, Michele, were found dead at their home in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Ms. Bates described him as “brilliant and kind, a man who made films of every genre to challenge himself as an artist.”
“He also fought courageously for his political beliefs,” she said, adding: “He changed the course of my life.”
Jamie Lee Curtis issued a statement obtained by Deadline on behalf of herself and her husband, Christopher Guest. Mr. Guest starred in “Spinal Tap,” a heavy metal mockumetary that was one of several films directed by Mr. Reiner that became iconic movies of the 1980s and 1990s.
“Christopher and I are numb and sad and shocked about the violent, tragic deaths of our dear friends Rob and Michele Singer Reiner,” Ms. Curtis said. “Our only focus and care right now is for their children and immediate families and we will offer all support possible to help them,” she added.
“There will be plenty of time later to discuss the creative lives we shared and the great political and social impact they both had on the entertainment industry, early childhood development, the fight for gay marriage and their global care for a world in crisis,” Ms. Curtis’s statement continued.
I’m told Reiner attended the DNC winter meeting in Los Angeles last week. Of course, he did.
The Times adds:
In addition to being a Hollywood hitmaker, Mr. Reiner, a Democrat, was an outspoken supporter of political causes. In 1998, he spearheaded a ballot initiative in California to increase taxes on tobacco to pay for early childhood programs.
In 2005, he joined forces with labor unions to challenge some of the policies of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican. In 2006, voters rejected an initiative he led that, if successful, would have raised income taxes on top earners to pay for half-day preschool for all 4 year olds in California. Later, he backed a legal campaign to persuade the Supreme Court to establish same-sex marriage as a constitutional right.
The stature of Mr. Reiner and his wife among the biggest names in the Democratic Party was evident in the tributes released after their death.
“Together, he and his wife lived lives defined by purpose,” former President Barack Obama said on social media. “They will be remembered for the values they championed and the countless people they inspired.”
May it be said of us.
A friend held a potluck and film viewing last night to celebrate the work of the late Robert Redford, an actor known for his climate activism. He died on September 16.
Seventeen days to 2026.
Happy Hollandaise everyone!