Director Rob Reiner gave an interview with the Daily Beast this week, reconfirming that Donald Trump’s chief strategist and Breitbart bigwig Steve Bannon is partial owner of Seinfeld syndication rights. And, needless to say, Reiner’s not happy about it.
“It’s crazy,” Reiner tells the Daily Beast. “When I first heard about it, it made me sick. It makes me sick. Because I had no idea. I didn’t know who he was, or that he was representing Westinghouse… I think The Huffington Post had the headline right: ‘Trump Hires a White Supremacist.'”
Westinghouse refers to Westinghouse Electric, a utilities company that bought equity in Castle Rock Entertainment and held about 15 percent of the company before it was sold to Ted Turner. The production company was cofounded by Reiner, Alan Horn, Glenn Padnick, and Andrew Scheinman.
It was Westinghouse that called on Bannon’s investment firm for consultation.
“Bannon advised them to stay in and hold on to their profit participation in the series, and Westinghouse said, ‘Well, if you think it’s so good, why don’t you take a piece of this instead of us giving you a fee?'” Reiner explains. “And apparently that’s what Bannon did, and he wound up with a small piece of Seinfeld that he’s had forever.”
Read the full interview at the Daily Beast.