Lifestyle

In Ben Stiller’s showbiz family, there was little separation between home and stage

Published

5 months ago

November 18, 2025

In Ben Stiller’s showbiz family, there was little separation between home and stage

After the deaths of his parents, comedians Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, Ben Stiller found a stash of their audio recordings. Those tapes are at the center of the documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost.

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When both your parents are in show business, you get used to being stopped on the street. Just ask Ben Stiller, whose parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, formed a hit comedy duo in the 1960s and ’70s.

“My mom usually wouldn’t want to talk to people for a long time … and my dad would talk to people forever,” Stiller says. “As kids … you feel that your parent’s attention [is] being taken away from you.”

Meara died in 2015 and her husband followed in 2020. After his father’s death, Ben Stiller found a stash of audio recordings his dad had made of his conversations and arguments with Meara about their marriage and their act. Those tapes are at the center of Stiller’s new documentary about his parents, Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost.

Stiller says his father was always more committed to comedy than his mother, who studied under Uta Hagen and dreamed of being a serious actor. They had been married for several years, both struggling to make it in show business, when Jerry Stiller had the idea to create short comedy sketches together. “He drew her into doing this comedy act,” his son says. “And that changed their lives.”

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The comedy team of Stiller and Meara would go on to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show more than 30 times. Later, Jerry Stiller co-starred on Seinfeld, playing Frank Costanza, George’s father. Meanwhile, Ben Stiller was forging his own path in Hollywood, both as an actor and a filmmaker.

Stiller is currently the executive producer and director of the TV series, Severance, about a company that makes its employees get a procedure on their brain that separates the memories of their home life and the memories of their work life. The premise is almost the direct opposite of the lifestyle his parents modeled while he was growing up.

“Their marriage, their relationship … was also what their act was about,” Stiller says. “So I think that concept of the separation is actually really very interesting to me because it’s something I’ve never had.”

Interview highlights

On Jerry Stiller’s desire to be loved by everyone

Comedian Jerry Stiller, Who Played Hotheaded Dad On 'Seinfeld,' Dies At 92

I think I can identify. … I think most actors have a certain sense of wanting approval. … He’d talk about it very openly. He said, “I need that love from the audience.” It’s kind of armchair psychology, but … he didn’t get a lot of nurturing from [his parents] when he was a kid. … They fought a lot, and they were very poor, and nobody was encouraging him to go into show business. …

He went to Syracuse University and he performed in plays and he found his people and found this warmth and acceptance in the theater, and he was always connecting with people. I think he loved talking to people. He loved when fans would come up and say hi to him. And it meant something to him, and my mother had a very different relationship with it.

On the fun part of having celebrity parents

Married couple Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara formed the comedy team of Stiller & Meara.
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I remember when they played nightclubs in New York and that was really exciting for us. We get to stay up late, hang out with the grownups. Interesting, funny people coming in and out of the house. They would have these New Year’s Eve parties at their apartment in the late ’70s and the ’80s that were just amazing. … As kids, it was really fun to be around. I loved going on sets when they would go out to LA. … To be on the Paramount studios lot … made me want to make movies. Being around that, it was very clear early on that that’s what I wanted to do. It was a lot of fun times and more interesting to my sister and I than school, for sure.

On sneaking out while his parents traveled for work

Long-Time Actress And Comedian Anne Meara Dies

Our nanny, Hazel, took care of us basically since I think the time that I was probably about 4 years old. She was from Jamaica and she had seven kids of her own and they lived in Brooklyn and we became very close with her family, with her kids, because some of them were Amy and my age. My parents would go away for, like, a two-week stint to LA to do whichever game show or Love Boat or whatever it was. Hazel was so sweet. She knew she had to be the disciplinarian and keep us in line, but … it was kind of like a free-for-all a little bit when we were on our own. We’d stay up late sometimes, trying to sneak out.

As we got older and became teenagers, then there were other things going on, like my sister started going to Studio 54 when I think she was, like, 17 and I was 13. And she would take me to Studio 54 with her friends and they would sneak us in. They put me in a yellow and green polka-dotted Fiorucci shirt … and an Army jacket and these Mickey Mouse sunglasses. And they put this outfit on me and we went up and [the bouncer] Mark saw us and he pointed to us and said, “Come on in.” And we were in. And that happened a few times. So I think I was 13.

On calling his dad when he had a bad LSD trip

I took LSD once when my parents were out doing The Love Boat once. … I was the guy who called his parents on LSD. I called them up in LA because I was scared. I was having a bad trip and [it was] the only time I ever did LSD. My mom got really mad at me. And my dad was actually much nicer and kind of tried to help talk me down. And he said, “I understand what you’re going through. When I was 11 years old, I smoked a Pall Mall cigarette and I was sick for two days.” And I was like, “No dad, you don’t understand. I don’t understand what reality is.” But he was great. He was actually great about it.

On his father being cast as Frank Costanza on Seinfeld

It was life-changing for him. He was a very lovable guy and … people just loved seeing him let out all this emotion and kind of this tamped up rage that he had inside in a very funny way. And I think the fame that it brought in, because Seinfeld was such a phenomenon, was like nothing he had ever experienced before. It was fulfilling for him, I think, a childhood dream of being someone who could be funny on his own. …

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For me, I was kind of just starting to experience success on my own. So I was happy that my dad was working and that he was in this show that was such a phenomenon. There was never competition between us. … My mom was the one who sort of was, I think, having to deal with not having that kind of success at that point. But for her, I don’t think it was as important a thing and as relevant to her own personal happiness, though I think she would have liked to have worked more as an actor.

Ann Marie Baldonado and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.

Lifestyle

Sunday Puzzle: Sweet Treat

Published

8 hours ago

April 12, 2026

Press Room

Sunday Puzzle

NPR

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NPR

This week’s challenge

Every answer today is a flavor of ice cream or sorbet.
What flavor of ice cream …

1. … has a two-word name in which each word starts CH-?

2. … has a two-word name in which each word starts RO-?

3. … is hidden in this sentence: That’s the caravan I’ll announce.

4. … has the string of letters UTTI in its name twice?

5. … has a silent P as its fourth letter?

6. … would spell some men’s facial hair if you changed its first two letters from PI to MU?

7. … consists of the names of two trees starting with M and W?

8. … is a fruit flavor that would become the name of another fruit flavor if you interchanged its first and third letters?

9. … is an anagram of TEENAGER (2 wds.)?

Last week’s challenge

Last week’s challenge came from Michael Schwartz, of Florence, Ore. Think of a musical instrument. Add two letters at the end, and you’ll get the names of two popular automobile models reading left or right. What musical instrument is this?

Answer

Accordion –> (Honda) Accord + (Hyundai) Ioniq

Winner

Nell Newton of Austin, Texas

This week’s challenge

This week’s challenge comes from Benita Rice, of Salem, Ore. Name a famous foreign landmark (5,4). Change the eighth letter to a V and rearrange the result to make an adjective that describes this landmark. What landmark is it?

If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, April 16 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.

Lifestyle

Ask Imran Anything: On Boring Fashion, the Meaning of Luxury and Building Outside the System

Published

9 hours ago

April 12, 2026

Press Room

Ask Imran Anything: On Boring Fashion, the Meaning of Luxury and Building Outside the System

In the second instalment of the BoF Podcast’s Ask Me Anything series, Imran Amed takes on listener questions about creative energy returning to the industry, what luxury really feels like, why independent brands don’t need the old gatekeepers, and how to keep going when the world feels uncertain.

Lifestyle

Trump touts newly released plans for D.C. triumphal arch

Published

20 hours ago

April 11, 2026

Press Room

Trump touts newly released plans for D.C. triumphal arch

Artist renderings and diagrams for President Trump’s proposed triumphal arch released by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts on April 10, 2026.

Jon Elswick/AP

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Jon Elswick/AP

President Trump on Friday unveiled official architectural renderings for the triumphal arch he plans to add to the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The proposed monument would stand at one end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge next to the Arlington National Cemetery.

In addition to the president’s post on Truth Social, the plans were released by the Commission on Fine Arts, a federal agency that has review authority over the design and aesthetics of construction within Washington, D.C., and produced by Harrison Design, an architecture, interior and landscape design firm with offices in six U.S. cities, including D.C. The mockup shows a structure very similar to the 3D model that Trump touted at a fundraising dinner at the White House last October.

This model of President Trump’s proposed triumphal arch was shown at a White House press conference on Oct. 15, 2025.

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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

At 250 feet tall, the overall height of the structure is intended to serve as, “a fitting recognition of America’s 250th birthday,” the White House said in an email to NPR.

A monument aimed at honoring what and whom?

The proposed arch bears a striking resemblance to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris — though would stand almost 100 feet taller — and is topped with two golden eagles and a winged, crowned figure reminiscent of the Statue of Liberty (which was gifted to the U.S. by France in 1884.) On one side, the words “One nation under God” appear, with the phrase “Liberty and justice for all” on the other.

The structure would also loom over the nearby Lincoln Memorial — at more than twice the height.

“The Triumphal Arch in Memorial Circle is going to be one of the most iconic landmarks not only in Washington, D.C., but throughout the world,” said White House spokesperson Davis Ingle in an email to NPR. “It will enhance the visitor experience at Arlington National Cemetery for veterans, the families of the fallen, and all Americans alike, serving as a visual reminder of the noble sacrifices borne by so many American heroes throughout our 250 year history so we can enjoy our freedoms today. President Trump will continue to honor our veterans and give the greatest Nation on earth — America — the glory it deserves.”

When asked by CBS political correspondent Ed O’Keefe whom the monument was intended to honor after Trump initially unveiled his plans in October, Trump responded: “Me.” The exchange was captured in a social media video.

A group of Vietnam War veterans launched a lawsuit in February seeking to bar the Trump administration from constructing the arch. The plaintiffs argued the project violates statutes requiring express congressional authorization for the erection of commemorative works or any “building or structure” on federal park grounds in D.C., among other issues.

The Arc de Triomphe in Paris as part of the city’s Christmas celebrations (2007).

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Christophe Ena/AP

“It’s textbook Trump,” said Sue Mobley, director of research at Monument Lab, of the proposed plans for the arch, in an interview with NPR. The nonprofit design studio based in Philadelphia reimagines public art and structures. “It has to be the biggest. That’s the authoritarian impulse.” Trump has repeatedly pushed back on accusations of authoritarianism, rejecting the label of dictator.

Mobley added that she doesn’t think the plans will come to fruition. “It will likely get tied up in court,” she said.

Approval process

The White House said it will “follow all legal requirements” in constructing the triumphal arch. As part of that process, it mentioned the National Park Service’s recent request to present potential designs to the Commission on Fine Arts. The plans are scheduled to be reviewed next week. At this point, that commission is composed entirely of members appointed by Trump. (In October 2025, Trump took the unusual step of firing six sitting members of the commission.) The National Capital Planning Commission, the federal government’s central planning agency for the National Capital Region, is also expected to weigh in on the plans.

The White House said the estimated cost of the project, which it anticipates will draw on a combination of public and private funds, is still being calculated. Harrison Design, the architecture firm behind the plans, did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for information about the price tag.

Multiple D.C. makeover projects

The arch plans are the latest in a series of current and potential architectural interventions from the White House in and around Washington, D.C.

Most dramatically, the administration is pushing for the creation of a $400 million neoclassical ballroom at the White House. A federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily allowed the construction of the ballroom to move forward while the administration challenges a March ruling that it required congressional approval. Whatever the outcome, the historic East Wing has already been demolished to make room for the new structure.

Trump has converted the White House Rose Garden into a stone-covered patio. He aims to shut down The Kennedy Center for two years to facilitate a major renovation (a coalition of groups including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the American Institute of Architects, and the D.C. Preservation League, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in March opposing the plans.) And he has proposed architectural changes to the Washington Dulles International airport through an initiative the Department of Transportation launched late last year to overhaul the Northern Virginia airport. Several prominent architecture firms including Zaha Hadid Architects and Adjaye Associates have submitted proposals.

In August, the president also signed an executive order requiring that new federal buildings with construction budgets of more than $50 million be designed in “classical” or “traditional” styles.

Anastasia Tsioulcas contributed to this story.