Amid the tributes to Diane Keaton, David Lynch, Angie Stone and 20 others, a couple of names were noticeably absent from the Gray Lady’s “The Lives They Lived” section, Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner.
Rob Reiner and Michele absent from New York Times
The Hollywood community is deeply saddened and shaken by the slaying of the Reiners, as the tributes to the long-married duo from presidents, producers, directors, actors, agents, and collaborators have made clear the past two weeks, the Misery director and his photographer spouse’s nonappearance on the NYT Mag’s eccentric annual tally has raised more than a few eyebrows.
“Is it because they were violently k*lled?” one C-Suiter texted me this AM as he sat down to read his Sunday paper. Another industry insider wondered if the Martin Scorsese penned Christmas Day op-ed on his friendship with fellow filmmaker Reiner was the substitute for a “The Lives They Lived” piece.
The theory is not true and it was, like so many things, all about timing.
“The Lives They Lived is a New York Times Magazine feature,” the NYT’s Danielle Rhoades Ha told me today. “Though the print publication date is December 16, the content was finalized and sent for publication on Dec. 11 — three days before Rob Reiner’s death,” the SVP Communications added.
Discovered dead by their daughter Romy and a friend on December 14 at the couple’s Brentwood home, the Reiners were killed by multiple stab wounds. In the hours that followed on that first night of Hanukkah, police tracked down and arrested the Reiner’s youngest son Nick.
