The NY Times has a great Styles interview with actress Cheryl Hines and husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It’s a ‘get’ because no one can believe Hines, of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” fame, is in her right mind being with Kennedy, a man with such lunatic ideas his own family doesn’t endorse him for president or believe in what he says.
There are a lot of takeaways from the piece, but this stands out:
When asked twice if he would reject an endorsement from Mr. Jones, who lost a $1 billion lawsuit for repeatedly saying the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Conn., was a government hoax, Mr. Kennedy did not respond. Mr. Kennedy said that he would “love to go on Steve Bannon’s show, but Cheryl just can’t bear that,” so he has not.
Let’s not gloss over this important moment in the Times piece. Kennedy does not denounce Jones, a monstrous conspiracy theorist who has caused pain for so many people. Kennedy is keeping his options open. Got that?
Kennedy is a few lightbulbs short of a chandelier. We knew that when he recommended parole for SIrhan Sirhan, the man who assassinated his father. Why Hines stuck with him after his second wife committed suicide is a mystery. (The Times skirts around the gruesome details.) And then she married him. The family of Mary Richardson has nothing but bad things to say about Kennedy. They’ve been public about it. So that’s one thing.
But it’s Kennedy statement about the COVID vaccine, about the Holocaust, and so on that have shown him to be not a “Kennedy Democrat,” but a right wing nut who will be a distraction in a serious election. Now in this Times piece we get it: he’s right in there with Trump and MAGA, and has nothing to do with Democratic politics.
Hines, the piece points out, doesn’t seem to have a real grasp of what’s going on. This is surprising since she always seemed smart and intuitive. But her boss, Larry David, sends a text to writer Caitlin Moscatello underlining that he doesn’t support Kennedy. Cheryl’s long ago former boss, Rob Reiner, has come out for Biden.
And then there are the repercussions in Hollywood. Hines says: “I haven’t lost any jobs because of my support for his candidacy, but there was a project I’m involved in where there was a pause for discussion about how his candidacy might affect what we are doing but it has been resolved.” Mr. Kennedy added that so far, “I feel a lot of support and love from most of her friends, including Larry.” (In a text, Mr. David clarified: “Yes love and support, but I’m not ‘supporting’ him.”)
Moscatello’s piece is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more under the surface of the Kennedy-Hines connection, and there’s way more about Kennedy’s life and the frisson with the Richardsons that’s yet to be heard. But personal stuff aside, I find him a scary guy, and at this point we’ve had as much fringe politics as we can take in this country.
