Let's Talk About Hollywood™

This week's episode is a tribute to the world-famous actress, icon, artist and talent that is and was Elke Sommer, who the world lost this week in Bel-Air. We became friends almost 20 years ago and she stayed relevant, kind, a present and prescient person who lived and loved well in ways that I'll never forget. She was a definition of Hollywood done right, not a defined-by-Hollywood entity by any...

It's October 24th, 2026! We're going to have some storytelling and storytime going back to the fall of 2002 when a lot of things we didn't know would cycle around 24 years later did! Stories from that era, the vibe and more are in this episode! Thanks for listening and sharing! Written and read by Karl Gibson. 💖 Let's Keep Talking About Hollywood!   💖 This podcast is a labor of love, funded enti...

Thanks for all of your support and for subscribing! Being a part of your podcast routine is an honor!   I'm celebrating the one-year anniversary of Let's Talk About Hollywood, thanks to you! Looking at major industry shifts like the potential Paramount-Warner Bros. merger through a personal, empathetic and experienced lens, I'll give you my thoughts on L.A.'s past industry cycles with support for...

What did Hollywood really feel like from inside the newsroom in 2002 when Hollywood had an average of 100 industry-related parties a week in L.A. County alone? In this episode of Let's Talk About Hollywood , I return to October 2002, when a promotion at The Hollywood Reporter suddenly put me closer to the suits, publicists, agents, directors, stars, aspiring stars and everyday intrigue that kept t...

I'm back with news about my nearly two-year job search and, more than that, my appreciation to you - my audience and listeners in the United States and around the world! Next week will be a journals episode, yet for this one I wanted to share my sincere thanks for your support, your community, and for making this podcast so incredibly meaningful and special. There's no podcast without you and I si...

For this week's episode, we're going back to this week in August of 2002 where we see pop culture markers - and my recollections from the vaults for: The Bangles, Vin Diesel, Britney Spears, Anna Nicole, Jay Roach, Rita Wilson, The Oscar Slap, Jada Pinkett Smith, Demi Moore, and more! Thanks for all of your support and for subscribing! Being a part of your podcast routine is an honor! Written and...

It's been a month since the last episode, so I'm checking in before next week's show to share some thoughts on loss and also giving thanks for your continued support in this podcast together. xox - Karl G. 💖 Let's Keep Talking About Hollywood!   💖 This podcast is a labor of love, funded entirely by incredible listeners across the globe. If you love the intimacy and honesty of these stories, you...

It's the end of September 2002 and Karl has a red carpet press rebellion for the ages and neo-soul pousers get their appropriate read.  From the newsroom floor to 22 countries. This is Season 2: 2002 of "Let's Talk About Hollywood." Written and read by Karl Gibson. 💖 Let's Keep Talking About Hollywood! 💖 This podcast is a labor of love, funded entirely by incredible listeners across the globe. I...

It's late September 2002. The Hollywood Hills are fogged in. My promotion at The Hollywood Reporter just landed, but my mind is on Bebbles. A routine doctor visit sends Stone to the hospital for observation. High blood pressure, salt ban, no more Primatene Mist. I cover the Sweet Home Alabama press screening with Nigel. I file copy. I run three loads of laundry. I call Stone's boss, update his co-...

Ep. 41: "One Big Tuxedo-Clad Orgasmatron!" — ATS Synopsis Emmy Sunday, September 22, 2002. The Hollywood Reporter newsroom. One of the reporters privately called awards season "one big tuxedo-clad orgasmatron." That was Emmy Sunday: tuxedos, stress, deadlines, and nobody sleeping. Before that was my birthday at Skybar at The Mondrian Hotel on Sunset Blvd. then the next night was me and Bebbles'  h...

September 13-18, 2002.  The Hollywood Reporter  newsroom. Looking back, the job and salary negotiations were straight forward and direct: my boss called me in, closed the door, and a plan to fill the Assistant to the Editor role was cemented. Clear. Direct. Respect. I took the role: Assistant to the Editor. More than a 1/3 salary jump in 11 months. My co-assistant is the editor for the Calendar of...

September 10-12, 2002. The Hollywood Reporter  newsroom. My supervisor's leaving. I turned her job down. Twice. Boss asks my salary and the first two numbers lower than my age. He looks astounded. "Your boss needs you both. If you leave, he's f*cked." Raises submitted for January 2003. $13.50 an hour. Sales up 23%. It's the 1-year 9/11 anniversary. Moment of silence in the office park. THR's issue...

Thank you to my listeners in 30 countries, so far. It is a true honor to be a part of your day or evening. This is Episode 38 of Let's Talk About Hollywood : a listener appreciation episode from the newsroom floor to you. Less than 1% of independent podcasts reach 30 countries. This one did. With no ads, no PR, no notes from brands. Just a 2002 newsroom diary that leads to 24 years (and counting)...

It's fall 2002 in Hollywood and everything is shifting at once. A new apartment, a new schedule, a boss who keeps telling me it'll get better and a newsroom that never stops. In this episode, I take you inside my Labor Day move-in with my husband Stone, including the moment I grabbed him by the chin and made it clear he wasn't going anywhere, and why that mattered more than he knew. We swim, we la...

Labor Day 2002. New apartment. No A/C. 125 degrees inside. Me and Bebbles Stone, unpacking boxes, making daiquiris, trying to start a life. I was an editorial assistant at The Hollywood Reporter. He was staging our new home, I was cooking, and the heat got into everything. This is Let's Talk About Hollywood. Career clarity plus real life from the mediasphere, for adults. I'm Karl Gibson and this i...

This week of April 12, 2026, Disney laid off 1000 employees. My LinkedIn filled with 86,000 impressions in my written response to lazy AI slop about "streaming failure." Disney+ is a streaming success. But 1000 careers were cut. I see you. You have value. You're not done and your success will land anew.  I've been out of work 18 months. That's not a trauma dump: that's my receipt. I'm still here....

In this week's Ask Karl Anything episode, I answer listener questions about leaving Los Angeles after 29 years, starting over on Florida's Gulf Coast, and whether making this podcast and sharing candid parts of my life is ever hard. It's an episode about home, memory, reinvention, career and what it means to speak honestly about your life. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you there! 💖 Let's Kee...

In this episode, I talk about what it's like being an assistant at an multi-million dollar enterprise and how being the best at your work and paying your dues is smart, but losing your identity and your own unique career path doesn't come with the job. I share a slice of life, the clashes and the wins that set a precedent for the career to ultimately come. As always, it's not what you say yes to,...

In this episode, it's the summer of 2002 and everyone (except my Mom and sister) is pissy and stressed. I'm working 6-day weeks at The Hollywood Reporter, my spouse has just gotten a new job, we've got a new apartment just weeks away from moving into, my then-best friend is tripping, and overall it's just a slice of life of pre-autumn summertime madness! 💖 Let's Keep Talking About Hollywood! 💖 T...

In this episode, an update comes in 2002 about one of my closest actor friendships, an actor I'd worked with for nearly two years and shared off-the-set experiences with, that came to a chaotic and argumentative end on Sunset Blvd. at 2 a.m. in 1998. This episode honors friendship, grief, and touches on the start of when a loved one's drug use overpowers everything you used to know about each othe...

This week's episode talks about the current armchair analysis of Hollywood in certain forums that incorrectly see a wholesale AI takeover and is crowning winners of a future consolidate Hollywood without taking into account that the paying customers and audiences will be the judge of that. The 2002 journals detail an impending move, the stress of trade-offs in a career, leaving Hollywood in style,...

I'm back and offering prayers for love, peace and safety in our current global conflict. My first solo invite to a party in 2002 where I gained entree into Black Hollywood. This is part two of a two-parter and also touches on those early days in Hollywood, the vibes of trying to get on the radar of PR execs and the town. I throw Bebbles a party and, later, a bar brawl nearly ensues when an admirer...

Welcome! In this episode I talk about my first party in 2002 where I gained entree into Black Hollywood. This is a two-parter and also touches on those early days in Hollywood, or a career, where the hustle feels like hell until your career kicks off - but it does get better, so hang in there! Sometimes it just takes one manifest to let you know you're on the right track. 💖 Let's Keep Talking Abo...

Welcome! In this episode I talk about my first and only husband and a moment of missing each other that I see even more clearly now. It's been 20 years, yet he was so intrisic to my career and life that there are times, in dreams, where all I want to do to make sense of the world is...to go running toward him for that moment.  💖 Let's Keep Talking About Hollywood! 💖 This podcast is a labor of lo...

Welcome back! In this episode I talk about being torn between wanting to make my new career as an editorial assistant at The Hollywood Reporter, balancing a 200+hour a month work schedule and the same class system I left as a stage actor that I'm starting to see is different, but also the same: it's nuts! Breakthroughs - yours and mine - are never too late. 💖 Let's Keep Talking About Hollywood!...