Cheryl Hines, the actress married to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is notably absent from the lineup of Larry David’s new HBO series marking America’s 250th birthday — and sources tell the Daily Mail that former First Lady Michelle Obama is being cited as the reason.
Insiders connected to the seven-part sketch comedy series, Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America, which debuted on June 26, claimed Obama, who serves as an executive producer, insisted Kennedy’s wife be kept off the cast because she is now viewed as “all-MAGA, all-the-time.”
One source went so far as to claim that the possibility of Hines appearing on the program sent Michelle “absolutely ballistic.”
According to those sources, Michelle viewed Hines’s break from her long-standing Democratic ties — along with her cordial relationship with President Donald Trump and figures in his Republican circle — as an unforgivable political shift.
Michelle and Barack Obama are executive producing David’s new project through their film and television company, Higher Ground. Barack is also set to make a guest appearance in the series.
Hines spent more than 20 years appearing on David’s acclaimed sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm, remaining with the show until 2024. So when she learned she would not be included in his latest special project, an insider said she was “devastated.”
Sources claim Michelle Obama is being blamed for Cheryl Hines’s conspicuous absence from Larry David’s new HBO series celebrating America’s 250th birthday
Michelle Obama allegedly blocked the actress, who is married to MAHA figure Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from joining the HBO show because she is now seen as “all-MAGA, all-the-time”
‘Cheryl felt terribly hurt and emotionally injured because she had worked so closely with Larry for the entire 12 seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm and they had become like bosom buddies,’ the insider said.
‘Cheryl’s dream was to work with Larry again and be part of the cast of the new show. She firmly believed that the staunch anti-Trumper could put aside his negative political views about MAGA and Kennedy.
‘But banning Cheryl was a command from Michelle that Larry could not go against, even if he had wanted to, for old time’s sake, and mend their past close ties.
‘He always respected her as an actress. But Michelle’s the boss. And you don’t cross the boss, especially a powerful anti-MAGA force like Michelle.’
Through her spokeswoman, Hines declined to comment on this report.
As David told a screening of the show last week at the American Legion theater in Hollywood, the Obamas’ production company asked him him to do a show honoring America for its 250th anniversary.
‘I liked the idea. I was a history major… because you never know when you’re going to get into a discussion about the Franco-Russian War,’ he told the crowd.
David’s personal and professional relationship with Hines, however, ‘completely faded’ after her husband dropped his longtime Democratic affiliation as a member of the Kennedy clan and briefly ran as an independent in 2024 against former President Joe Biden, who David once publicly supported.
Kennedy, 72, then became a Trump acolyte and is now Secretary of Health and Human Services and the leader of the controversial Make America Healthy Again movement.
The snub comes despite Cheryl Hines starring as Larry David’s wife in his hit show Curb Your Enthusiasm
Michelle and Barack Obama, who are executive producers, teamed up with Larry David for the Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An almost History of America via their TV production company, Higher Ground
According to a well-placed insider, Michelle, 62, as an executive producer, didn’t have much to do with the script or other aspects of David’s series. She was, however, involved in the casting – who the cast members and guest stars would be – and signed off on all of them, making it known: ‘No Cheryl Hines!’
‘Michelle can be a b***h on wheels when she wants to,’ a source said.
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According to Variety, cast members of David’s new show include Curb Your Enthusiasm alumni Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman and JB Smoove, among others.
Jerry Seinfeld, who created Seinfeld with David, will also feature, while other guest stars include Jane Krakowski, Rita Wilson and Gregg Kinnear. Meanwhile, former President Obama, 64, working his acting chops, appears as himself in at least one episode.
‘But when Cheryl’s name was brought up to join the cast by some of the production people who knew and liked her from Curb, Michelle went absolutely ballistic,’ a source said.
‘We cannot and will not have that woman on this show. She’s not one of us,’ Michelle was quoted by the source as saying.
Another insider, who like the others asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from the powerful Obamas, told the Daily Mail: ‘Michelle felt that Cheryl wasn’t any great shakes as an actress, but mainly she felt she was disgustingly all MAGA because she was married to Bobby Kennedy Jr who she described as a turncoat to the Democratic party and a verifiable whack job as Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services.
‘Clearly, Michelle’s a victim of what they call Trump Derangement Syndrome, because her true feelings surfaced in her clear-cut rejection of Cheryl.
‘It had nothing to do with Cheryl as an award-winning actress, but rather her supposed politics because of her marriage to Kennedy and being part of Trump’s inner circle of supporters.’
The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Michelle Obama for comment.
David’s longtime personal and professional relationship with Hines ‘completely faded’ after her husband dropped his lifetime Democratic affiliation as a member of the Kennedy clan and briefly ran as an independent against Biden
Hines, pictured with Larry David and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in a Curb episode, doesn’t appear in the new series – despite multiple former co-stars making an appearance
David, sources noted, runs in the same circles of celebrity Democrats as the Obamas, and has been outspoken about his dislike of the current president.
At the premiere of his new series, David called Trump’s UFC Freedom 250 event on the South Lawn of the White House on his 80th birthday ‘a travesty,’ saying he was ’embarrassed to be an American.’
In response, a White House spokesperson called the event ‘one of the greatest and most historic sports events in history.’
‘Anyone who finds a problem with that clearly suffers from a severe and incurable disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ they added.
David, meanwhile, has previously called Trump a ‘sociopath,’ saying he is ‘insane’ and ‘a sick man.’
Michelle, too, has been a vocal critic. In discussing her attendance at Trump’s first inauguration, she said she felt ‘very emotional and felt out of place… To look around at a crowd that was not reflective of the country, and to sit in that audience as one of the handful of people of color… it was a lot, emotionally.’
Meanwhile, the early media reviews for the new series are not as positive as the raves that Curb generated.
Yahoo offered a scathing take, declaring that David ‘forgot to bring along any of the wit or sparkle’ that made Curb so fun, and described the show as a ‘lazy history lesson full of recycled jokes,’ ‘flimsy material’ and sketches that ‘miss far more often than hit.’
A critic for the New York Post was even harsher, leading his review with a take on David’s own iconic words from Curb, declaring the new show, ‘prettyyyy, prettyyyy, prettyyyy bad.’
He called the series ‘shaky,’ noting wryly that it was produced by ‘comedy icons Barack and Michelle Obama,’ and observed: ‘Larry’s bitter, picky antics don’t fit in everywhere. Really, I’m convinced 2024’s terrific finale of Curb should have marked the end of them.’
And the Hollywood Reporter reviewer noted that four or five of the sketches are ‘either bad or end without a conclusive sense of what the joke even was.’
‘Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness isn’t smooth or steady, but in another 250 years, give or take, I should be ready for another season,’ the critic wrote.
As one show insider told Daily Mail, Hines, for her part, would have played ‘a great Martha Washington.’
Jerry Oppenheimer is a best-selling biographer of 13 books, including RFK Jr. and the Dark Side of the Dream.
