Conan O’Brien is speaking out for the first time about the deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer. The filmmaker and his spouse died in an apparent homicide on Dec. 14. The couple’s son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested for their murder. O’Brien found himself thrust into the center of the story when it was revealed that Rob, Michele and Nick attended his holiday party the night before the deaths occurred.
“I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them, and I was seeing them a lot,” O’Brien told The New Yorker in a new interview ahead of hosting the Oscars next month. “My wife and I were seeing them a lot, and they were so — they were just such lovely people. And to have that experience of saying good night to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day that they’re gone. … I think I was in shock for quite a while afterward. I mean, there’s no other word for it. It’s just very — it’s so awful. It’s just so awful.”
“And I think about how Rob felt about things that are happening in the country, how involved he was, how much he put himself out there — and to have that voice go quiet in an instant is still hard for me to comprehend,” O’Brien added.
Shortly after news broke of Rob and Michele’s deaths, outlets such as TMZ and People began running stories based on sources that claimed Rob and Nick got into a blowout fight while at O’Brien’s holiday party the night before the alleged murders. Anonymous guests in attendance at the party said Nick made people uncomfortable and then stormed off after a fight with his father. A report from The Daily Mail claimed at least one guest nearly called 9-1-1 amid Nick and Rob’s fight, but O’Brien allegedly stopped anyone from contacting the police.
Much of the reporting about the party and Nick’s interaction with guests revolved around Bill Hader. A source told Variety that the Reiners arrived at the same time as Hader and introduced Nick to the former “SNL” player. Later in the evening, Nick approached Hader while he was talking to friends. Nick asked everyone their names and if they were famous, the source said.
Hader told Nick he wasn’t famous. “He thought Nick may have been doing some sort of comedy bit, a schtick,” the source said. After an awkward silence, Hader offered to talk to Nick when he was done chatting with his friends. The source said Hader and O’Brien did not witness Nick in a heated argument with his parents, as some reports alleged.
Reiner and his wife died from “multiple sharp force injuries,” according to records from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. Reiner was 78, and Singer was 70. Nick has been charged with two counts of murder in the death of his parents. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life without parole or the death penalty, according to the Los Angeles district attorney.
Love Film & TV?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.
“These people are so larger than life, especially if you’ve grown up watching them or appreciating their work. I mean, I just keep mulling over … the body of work, I think it’s seven movies that Rob Reiner made, in quick succession, that are classics,” O’Brien told The New Yorker. “Now, if you can make one great movie, that’s impressive. It’s an almost impossible feat. To make two means that you’re one of the greats. To make seven — in, like, a nine-year, 10-year, 11-year period — is insanity. With ‘Spinal Tap’ alone, if that’d been the only thing he ever did, he influenced my generation enormously.”
From Variety US