HBO doc 'Adrienne' celebrates life of late actress with Dutchess ties

The secret on Samuel’s Sweet Shop has been out for some time.

The little Rhinebeck candy store has a star-studded cast of local owners, the most well-known being the recently dubbed “Sexiest Man Alive," Paul Rudd; Jeffrey Dean Morgan of “The Walking Dead;” and Hilarie Burton Morgan of “One Tree Hill.”

But there are others. HBO subscribers this week have the chance to get to know another of them, through the life and death of his late wife.

“Adrienne,” a documentary that debuted on HBO Wednesday night and is available to stream on HBO Max, celebrates Adrienne Shelly, the actress, writer and director who was murdered on Nov. 1, 2006. The film was directed by Andy Ostroy, her husband and a co-owner in the store. The New York City couple had bought their home in Rhinebeck in 2003, according to county records.

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Shelly’s death came two months before the premiere of “Waitress,” a film she wrote, directed and acted in, and perhaps the most enduring work of a two-decade career as an indie darling. Her breakout role came in 1989’s “The Unbelievable Truth.”

Shelly was killed at the age of 40 by a 19-year-old construction worker named Diego Pillco in a Greenwich Village apartment she rented as a creative space. He pleaded guilty in 2008 to manslaughter, strangling her after she caught him trying to rob the apartment, and staging her death to look like a suicide. Ostroy helped convince detectives to investigate the incident as a homicide.

Pillco is serving a 25-year sentence at Coxsackie Correctional Facility. Ostroy confronts Pillco in the documentary, showing him pictures of the couple’s daughter, Sophie, a toddler at the time of the crime.

“Waitress” helped inspire the documentary four years ago, Ostroy has said in multiple interviews leading up to the release of “Adrienne.” He was taken aback when many people with whom he spoke going to see performances of the Broadway adaptation of the film were not aware of its original creator. The documentary’s intention, he has said, is to inform viewers of Shelly’s career in entertainment and love of her daughter, rather than as someone who became a tragic headline.

“I’m so thrilled that ... you can finally get to know & love the woman who captured my hear & profoundly changed my life ... ” Ostroy tweeted Wednesday.

Ostroy has likewise continued to honor his late wife's memory through the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, which seeks to support women filmmakers.

Rudd and "Waitress" star Keri Russell are among those who speak in the film, and other former co-stars and friends of Shelley and Ostroy have hit social media in recent days to encourage viewers watch.

Burton Morgan on Instagram Wednesday said though she met Ostroy and Sophie after Shelly's death, the actress was "a hero of mine," as an actress who also wrote and directed projects.

"Adrienne's death hit me as a total stranger," she wrote. "To now know her family? The loss was immeasurable."

This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: HBO's 'Adrienne' celebrates Shelly, directed by husband Ostroy