Rob Reiner’s friend who was one of the last people to speak with late filmmaker delivers brutal words to star’s accused killer

As Rob Reiner‘s accused murderer seeks to gain access to his trust fund for his legal defense, a friend of the late filmmaker had brutal words for the alleged killer.  

Monty Python star Eric Idle has ‘no sympathy’ for Nick Reiner, the man accused of killing his parents Rob and Michele Reiner last year and who is now fighting for money left to him by his family from behind bars. 

Idle, 83, was asked about Nick ‘spending some of the family’s money on his defense attorneys’ by TMZ and issued a brief but powerful response which left no question about his feelings on Nick. 

‘I was the last man probably to talk to his father, so I have no sympathy,’ he said. 

Nick is accused of killing his father Rob and mother Michele Singer Reiner in December 2025. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, with the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder by means of lying in wait. 

Shortly after the couple were found dead, Idle revealed he had spoken with the filmmaker for ‘over an hour’ the night before the tragedy. 

‘Rob Reiner was a lovely man. I spoke to him last night for over an hour. I always enjoyed his company,’ he tweeted. 

He recalled having met Reiner at his father Carl Reiner’s home in 1975. 

‘I met him at his Dad’s in 1975. He was telling me about fiming 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.’

For almost a year, Nick has been locked up at Twin Towers Correctional Facility following accusations he murdered his parents. 

Nick has been battling to gain access to a trust worth roughly $1.6 million to pay for legal fees, insisting the funds legally belong to him as he prepares to stand trial over the killings. 

Attorneys for Nick have contended the accused murderer should have access to a trust fund created for him as a baby, arguing a ‘substantial portion’ of it consists of money left to him by his grandfather Carl Reiner.

The trustee responsible for the account, cites California’s Slayer Statute as one of the reasons the money has been withheld from Nick, which can prevent someone who unlawfully kills another person from financially benefiting from that death.

But in court documents previously obtained by The Daily Mail, lawyers for Nick claim the statute does not apply in this particular case and that much of the funds in the trust were actually left to him by his grandfather, Hollywood legend Carl Reiner, and not his parents.

‘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,’ the documents explain.

It later adds: ‘A substantial portion of the funds currently held in Nick’s Trust did not even come from Nick’s parents – it was money that Nick’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.

‘Either way, the Slayer Statute has no application to that money. Nick’s grandfather died on June 29, 2020. Nick is not accused of causing his death.

‘Money that was left to Nick by his grandfather is not money received by Nick from or through his parents. To the extent the funds Nick received from his grandfather are Nick’s personal assets, they remain Nick’s and should be segregated and released from this Trust.

‘Even if they were properly held by the Trust, the Slayer Statute does not supply a basis for withholding them, and they should be distributed in accordance with Paragraphs 4.4 and 4.5 of the Trust.’

In the filings, Nick’s lawyers also claimed that their client cannot even use his fortune to buy basic items from the commissary.

‘In the meantime, Nick still has not been able to access even $5 from his trust to buy basic subsistence items from the jail commissary,’ his attorneys wrote.

The complaint comes amid a bitter family divide over the fortune Rob and Michele established for their son when he was an infant.

Sources previously told the Daily Mail that Nick’s siblings Jake and Romy Reiner are united in refusing to help him turn his inheritance into a war chest to fight charges that he brutally murdered their parents.

‘It’s not an issue of love or not, it’s an issue of how much do you allow someone to take from you,’ a longtime Reiner family friend said.

‘Knowing that he’s using their inheritance for his defense is just too much. They won’t allow that if they can help it.’

Sources previously told the Daily Mail that Jake, 35, and Romy, 28, have felt the need to establish strict boundaries as they grieve their parents.

‘I wouldn’t say [they] abandoned him for good,’ one family friend said. ‘I’d say that they are setting boundaries that are appropriate for their healing, and Nick is not a part of their healing.’

Another source said the siblings were ‘not budging’ over the trust dispute.

Their older half-sister Tracy Reiner, 62, Rob’s adopted daughter from his marriage to Penny Marshall, was also said to support keeping Nick from accessing the inheritance.

Nick’s attorneys insist, however, that the dispute is fundamentally about his right to use money that already belongs to him while he is still presumed innocent.

‘What the Successor Trustee asks this Court to do is enter an order freezing a presumed-innocent man’s own untainted money until after the trial at which his liberty will be decided,’ they wrote.

They also claim his siblings have made ‘no claim’ over the money in the trust.

‘They were served with Nick’s Petition months ago and did not object, and they have never sought a determination under the Slayer Statute. To the contrary, in April 2026 they consented in writing to the disbursement of a substantial portion of Nick’s Trust to pay legal fees incurred by his criminal-defense lawyers,’ the filing says.

Nick pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder over the December 14, 2025 deaths of his father, acclaimed filmmaker Rob Reiner, 78, and his photographer-producer mother Michele, 70, at their Brentwood home.

Prosecutors allege the couple were stabbed to death and Nick was indicted in July with special circumstances including lying in wait, along with an allegation that he used a knife.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman recently announced that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty. Nick could still face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.