Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were enjoying loving dinners and TV time with their children just weeks before being violently stabbed to death.
Cinematographer Barry Markowitz, one of Rob’s close friends and longtime collaborators, exclusively spoke to Page Six about recently staying at the Reiner residence in Brentwood, Calif.
“I may have been one of the last people to see them,” he shared with us over the phone on Tuesday.
Markowitz explained to Page Six that Rob had invited him to stay at his home while he was in town for the Nov. 14 premiere of his latest film, “The Perfect Gamble.”
“They would say, ‘You’re staying here. You’re not going to no hotel. There’s no fridge, good toilet paper, no family,’” the Tel Aviv-based director of photography recalled.
Markowitz joined Rob, Michele and their kids — Nick, 32, and Romy, 28 — as they went about their days “business as usual.” The couple’s other son Jake, 34, was busy elsewhere with work.
“Romy was in and out [of the house] and at dinner time she comes over and we all bulls–t together,” Markowitz said, while describing their time together.
“[We would] scream at the TV, we watched a movie and a basketball game. Played with the dogs. Family time. One big love fest.”
Markowitz noted that Nick — who has publicly struggled with drug addiction issues since he was a teenager — seemed to be “on the upswing.”
“He looked great. He was sitting and talking with the family,” Markowitz shared. “They eat dinner together, old school, and a lot of love, always a lot of love.”
Markowitz told us that during his visit, Nick would go out and play tennis or “shoot hoops.” He was also around and present during dinner time.
“He helped out, he took out the garbage, he watched TV, he washed dishes,” the award-winning cinematographer recalled. “He’d bring me something to drink. He was just normal in that sense.”
Markowitz noted that he didn’t notice “anything strange” with the family dynamics.
“They were busy working and doing stuff,” he said of the Reiners. “The help was there, the secretaries were there, in and out of the house … business as usual.”
Markowitz described his five-night stay with the Reiners as being “a blast.”
“I think what’s puzzling the most, the 360, is that there was so much love, that it doesn’t jive,” Markowitz said, referring to Nick being arrested on charges of murdering his parents.
“I’m not here to judge anyone. L. O. V. E. is the only thing I saw, and I don’t think it was fake. They had a real bond.”
Of Nick’s mental state he added, “It’s just a sickness. That’s my verdict.”
Markowitz told Page Six that Rob and Michele “never, ever, ever” gave up on Nick during his very public battle with drug addiction over the years.
“They gave him everything, they tried a million things with him … Not giving him money but sending him to top of the line places,” he explained, referring to Nick’s multiple stints in rehab.
“Rob never gave up. He tried everything. If you knew Rob, he was just a bundle of love.”
As for Michele, Markowitz described her as a “balabusta,” using the Yiddish word for an exceptionally skilled homemaker.
“She was the kingpin and she was the strength — the rock,” he gushed.
Markowitz — who was the cinematographer on the 2015 film “Being Charlie” (written by Nick and directed by Rob) — also denied that there was any father-son tension on the movie’s set.
“I cannot remember no tension … we were just having a decent time, all of us. One big family and there was no fights,” he claimed.
Markowitz went on to tell us that Rob and Michele had no reason to think that Nick would ever hurt them — despite Nick admitting to once destroying his parents’ home during a drug-fueled rage.
“[Rob] never had fears for his safety. I’m not in his head, but we talked. [Nick] wasn’t a violent type,” he alleged.
“I slept in the same house as Nick. There was never a thought, I believe, in Rob’s head [that Nick was a danger.] If he would have thought his life was in peril at any point, he would have handled the situation.”
With Nick being arrested in connection with the murders, Markowitz said he doesn’t believe Rob and Michele’s son had any motive to harm his parents.
“When somebody is mentally disturbed, you don’t need a reason. There’s no rhyme or reason,” he explained. “Mental illness, that’s the reason.”
Markowitz — who worked on three films with Rob and viewed him “like a brother” — said he is “totally broken” after losing his friends.
“I can’t believe they’re not here,” he said of Rob and Michele. “I’m looking at the iPad, everything is Rob Reiner. I started crying…I want to call him up and say, ‘Hey, buddy.’”
He added, “[Rob] was like my family. Four, five days later, I’m here in this f–king nightmare.”
As Page Six previously reported, Rob and Michele were found stabbed to death at their home in Brentwood, Calif., Sunday afternoon. Rob was 78 and Michele was 68.
Nick was arrested on murder charges in his parents’ stabbing deaths. He was set to be arraigned Tuesday morning at Los Angeles Municipal Court. However, it was postponed as Nick’s lawyer told reporters that his client was not medically cleared to be “transferred to court.”
The “All in the Family” alum and Michele reportedly feuded with Nick at Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party Saturday night — just hours before they were discovered with their throats slit.
Rob and Michele tied the knot in 1989 after meeting on the set of the director’s famed film “When Harry Met Sally” that year. Along with his three children with Michele, Rob adopted daughter Tracy, 61, during his first marriage to the late Penny Marshall.
Read the full article here
