The HBO documentary Adrienne, directed by the late artist’s husband, explores the life, murder, and legacy of the writer and director of Waitress
Adrienne Shelly was an actor, writer, director; a doting mother, loyal wife, vibrant friend; a committed artist who grew from performance to playwriting to film, finally coming into creative bloom when her life was tragically, brutally cut short at age 40. She died mere weeks before the indie film she wrote and directed, Waitress, got accepted to the Sundance film festival; the romantic dramedy starring Keri Russell went on to become a sleeper hit and spawned the hit Broadway musical of the same name, the first with an all-female principal creative team.
Shelly never got to see it; on the afternoon of 1 November 2006, she was strangled to death by a 19-year-old construction worker named Diego Pillco, after she walked in during his attempted robbery of the West Village apartment she used as her office. Pillco staged her body like a suicide, and she was found hours later by her husband, Andy Ostroy. If it weren’t for Ostroy’s doggedness in disputing the initial suicide ruling, and the identification of Pillco’s shoeprint in the dust of Shelly’s bathroom, the killing would have likely gone unknown and unsolved.
