The tragic deaths of When Harry Met Sally… director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were the big story on late night television Monday, December 14.
In a sweet tribute to the acclaimed filmmaker and All in the Family star on The Tonight Show, host Jimmy Fallon said Reiner was “one of the smartest and funniest people I’ve ever met.”
“What a tremendous loss. He leaves behind such a legacy,” Fallon, 51, continued. “Thank you for all the great work on and off screen and continuing to be an inspiration to me and millions of people around the world. In the end, I’m going to remember all of the laughs that you’ve given us.”
Over on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the CBS late-night host acknowledged the Reiners’ deaths, as well as shootings at Brown University and a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia, over the weekend.
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“Other people’s tragedy is sacred ground and we try very hard not to walk there,” Colbert, 61, said, describing the events as “too dark” for his usual witty show-opening monologue.
“We are going to do a comedy show tonight, in light of, and in spite of, the darkness,” he said.
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, 58, and Late Night’s Seth Meyers, 51, had impassioned reactions to the news of the Reiners’ deaths, as well as President Donald Trump’s divisive comments earlier Monday alluding to Rob’s liberal political stance.
In light of the tragedies over the weekend, Kimmel said that America needed “compassion and leadership,” but “we did not get that from our president, because he has none of it to give.”
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“Just when you think he can’t go any lower, he finds a way to do that,” Kimmel continued, referring to Trump’s remarks about the Reiners’ deaths.
In a social media post on Monday morning, Trump wrote that, “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 disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.”
““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, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before,” he added.
“It’s so hateful and vile,” Kimmel said on Monday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! “When I first saw it, I thought it was fake. My wife showed it to me this morning. I was like, ‘Well, even for him, that seemed like too much.’ But nothing is ever too much for him.”
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“That corroded brain is in charge of our lives,” the comedian said of Trump, adding: “I know from my personal interactions with Rob Reiner that he would want us to keep pointing out the loathsome atrocities that continue to ooze out of this sick and irresponsible man’s mouth.”
Meyers, meanwhile, recalled his interactions with Rob and Michele, describing them as “delightful people to be in a room with.”
“He was a person who was so full of love. So was Michele. You could tell how much they loved each other,” Meyers continued.
Turning his attention to Trump, Meyers said he “feared” the president would make some sort of negative comment about the deaths, “but it was even worse than I could imagine.”
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“What a good time it would be to have a leader with a moral compass,” Meyers said.
Meyers ended by praising Rob, saying, “He was a man who set an example. There’s such a value in that and we have to do everything we can to not make setting an example a lost art.”
Rob, 78, and Michele, 68, were found dead inside their Brentwood home in Los Angeles on Sunday, December 14. The Los Angeles Police Department said the couple exhibited stab wounds.
On Monday, the couple’s son, Nick, 32, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the deaths.
