Conan O’Brien breaks silence on Rob Reiner murder

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Conan O’Brien is speaking out on the deaths of his friends Rob and Michele Reiner, which occurred a day after the couple attended his holiday party.

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The night before the Reiners were found slain in their home, they attended a Christmas bash at O’Brien’s home along with their son, Nick, who has been charged with their murders.

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“I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them, and I was seeing them a lot. 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,” O’Brien said in an interview with the New Yorker.

“I mean, there’s no other word for it. It’s just very — it’s so awful. It’s just so awful.”

Reiner allegedly told friends at O’Brien’s soiree that he was terrified of his own son.

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“I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I’m afraid of my own son. I think my own son can hurt me,” Reiner allegedly told one partygoer, according to the Daily Mail.

One attendee told the New York Times that “people seemed to be very aware of Nick’s history with drug abuse” and that the 32-year-old screenwriter was “hovering at the fringes of the informal gathering.”

Another guest described Nick, who worked with his actor-director dad on the 2016 drug addiction drama Being Charlie, as looking “anxious and uncomfortable in a way that deeply unsettled them.”

“Nick was freaking everyone out, acting crazy, kept asking people if they were famous,” an insider told PEOPLE on Monday.

Meanwhile, another attendee alleged to Us Weekly that Nick behaved “creepily” at the shindig.

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According to the Wall Street Journal, Nick allegedly went around asking O’Brien’s guests the same three questions: “What’s your name? What’s your last name? Are you famous?”

At least one person he interacted with, Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader, is alleged to have politely brushed Nick off, telling him he was interrupting a private conversation.

“Nick glared at him for what felt like an uncomfortable amount of time,” according to one account published by The Hollywood Reporter.

“During the party, he was approaching people … asking questions that seemed confrontational and strange. Especially, asking people there, ‘Are you famous?’ Imagine a party of actual famous people, and fame-adjacent people, who are used to strange behaviour out in public, but here they are at a gathering of their peers … it was unsettling to some,” WSJ reporter John Jurgensen told Anderson Cooper during an appearance on AC360 in December.

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Rob and Michele died as a result of “multiple sharp force injuries,” the Los Angeles Medical Examiner announced days after they were found dead.

‘These people are so larger than life’

O’Brien didn’t address allegations that Reiner and his son got into an argument at his party or speculation that he reportedly stopped guests from calling 911 on Nick. But he did praise Reiner’s activism in his interview with the New Yorker’s David Remick.

“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,” he said.

O’Brien also hailed Reiner’s work as a filmmaker, which included films like A Few Good Men, When Harry Met Sally, Stand By Me, The Bucket List, Spinal Tap and more.

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“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,” he said. “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.”

Citing Spinal Tap as a comedic masterpiece, O’Brien said Reiner “influenced my generation enormously.”

“Spinal Tap — when it came out, I was in college, and it was like a splitting-the-atom moment. You have those moments where you see something truly remarkable,” he said.

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O’Brien also expressed his sadness at the loss of Catherine O’Hara, who died last month following a brief illness.

“Another person I’d put in that category: we just lost Catherine O’Hara, which is incomprehensible. And that’s someone who was perfection,” he said.

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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