Day: December 15, 2025

Reiner: amid gloom, triumph and joy in TV and movies

Norman Lear once summarized his friend beautifully:
“To be alone with Rob Reiner is to be in a crowd,” he wrote. “His brain and his mouth, like a chain of Chinese firecrackers, are firing constantly.”
And that brain kept triumphing — as a comedy writer, as one of the stars of Lear’s “All In the Family” and then as the director of classic movies, from “This Is Spinal Tap” to “A Few Good Men” and “When Harry Met Sally.”
Reiner (shown here in “This Is Spinal Tap,” 78, and his wife Michelle, 68, were reportedly found dead Sunday (Dec. 14), apparently stabbed to death. He left an awesome track record. Read more…

Best-bets for Dec. 17: two finales, plus pop stars

1) “Survivor” finale, 8-11 p.m., CBS. After last week’s scrambling (shown here), five survivors remain. There’s Rizo Velovic, 25, in tech sales; Sophie Balardi, 27, entrepreneur; Sage Ahrens-Nichols, 30, clinical social worker; Savannah Louie, 31, former reporter; and Kristina Mills, 36, career counselor. Tonight, one will become the 49th million-dollar winner. Read more…