Cheryl Hines 'iced out' of Larry David's new HBO show by the Obamas

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

Cheryl Hines's hopes of reuniting on screen with her longtime TV husband Larry David are fading fast - and the Obamas may be to blame, Daily Mail can reveal.
The comedian and screenwriter was recently revealed to be working on a new HBO comedy series to mark America's 250th anniversary next year, with the former president and first lady to serve as producers.
The show, which will consist of six half-hour episodes, is expected to see many of the stars from Larry's hit sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm reunite on set.
But insiders tell Daily Mail that Cheryl's marriage to Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is all but certain to rule her out.
According to sources, Barack and Michelle Obama, whose production firm, Higher Ground, is producing the show, are 'vehemently opposed' to Cheryl having any part in the project due to her political alliances.
The 59-year-old actress otherwise would have likely been a 'natural choice shoo-in' after famously playing Larry's character's wife on Curb Your Enthusiasm for all 12 seasons.
But Cheryl is now facing what another source called 'the cancel culture wrath of her beloved Hollywood at the highest level of progressive political power'.
'The Obamas are adamant that anyone politically connected to Trump - who they despise - should not have a role in any of their lucrative media projects,' one well-connected source told Daily Mail.
'That clearly would include Cheryl. Worse for her in the Obamas' eyes - and Larry's, too - she dropped her affiliation with the Democrat Party and calls herself an Independent and has an amicable friendship with Donald Trump.'
Ironically, back in 2008, then President-elect Obama considered RFK Jr. for a cabinet position as EPA administrator, enforcing environmental laws, according to Politico.
But the idea was reportedly scrapped over fears Kennedy would have difficulty getting confirmed by Senate Republicans due to his past drug use and controversial statements.
'It's now gone full circle,' a source noted.
As an executive producer as well as the star of the upcoming series, Larry could override his powerful partners and cast Cheryl, but insiders say such a move is unlikely.
They claim Larry's longtime personal and professional relationship with Cheryl has 'chilled if not completely faded' since her husband dropped his Democratic affiliation and ran as an Independent against Joe Biden last year.
Kennedy then became a MAGA ally and acolyte as the Trump administration's Secretary of Health and Human Services in February, and most recently, leader of its 'Make America Healthy Again' movement.
Meanwhile Larry, 78, remains a prominent, staunchly liberal Democrat celebrity, who supported Joe Biden's presidential campaign and reportedly contributed $15,000 to the 2020 Biden Victory Fund.
'It would be a tough call for Larry to bring Cheryl on to the new show because of his negative feelings about Bobby's politics, Cheryl's avid support of MAGA and MAHA, and Larry's extreme loathing of Trump,' a source said.
Even Larry's ex-wife, Laurie David, 67, a liberal democrat, environmentalist, feminist, and inspiration for Cheryl's role as Larry's TV spouse, attacked her earlier this year after she was seen supporting her husband at his Senate confirmation hearings.
She called Cheryl's appearance in the Senate chamber her 'best and most watched performance yet as the dutiful, adoring wife setting women back decades'.
Critical: Larry's ex-wife, Laurie, took aim at Cheryl earlier this year in a barbed post on Threads after she was seen supporting her husband at his Senate confirmation hearings
Cheryl responded to Laurie's remarks in an interview this week with the Wall Street Journal, admitting she found the post 'odd' because she doesn't 'really have a relationship with her'.
She added that she and Larry are still friends.
Her publicist, however, declined to comment when Daily Mail asked about the state of Cheryl and Larry's relationship, and whether or not she'll have a role in his new show.
The Obamas' and Larry's new TV project is a sketch comedy will also see Curb Your Enthusiasm showrunner Jeff Schaffer co-write and direct episodes.
The show's name is yet to be announced but its promotional logline states 'President and Mrs Obama wanted to honor America's 250th anniversary and celebrate the unique history of our nation on this special occasion. …But then Larry David called'.
'I've sat across from some of the world's most difficult leaders and wrestled with some of our most intractable problems. Nothing prepared me for working with Larry David,' Obama joked in a statement.
Schaffer added: 'The characters Larry is playing didn't change history. In fact, they were largely ignored by history. And that's a good thing.'
The show will feature a mix of Curb Your Enthusiasm cast members and other guests, but casting details have not been released.
With her gig in the new show in question, and Curb Your Enthusiasm no longer in production, Cheryl is apparently pursuing other work.
She recently served as the executive producer and star in a low-budget horror short film in Italy with her 21-year-old daughter Catherine from her first marriage to Paul Young.
Cheryl also scored a $600,000 advance from RFK Jr.'s longtime book publisher and political backer to pen a memoir due in November entitled Unscripted.
Cheryl has been spending time between the Kennedy estate in Los Angeles and their new $4.3million townhouse in the ritzy Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. – the home she reportedly demanded her husband buy in April after he was caught up in a sexting scandal last year with political journalist Olivia Nuzzi, 32.
The actress wanted to keep close tabs on him and his wandering eye, sources told Daily Mail at the time.
Before RFK Jr. 'infuriated' Larry with his presidential bid against Biden last year and then taking a role in the Trump administration in February, the two men had a close friendship, sources say.
It was during a 2004 charity ski event with Larry and his first wife that Kennedy was introduced to Cheryl, a friend of Laurie, according to the couple.
At the time, Cheryl was separated from her first husband, Hollywood producer and manager Young, who had helped her with her acting career.
Womanizing Kennedy, who suffered from what he called 'love demons' in a diary that listed dozens of women, was still married to his second wife, late architectural designer Mary Richardson, the mother of four of his six children.
Like a scenario out of the offbeat Curb Your Enthusiasm show, he later claimed that he bizarrely asked Larry for permission to date his TV wife, and that Larry gave him the green light, but warned Cheryl it was not a good idea to be with him.
He told Bobby that she was 'the most solid person I ever met'.
Richardson told a different story, claiming she introduced Cheryl to her husband at a charity event. When she learned they were having an affair, she was heartbroken.
She later told a confidante that she felt 'very betrayed' by what she termed the 'sisterhood – women sticking together, supporting one another'.
Cheryl reportedly began publicly boasting about her relationship with RFK Jr., which humiliated his wife of 18 years.
Online, Richardson saw that Cheryl had tweeted that she had become friends with Mary's close friend Glenn Close, had bonded with Bobby's sister Kerry Kennedy, and become pals with his youngest son Aidan.
In the wake of Cheryl's tweets, an online commenter observed: 'Was Hines so self-absorbed that she did not think her giddy and public celebration would have no effect on the woman left behind?'
Kennedy filed divorce in 2010, and two years later Mary Richardson, 52, died by suicide at her home in Bedford, New York.
Four years later, on a drizzly Saturday in August 2014, at the storied Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, Cheryl became the third Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
One of the guests of honor was Larry, who once told the Kennedy scion: 'Nothing you ever do will rattle her.'