{"id":493908,"date":"2026-01-05T10:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T10:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493908\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T10:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T10:55:12","slug":"chelsea-handler-pays-tribute-to-rob-reiner-goes-after-david-zaslav-shouts-out-heated-rivalry-in-critics-choice-opening-monologue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493908\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea Handler Pays Tribute To Rob Reiner, Goes After David Zaslav &#038; Shouts Out \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 In Critics Choice Opening Monologue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">After multiple successful hosting stints at the Critics Choice Awards, comedian Chelsea Handler took the stage at Barker Hangar for the fourth time \u2014 paying tribute to the late Rob Reiner, not holding back on shots at Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Leonardo DiCaprio and even shouting out breakout Crave Canada hit Heated Rivalry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cSinners is the story of brothers who start this really fun place for entertainment and then vampires show up, suck the life out of everybody and burn it all to the ground. Fun fact: The original name of the main vampire was David Zaslav,\u201d she quipped, as the camera panned to star Michael B. Jordan, who could be seen ruefully shaking his head at the joke.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>More from Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Touting the period drama\u2019s near-$368 million worldwide box office gross, Handler called out a piece from our sister publication, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/sinners-box-office-report-variety-backlash-ben-stiller\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:readers and celebrities alike slammed;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">readers and celebrities alike slammed<\/a> for minimizing the critically acclaimed film\u2019s financial performance. \u201cWhite Hollywood was so shook after seeing the box office numbers, Variety ran the headline: \u2018Do box office numbers really matter?&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In another biz-related joke, Handler went after the C-suite in general: \u201cSeth Rogen is here tonight. Years of playing stoners, slackers and underachievers who do next to nothing all day prepared Seth for his latest role of someone who does even less \u2014 a studio head.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The comic also went after One Battle After Another star DiCaprio, who just last night <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/movies\/articles\/leonardo-dicaprio-miss-palm-springs-021332952.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:missed an appearance at the Palm Springs Film Festival;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">missed an appearance at the Palm Springs Film Festival<\/a> (where he was set to accept a Desert Palm Achievement Award), due to travel restrictions. The Oscar winner was vacationing on a yacht off the coast of St. Barts at the time. \u201cIt was just like the Titanic but worse because Jeff Bezos was there,\u201d Handler said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Showering praise on the year\u2019s original series, Handler gave a warm shoutout to one of most dominant shows in the zeitgeist: \u201cYou guys made amazing, original shows that everyone couldn\u2019t stop talking about \u2014 until that gay hockey show from Canada came along,\u201d she said. \u201cShoutout to Heated Rivalry; everyone loves it: Gay men love it, women love it, straight men who say they aren\u2019t gay but work out at Equinox love it!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In more TV-related material, Handler said: \u201cThe cast of Landman is here. Spoiler alert: In a recent episode, Billy Bob Thornton went full frontal. Taylor Sheridan said it was nice to have a dick on set that wasn\u2019t Kevin Costner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Closing out her opener, after Handler highlighted Jay Kelly\u2018s Adam Sandler as \u201cthe nicest guy in Hollywood,\u201d she launched into a sweet remembrance of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, who were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/police-rob-reiner-home-2-023708536.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:found dead mid-December;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">found dead mid-December<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/police-rob-reiner-home-2-023708536.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:after being allegedly stabbed by their son Nick Reiner;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">after being allegedly stabbed by their son Nick Reiner<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cActually, you\u2019re the second nicest guy in Hollywood, because everyone in this room knows that the nicest guy in Hollywood was Rob Reiner,\u201d she began. \u201cAnyone who ever spent time with Rob Reiner knows that the minute you met him, he felt like an old friend. When you were in a conversation with him, he was present, he was focused and he was funny, and he would ask you tons of questions, whether you were discussing politics or film or the latest beauty trends \u2014 he was all in. After I sent him a text thanking him for dinner a few months ago, he texted me back and said, \u2018We had so much fun with you last night. Thanks for explaining so much about plastic surgery. It was very edifying.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She concluded, \u201cRob and Michele were tireless in their efforts to so many important causes, all stemming from one basic idea: decency and that we should all look out for each other. I think we can all agree that we definitely need more of that. So, let\u2019s use tonight as a reminder of that decency and as a reminder of everything Rob and Michele represented and fought so hard for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Best of Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Sign up for <a href=\"https:\/\/cloud.email.deadline.com\/signup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Deadline&#039;s Newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Deadline&#8217;s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/31XsHSx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2TkcoeG\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Twitter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Twitter<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2TntOHq\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After multiple successful hosting stints at the Critics Choice Awards, comedian Chelsea Handler took the stage at Barker&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":493909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[222394,222395,185,222165,47781,171,191743,14107,13618,52116,221367,118515,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-493908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-barker-hangar","9":"tag-box-office-numbers","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-chelsea-handler","12":"tag-david-zaslav","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-heated-rivalry","15":"tag-hollywood","16":"tag-leonardo-dicaprio","17":"tag-michael-b-jordan","18":"tag-palm-springs-film-festival","19":"tag-rob-reiner","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115842130273460239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}