Sandwiched between Bel-Air and Santa Monica, the tony Los Angeles neigborhood of Brentwood has long been home to more than its fair share of industry captains, actors, directors, musicians, media moguls and professional athletes.
But despite its tall hedges, multimillion-dollar homes and marquee names, residents say Brentwood feels like a small town. It’s not that unusual to see a famous face at the local coffeehouse, supermarket or power-walking along San Vicente Boulevard.
“You could also be walking around the Country Mart and, hey, there’s Dustin Hoffman. It happens,” said Jeff Hall, founder of Brentwood News and a Brentwood resident for 35 years.
Now, residents here are taking the shocking killings of Hollywood legend Rob Reinerand his photographer wife Michele hard. Reiner was a popular figure among a legion of fans, as well as those who called him a neighbor. Compounding the pain has been the arrest of their son Nick, who lived in the Reiners’ guesthouse and grew up in the area.
Since news of the killing broke on Sunday, the international press has descended on the community. The streets are dotted with TV trucks beaming live coverage and reporters looking to make sense of the violence.
This, too, is something Brentwood is familiar with. In 1962, the death of Marilyn Monroe brought notoriety. Then, 31 years ago, Brentwood was under siege for months by one of the most sensational killings of all time. Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death outside Nicole’s condo on Bundy Drive. Days later, O.J. Simpson was arrested after leading police on an infamous “slow speed chase” from Orange County to the gates of his Brentwood estate on Rockingham Avenue.
The global media camped out, and it sometimes seemed like they never would leave. Mezzaluna, the Italian restaurant where Nicole ate her last meal, became a tourist attraction for a time, as did the Starbucks where Ron and Nicole hung out with friends. (O.J. Simpson’s home was demolished several years later.)
Residents hope the Reiner case will not be a repeat of the Simpson drama.
Larry Watts, 86, an attorney who has lived in the community for more than 50 years, lamented the shadow that the Simpson killing cast on the neighbrohood.
“I remember talking with people from other parts of the country back after the O.J. thing and, if you said you were from Brentwood, that’s something they would immediately mention,” Watts said. “They’d ask, ‘Did you see the O.J. chase?’”
“When the O.J. thing happened, people descended on Brentwood with cameras,” Brentwood News’ Hall said. “People would land at LAX for two hours and would just drive out to Brentwood to look. We had traffic jams for months.”
Myles Berkowitz recalled leaving his home and walking a few blocks mid-pursuit so he could see the Bronco exit onto Sunset Boulevard with his own eyes, and watch it head toward Simpson’s Brentwood home.
Berkowitz said the glare of the international spotlight was jarring, even if running into A-list celebrities at the grocery store was an everyday occurrence.
“The thing about Brentwood is that in some ways it’s still a small town,” Berkowitz said. “There’s obviously a lot of celebrities that live here, but they’re all neighbors.”
Neighbors in Brentwood are used to seeing famous faces around town, and treat them like fellow locals.
“They know we know who they are, but you don’t make a big deal out about it,” Berkowitz said. “A lot of our kids go to the same school or they’re playing in the same sports leagues, or against each other in the school teams.”
Asked which celebrities he runs into regularly in the area, Berkowitz declined to comment on the record, saying it “wouldn’t be neighborly to do so.” However, he said he’s run into a “healthy number of people named in Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah song.”
Similar to what occurred in 1994, Watts now finds himself explaining to people how Brentwood is a safe community in the wake of the Reiner slayings. Violent crime is uncommon here, but he said he understands why terrible crimes such as the Simpson and Goldman killings, and now the Reiner slayings, gain so much attention.
“This could have happened in any community,” Watts said. “The only thing that is unique about Brentwood is that the victims were very prominent, and there are a lot of prominent people in the entertainment industry who live in Brentwood.”
The Reiners may have been high-profile Hollywood figures with wealth, influence and political connections, but a family’s tragic struggle with drug addiction and mental health issues resonates with people inside and outside of Brentwood, Watts said.
“I think people are more upset, and saddened by the events,” he said.
Hall agreed, saying “families that deal with this — and there are plenty of them — know how difficult this is.”
Its unclear how long the spotlight will linger on Brentwood.
At the site of the Rockingham estate that O.J. and Nicole Brown Simpson once called home, traffic is normal. But about a mile and a half away on Helena Drive sits Marilyn Monroe’s former home, where she was found dead. Spectators still drive past and often park in front of the Hollywood icon’s home.
The community has seen jarring times, but residents say they expect things will eventually get back to normal. For neighbors, the Reiner deaths mean the loss of community members — connections not shown on television cameras or felt by curious onlookers.
“The moment word started to spread that the Reiners’ son Nick had faced mental health [and] addiction issues, whatever shock I was feeling was immediately replaced by sadness,” Hall said.
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