‘Spinal Tap’ Director on Sabrina Carpenter Cover: ‘Life Imitating Art’

Over 40 years later, Rob Reiner sees signs of This is Spinal Tap everywhere — even Sabrina Carpenter albums.

“‘It goes to 11’ is even in the Oxford English Dictionary,” the director of the cult 1984 mockumentary explains on The Hollywood Reporter‘s It Happened in Hollywood podcast.

It’s a big week for Reiner, 78, who’s debuting both his book about the making of This is Spinal Tap — A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever — as well as his long-awaited sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, in theaters Friday.

The title of his book references a line of dialogue in the original film, in which the members of the band (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer) are told their proposed album cover has been rejected for being too sexist and offensive.

“They have an album coming out called Smell The Glove,” Reiner explains. “And on the cover of the album is a very sexist picture of a half-naked woman on all fours. And somebody is pushing a black glove into their face to sniff it.

“They run into another rock guy on the tour, a guy named Duke Fame, and he’s all of a sudden a big star,” he continues. “He’s on the cover of his album tied down and he’s naked, and these women are whipping him. ‘Why did they let that and they don’t let ours?’ And the manager played by Tony Hendra says, ‘Well, the difference is, he’s the victim.’”

To which the band responds: “It’s a fine line between stupid and clever.”

“But now let me bring us into 2025,” I note. “Sabrina Carpenter comes out with a new album called Man’s Best Friend. She’s on all fours. Her hair is being pulled by a man [out of frame].”

(Carpenter has called the original cover “a metaphor” but has since re-released the album with a less controversial cover she winkingly says was “approved by God.”)

“Exactly,” Reiner responds. “And so what she’s doing is taking off on what we talked about, the album cover that was banned by Spinal Tap. She’s playing off of that, which is great.

“[The Spinal Tap world] is this mobius strip that keeps bending into itself. Life imitating art, imitating life, imitating art.”

After admitting the original Carpenter album cover managed to shock me, Reiner interjects: “But it’s funny, though.”

Listen to the full It Happened in Hollywood interview with Reiner below and subscribe for more fascinating, first-person Hollywood lore.