In January 2018, conservative Fox News host Laura Ingraham was having dinner at Toscana, an Italian restaurant in Brentwood, when she spotted the renowned Hollywood director \u2014 and unabashed liberal \u2014 Rob Reiner.<\/p>\n
She asked him to come on her show, \u201cThe Ingraham Angle.\u201d He was on set the next day. <\/p>\n
After introducing him as \u201ca brilliant director,\u201d who made her favorite movie, \u201cThis is Spinal Tap,\u201d Ingraham said: \u201cLast night, the first thing Reiner says is: \u2018Are they gonna shut the government down?\u2019\u2019 I\u2019m like, wow, I\u2019m here in L.A.; I wanna talk about Hollywood stuff. But he wants to talk about politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Al Gore and Rob Reiner attend the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April 2007.<\/p>\n
(Scott Gries \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Ingraham and Reiner vehemently disagreed \u2014 about alleged Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election, about whether President Trump is racist, about the treatment of conservatives in Hollywood.<\/p>\n
But Reiner also called Ingraham \u201csmart as hell.\u201d And Ingraham said Reiner \u201cshould be lauded\u201d for being willing to spar with her, unlike many politicians on both sides of the aisle.<\/p>\n
It was the kind of blunt but ultimately respectful exchange that added to Reiner\u2019s widespread appeal off-screen, both because of \u2014 and in spite of \u2014 his views. <\/p>\n
Reiner and his wife, Michele, were killed at their Brentwood home last weekend, allegedly by their son, Nick, who has been charged with murder<\/a>. The couple\u2019s deaths have sent a thunderclap through Hollywood and beyond, partly because the Reiners had so many friends and connections in creative and political circles. <\/p>\n Rob Reiner \u2014 who, in the role of Michael \u201cMeathead\u201d Stivic in the groundbreaking sitcom \u201cAll in the Family,\u201d played the liberal foil to his bigoted, conservative father-in-law, Archie Bunker \u2014 seemed to relish his real-life role as a progressive celebrity activist. That made him a hero to many in blue California but a villain to others, especially the reality-TV-show-star-turned-president, Donald Trump. <\/p>\n In a highly criticized social media post, Trump attributed the deaths to \u201cthe anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.\u201d<\/p>\n But while Reiner, a blistering critic of the president, disagreed with many conservatives on policy, he also worked to build relationships with them \u2014 in media and entertainment circles, the California State Capitol, and beyond. <\/p>\n Ingraham this week called him<\/a> \u201ca legend.\u201d <\/p>\n Actors Alec Baldwin and James Woods listen to director Rob Reiner in between scenes for the 1996 film \u201cGhosts Of Mississippi.\u201d<\/p>\n (Columbia Pictures via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Actor James Woods, a longtime Trump supporter, said in a Fox News interview<\/a> this week that Reiner saved his career by casting him in the 1996 film \u201cGhosts of Mississippi\u201d over studio objections. He called Reiner \u201ca great patriot\u201d with whom he shared a mutual respect despite myriad political disagreements. <\/p>\n Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for conservative powerhouse Turning Point USA, wrote on X<\/a> that he \u201cshared approximately zero in common with Rob Reiner politically, but I am so saddened by this news\u201d and praying that \u201cjustice would be swift and without conspiracies [sic] theories.\u201d<\/p>\n Kolvet said Reiner<\/a> \u201cresponded with grace and compassion\u201d to the September killing<\/a> of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk \u2014 a violent end that Reiner said nobody deserved, regardless of their views. <\/p>\n Hard-right Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, called the deaths<\/a> \u201ca family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies.\u201d And GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, wrote on X<\/a> that \u201cThe Princess Bride\u201d was his favorite film and called Reiner \u201ca comedic and story-telling master.\u201d <\/p>\n Off screen, Reiner had a unique ability to connect with people of all persuasions, in various mediums, at the top of their careers or just starting. He was very much influenced by Norman Lear,<\/a> the creator of \u201cAll in the Family,\u201d who blended his Hollywood career with progressive activism.<\/p>\n Similar to Lear, Reiner didn\u2019t just dabble in social causes and campaigns. He launched them, led them and brought people aboard. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t building an operation the way Hollywood typically does, making donations, hosting fundraisers,\u201d said Ben Austin, a former aide to Reiner who worked in the White House during the Clinton administration.<\/p>\n And all the time, he did it while making movies, some of them deeply personal<\/a>, intertwined with his life as a parent. <\/p>\n Reiner was the driving force behind the successful 1998 California ballot measure, Proposition 10, a landmark policy that put a tax on tobacco products and pumped billions of dollars into preschools, teacher training, and support for struggling families. He enlisted help in that effort from such beloved figures as Steven Spielberg, Robin Williams and his own father, comedy legend Carl Reiner. <\/p>\n After the initiative passed, Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, appointed the younger Reiner chairman of the First 5 commission overseeing disbursement of the funds. <\/p>\n Rob Reiner co-founded the group that would help overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage in California.<\/p>\n (Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n And in 2009, Reiner co-founded<\/a> the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which led the successful legal fight to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage in California. The group hired legal luminaries<\/a> from opposite sides of the political spectrum to overturn the ballot measure: the conservative former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson and litigator David Boies, a liberal who squared off against Olson in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave George W. Bush the presidency in 2000.<\/p>\n Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a Democrat, said in an interview Wednesday that Reiner successfully rallied people to the cause because he was so adept at humanizing the stories of the plaintiffs and other same-sex couples \u2014 and emphasizing love. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you can overstate how influential he was at the national, state and local level and how well-liked he was,\u201d Garcetti said. \u201cPolitics and movies share this in common: They both need good stories … and he was such a gifted storyteller.\u201d<\/p>\n Garcetti said that while many celebrities lend money and faces to political causes, prettying up political mailers and email blasts, \u201cRob built those causes. He wasn\u2019t like the frosting on the cake. He actually was the baker.\u201d<\/p>\n Garcetti, then a Los Angeles City Council member, joined Reiner in stumping for 2004 Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, for whom the director was an early backer. Garcetti crossed paths with him often, including during the push to overturn Proposition 8 \u2014 and at the Los Angeles City Hall wedding of Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, two of the plaintiffs in the federal case that struck it down. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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