Larry David’s new HBO show features numerous cameos from his Curb Your Enthusiasm co-stars, including Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, and JB Smoove. But one original cast member is conspicuously missing from Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: David’s former TV wife, Cheryl Hines.
“I haven’t spoken to her in a very long time,” Curb alum Jeff Schaffer, who co-created the series with David and directed all seven episodes, told Obsessed: The Podcast. “I’d like to think she still has that brilliant sense of humor she used to have, but I don’t know.”
Hines, 60, played David’s fictional wife, Cheryl, on Curb Your Enthusiasm, from the series premiere in 2000 through the series finale 24 years later. But her marriage to Donald Trump’s current Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has caused a major rift between her and her former on-screen collaborators.
Asked if he and David reached out to Hines to ask her to appear in the new series, Schaffer replied with a simple “nope.”
After working closely with her for more than two decades, Schaffer says he’s “very” surprised by her sharp turn towards MAGA politics. “My experiences working with her were nothing but the best, the warmest, the funniest, just a delight, loved working with her,” he recalled. “So, I don’t know, people make choices.”
The fact that Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness is co-executive-produced by Barack and Michelle Obama likely did not aid Hines’ chances of landing a cameo role. But even if the former first lady didn’t personally ban Hines from joining the show, the bad blood between Hines and David has been evident for some time now.
Hines initially downplayed their falling-out this past October, saying, “I love Larry, and I think Larry loves me,” but later admitted that she knew he was “mad” at her over her husband’s role in Trump’s administration. She then called David “crazy” for comparing Trump to Hitler in a comedic essay about comedian Bill Maher’s White House dinner.
David’s intense frustration with Kennedy’s anti-science policies becomes abundantly clear in a sketch from this coming Friday’s new episode of the historical comedy show that centers on Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine.
Without spoiling the sketch too much, it features an unhinged character named “Bobby” with a ruddy face and gravelly voice that is clearly based on Kennedy. As the character spouts wild anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, David’s character tells him to “drop dead,” adding, “God help us if some moron ever put you in charge, that would be a dark day for humanity.”
Those harsh words directed at a stand-in for Kennedy are especially jarring, given that David is actually responsible for introducing Kennedy to Hines in 2004. Hines has said she’s been “surprised” by friendships that have dissolved because of her marriage.
Schaffer explained that David wanted to use his new show to comment on “vaccine ignorance and the ignoring of science that’s happening right now.” But instead of going at it directly, they wanted to examine it through the lens of history.
“If we’re gonna talk about that stuff that’s happening right now, let’s do it with the polio vaccine,” Schaffer said. “We’ve learned nothing, it’s insane! So when you get those opportunities to show how far we haven’t come, those are moments we wanted to take advantage of.”
New episodes of Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness air Friday nights at 9 p.m. on HBO and stream on HBO Max.
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