Eric Idle has said he has "no sympathy" for Rob Reiner's son. The Monty Python icon, 83, was close friends with the Hollywood director who, along with his wife Michele, was found dead just days before Christmas last year.
Their son Nick Reiner, 33, was indicted on charges of murdering his parents and is still behind bars at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, awaiting trial. Reiner was charged with first-degree murder on December 16, just two days after the murder of his parents. His trust fund is reportedly worth around $1.6 million.
Idle's blunt response
When asked about how he feels about Nick, who twice pleaded not guilty, trying to use some of the family's fortune to pay his attorney, Eric gave a blunt response. He told TMZ: "I was the last man probably to talk to his father, so I have no sympathy."
At the time of Rob and Michele's deaths, Eric took to social media to reveal that he had spoken to his friend the night before and revealed more about how their friendship came to be. Sharing a message on X, Eric wrote: "Rob Reiner was a lovely man. I spoke to him last night for over an hour.
"I always enjoyed his company. I met him at his Dad's in 1975. He was telling me about fiming [sic] at Stonehenge and his thoughts for the future. This is so awful. I shall miss him. A clever, talented and very thoughtful man. So awful."
Trust fund dispute
His comments come shortly after it emerged that Nick had claimed that he should have access to the trust fund that was created for him as a baby.
Legal representatives for Reiner claim that a "substantial portion" of the trust consists of money left to him by his grandfather, actor and screenwriter Carl Reiner, who died in 2020 at age 98.
The trustee who is responsible for the fund cites California's Slayer Statute as one of the reasons why he's not able to access the fund. This can prevent somebody who unlawfully kills another person from being able to financially benefit from the death.
However, Reiner's legal representatives have argued that the statute doesn't apply to this case as the vast majority of the funds were left by his granddad, rather than his murdered parents.
Legal arguments
According to documents obtained by the Daily Mail, his lawyers argued: "The Slayer Statute prevents a killer from receiving a benefit created by the killing. It takes away what a person receives because someone died; it does not divest a person of his pre-existing property.
"A substantial portion of the funds currently held in Reiner Trust did not even come from his parents – it was money that Reiner's grandfather, Carl Reiner, left to Nick in his estate plan, with similar distributions to his other grandchildren.
"This includes at least $325,017.49, which was transferred into the Trust account at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank on December 24, 2024. The Successor Trustee's counsel has informed Petitioner that, in addition to that sum, other distributions to Nick from his grandfather may have similarly been deposited into accounts held by this Trust.
"It is not clear how much of the money in the Trust came from his grandfather, or why that money was deposited into Nick's Trust account, rather than to Nick individually. It is Petitioner's understanding that the Successor Trustee is still looking into these matters."
Reiner's legal representatives have also argued that even if the funds were held properly by the trust, the Slayer Statute does not "supply a basis for withholding them". They add that Reiner can't even buy simple things in prison. Reiner's siblings are said to be united in preventing him from accessing his inheritance.
Shortly before that, it emerged that Reiner would not face the death penalty on charges he fatally stabbed his parents after lying in wait at their home in Los Angeles.
