Actress and musician Rita Wilson worked with beloved filmmaker Rob Reiner on multiple films, including the iconic “Sleepless in Seattle.” The pair, along with Reiner’s wife, Michele Reiner, developed a close relationship outside of work throughout the decades.
Tragically, in December 2025, Rob and Michele Reiner were found dead inside their Brentwood, California, home. Now, five months later, Wilson is opening up about some of her fondest memories.
Rita Wilson Remembers ‘Joyful’ Reiners
Wilson recalled some of her favorite memories with the late couple during an interview with People on Thursday, May 7.
“The kind of thing that Rob and Michele would do [is], they’d say, ‘Okay, we’re having a ‘Bad Showbiz Party.’ You have to bring a clip of your worst performance ever. Doesn’t matter what it was from or how far back it went; you have to bring that,'” Wilson recalled. “You have to put your worst showbiz moment on screen in front of all of these people, but everybody’s in the same boat, so you know you’re kind of safe.”
While she did not reveal which clip she brought to the party, the “If These Walls Could Talk” actress details another themed event hosted by the Reiners.
“They started [‘The Godfather’] at maybe 3 p.m., and when that finished, they had a full Italian meal brought in,” Wilson recalled. “We would have a full Italian meal and then screen ‘The Godfather II.'”
“Everything was a celebration” for Rob and Michele, she explained. “There wasn’t anyone more joyful.”
Rita Wilson Pays Tribute to Rob and Michele Reiner
Days after their tragic deaths, Wilson paid tribute to the couple — who left behind sons Nick and Jake, and daughter Romy — in a touching essay published in Variety.
“Yes, there is the work we did together — the films will be there to experience over and over again. What can’t ever be experienced again is running into Rob and Michele in the neighborhood and having a great laugh, or having dinner where Michele insists on having only one conversation,” she wrote. “Nights like Rob and Michele inviting Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart and his dad, Carl Reiner, to show their favorite clips from ‘Your Show of Shows’ and then talk about what it was like working together on that show. Or when they had ‘Bad Showbiz Night’ parties, where you were invited to bring your worst showbiz moment and share it with a room full of luminaries, who also braved exposing their own.”
Wilson, who also starred in Reiner’s “Mixed Nuts” and “The Story of Us,” added, “Rob made history in multiple ways through his work. Both of them made a difference in their civic contributions and actions. They made the world a better place. They loved their kids. Each one. They did everything right. They loved; they were loved.”
In a separate Instagram post, Wilson revealed that she and the Reiners had been “friends since our kids were toddlers attending the same preschool.”
“It’s impossible to reconcile the tragedy of their deaths with the beauty they offered the world,” she shared at the time. “Rob and Michelle, may their memories be eternal.”
