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The Hollywood Reporter is receiving mixed reviews after running an article reflecting on one journalist’s experience during a 2015 dinner with Rob Reiner, Michele Singer Reiner and Nick Reiner.
The “reporter’s notebook” piece published on Monday, December 15, has writer Steven Zeitchik recalling the moment he “sat down to dinner” with the family a decade ago.
“It Was Heartwarming and Jarring,” the article’s title reads.
The subhead told readers that the experience took place in a Toronto restaurant. Elsewhere in the story, it was revealed that Zeitchik sat down with the family as they were premiering Being Charlie at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie is a semiautobiographical account of Nick’s addiction struggles, directed by his dad.
Once the article reached X, some fans were quick to slam the outlet for publishing it when they did.
“I started to read this article last night and I immediately felt icky like I was participating in something unsavory and opportunistic and I’m glad everyone else agrees,” one social media user wrote, with several calling it a “depraved” and “exploitative” move by THR.
“This article feels so disrespectful, using one dinner from 10 years ago to speculate what happened,” another person wrote. “Feels like the entirely wrong focus right now.”
On the other end of the spectrum, social media users brought widespread praise to Zeitchik for sharing his experience with the family.
“One of the better articles on him, human and all,” an X user stated, with others saying it was a “remarkable” piece.
“This is so well-written,” another social media user shared. “Just so horrible that kind of pain that goes on for years and then to end this way. Just unbelievable.”
Most social media reactions went back and forth with several hating on the article and others thanking Zeitchik for his honest portrayal of Rob, Michele and Nick’s dynamic.
Zeitchik wrote in his piece that he has “replayed every moment from that [dinner] in my mind” since news broke that Rob and Michele died at ages 78 and 68, respectively, on Sunday, December 14.
Before Nick Reiner was arrested in connection to his parents Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner’s deaths, their son had been candid about how addiction contributed to their complicated relationship over the years. Rob and Michele, who wed in 1989, shared three children: Jake, Nick and Romy. (Rob also adopted ex-wife Penny Marshall‘s daughter, Tracy.) […]
Us Weekly confirmed on Monday that Nick, 32, was arrested in connection with their murders. A source also told Us that Nick attended Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party on Saturday, December 13, where he allegedly acted “creepily” toward some guests. Other outlets reported that Nick and Rob got into an argument at the event.
Zeitchik noted “fatherly pushing” from Rob in terms of the movie being made, noting that Nick appeared “less game” for the entire ordeal. Zeitchik wrote that with Nick sober and his story out there through the film, there seemed to be a “happy ending” for the family. However, he felt like there was more going on.
“It felt like things were better but far from resolved,” he wrote. “It felt like the festival had arrived and a lot of what hadn’t been resolved had been hurriedly shoved in the closet, like the last pile of living-room mess before company arrives.”
Zeitchik explained that “nothing” about the dinner he had with the Reiner family “suggested a specifically bad outcome” — and yet that’s how it ended. The journalist also recalled feeling “uneasy” after leaving the conversation.
“I could see the helplessness. The missteps of a parent. The futility. The irony was painful to me, and, I could only imagine, to Rob Reiner. Here was the nation’s storyteller-in-chief, unable to finish the tale how he wanted,” he wrote. “Characters reject our keystrokes. We are all agents in our own story but not authors of it. Even the man who shaped some of the best couldn’t be an author of it.”
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