Bill Hader appeared strained as he was pictured for the first time since his tense chat with Rob Reiner’s son Nick Reiner at Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party, just hours before Nick allegedly murdered his parents.
The comedian, 47, looked tense while pacing back and forth during a phone call in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
A source told the Daily Mail that the SNL alum ‘is horrified’ and ‘extremely sad’ over the murders of Rob and his wife Michele and ‘doesn’t want to be connected to this story’.
‘Bill doesn’t want this tragedy to be made about him, and any disagreement he may have had with Nick, Bill is refusing to talk about it,’ the insider added.
Beloved Hollywood director Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele, 70, were both found dead with their throats slit in their Los Angeles mansion on Sunday.
Nick was arrested in connection with the murders later that day. He has since been charged with two counts of first-degree murder – if convicted, he could face life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
Hours before the murders, Nick is believed to have ‘stormed off’ from Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party on Saturday after getting into a tense chat with Hader.
‘Bill, like everyone who saw Rob and Michele at the party, is horrified over what happened and is extremely sad that what went down, actually went down,’ a source told the Daily Mail.
‘With total respect for Rob and Michele and their family, Bill is not going to talk about his interaction with Nick publicly,’ the source added.
The insider said Hader ‘doesn’t want to be connected to this story over a few-minute interaction at a party that was meant to be fun and festive.’
Hader was dressed down on Tuesday, wearing a black sweatshirt with an orange logo, black sweatpants, and simple black-and-white slides.
The actor’s hair was disheveled, and he sported a salt-and-pepper beard.
Reiner reportedly had a ‘very loud argument’ with Nick at the party – with witnesses recalling Nick, who has a damning track record of alleged violence and substance abuse, was acting erratically at the bash, according to TMZ.
Now a source has claimed to NBC News that Nick ‘interrupted Hader’ at the party and was allegedly left annoyed when the comic told him he was ‘in the middle of a private conversation’.
The source claimed after Hader’s alleged comment: ‘Nick just stood there and stared before storming off.’
The unsettling interaction concerned other partygoers, the source added.
The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for O’Brien and Nick’s attorney Alan Jackson for comment and has yet to hear back.
A representative for Hader declined to comment.
Reiner reportedly brought Nick to O’Brien’s holiday party to ‘keep an eye on him’.
Guests at the A-list packed holiday party said Nick displayed ‘antisocial behavior’, including staring at attendees.
At the party, sources also told People that Nick was ‘acting crazy’, and ‘kept asking people if they were famous’.
The late couple’s daughter Romy, 27, who lives across the street from their home in LA’s ritzy Brentwood neighborhood, made the grim discovery of their dead bodies the following afternoon.
Nick, who lived in his parents’ guest house, was arrested for allegedly fatally stabbing them in their bed on Sunday night after he checked into a motel close to Santa Monica’s pier.
Police reportedly raided the hotel room and found a shower ‘full of blood,’ blood all over the bed and the windows blacked out with the bedsheets.
Nick’s first court hearing was set for Tuesday morning at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, but was delayed because he was not medically cleared to be transferred from the jail to the courthouse, according to Jackson.
Jackson told reporters outside the courthouse that he did not know what the medical issue was, but he said Nick will not appear before Wednesday.
Nick remains in custody at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles.
He was arrested several hours after his parents were found dead in their home in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on Sunday.
The couple were found in bed with their throats cut and may have been asleep when they were murdered, a source close to the investigation claimed to the Daily Mail.
The gruesome detail could help establish a timeline of the killings. Investigators have not yet offered any potential motive for the murders.
His attorney has made a career of representing high-profile clients, including CEOs, celebrities, NBA players and foreign royals.
Among Jackson’s most famous clients was Harvey Weinstein, whom he represented during his sexual assault trial in Los Angeles. A jury convicted Weinstein in 2022.
He represented Kevin Spacey when he was accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man in Massachusetts.
Jackson, known for his assertive courtroom style, challenged the accusations from the accuser and prosecution. The charges against Spacey were ultimately dropped.
He most recently represented Karen Read, who this year was acquitted of murdering her boyfriend in Massachusetts after a mistrial and hung jury.
Jackson was a central figure in the HBO documentary about the Read case.
Reiner was the Emmy-winning star of the sitcom All in the Family, who went on to direct films including When Harry Met Sally and The Princess Bride. He was an outspoken liberal activist for decades.
Michele was a photographer, movie producer and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. They had been married for 36 years.
Three months ago, Nick was photographed with his parents and siblings at the premiere of his father’s film Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues.
He had spoken publicly of his struggles with addiction, cycling in and out of treatment facilities with bouts of homelessness in between through his teen years.
The father and son explored – and seemed to improve – their relationship through the making of the 2016 film, Being Charlie.
Nick co-wrote and his father directed the film about the struggles of an addicted son and a famous father. It was not autobiographical but included several elements of their lives.
‘It forced us to understand ourselves better than we had,’ Rob Reiner told the AP in 2016. ‘I told Nick while we were making it, I said, “You know it doesn’t matter, whatever happens to this thing, we won already”.’
