Rob Reiner’s son arrested as Trump mocks filmmaker’s death

The son of director-actor Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, has been arrested in relation to the death of his parents.

Online jail records accessed by this masthead show Nick Reiner, 32, was arrested at 9.15pm on Sunday night (Monday AEDT) and booked into jail early on Monday morning, with bail set at $US4 million ($6 million).

Later, at a news conference, Los Angeles police chief Jim McDonnell confirmed Nick Reiner was “booked for murder” and was being held in custody under the aforementioned bail terms.

“Pretty much that’s what I can share at this point,” he said.

The arrest came as US President Donald Trump shocked commentators by ridiculing Rob Reiner for his murder, accusing the filmmaker of “Trump derangement syndrome” that somehow had led to his death. Reiner was an outspoken Trump critic and major Democratic donor.

“A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account.

“Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding and incurable affliction with a mind crippling diseases known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.

“He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness.”

Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who has clashed with Trump on other issues, said the president’s remarks were “inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered”.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said of Trump’s comments: “This is a sick man.”

Later, when asked about his remarks in the Oval Office, Trump doubled down and called Reiner a “deranged person” who was bad for the US.

Representatives for Reiner’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and it wasn’t immediately clear if Nick Reiner had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner. We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time,” a statement given to CNN anchor Elex Michaelson reads.

According to AP sources, investigators believe the couple suffered stab wounds.

The Los Angeles Fire Department told AP it responded to a medical aid request on Sunday afternoon (Monday AEDT) and found a 78-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman dead inside.

The residence is located in the upscale Brentwood neighbourhood on the city’s west side, which is home to many celebrities.

A decade before the alleged killing of his parents, Nick and his father appeared to have reset their relationship after years of the son’s addiction struggles as a teen.

They made a film together, Being Charlie, which included elements of their story. It seemed to have brought a healthy reckoning between father and son.

“It forced us to understand ourselves better than we had,” Reiner told the Associated Press in 2016.

“I told Nick while we were making it, I said, ‘You know it doesn’t matter, whatever happens to this thing, we won already. This has already been good.’ We’ve worked through a lot of stuff.”

In a YouTube interview series at the time, Nick Reiner said of his youth with his father, “We didn’t bond a lot,” and agreed that working on the film made them “feel closer.”

Nick told People magazine around the film’s release, when he was 22, that “I’ve been home for a really long time, and I’ve sort of gotten acclimated back to being in LA and being around my family.” He added, “There was a lot of dark years there.”

Nick was the second of the couple’s three children. His older brother, Jake has a small role in Being Charlie. His younger sister Romy is also an actor. The family appeared together at the Los Angeles premiere of Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues in September.

Reiner also has a daughter, Tracy Reiner, with his first wife, director and actor Penny Marshall.

Well-wishers were leaving flowers and candles beside Reiner’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on Monday.

Reiner was one of the most prolific directors in Hollywood, and his work includes some of the most memorable movies of the 1980s and ’90s, including This is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally and The Princess Bride.

His role as Meathead in the 1970s TV classic All in the Family alongside Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker catapulted him to fame.

As a director, Reiner also adapted two books – The Body and Misery – by the prolific American author Stephen King. “I’m horrified and saddened by the death of Rob Reiner and Michele. Wonderful friend, political ally, and brilliant filmmaker,” King said on X overnight.

The son of comedy legend Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner married photographer Michele Singer Reiner in 1989.

The two met while he was directing When Harry Met Sally and have three children together, including Nick Reiner, who co-wrote the semi-autobiographical film Being Charlie based on his battle with addiction, which Rob Reiner directed.

Reiner was previously married to actor-director Penny Marshall from 1971 to 1981. He adopted her daughter, Tracy Reiner. Carl Reiner died in 2020 at age 98 and Marshall died in 2018.

With AP

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.