HOLLYWOODLAND

Marlon Brando once broke a paparazzo’s jaw with one punch. He hired private investigators to find his son when a fake kidnapping went horribly wrong. He nearly sank an already doomed film shoot all by himself when he arrived in the Philippines overweight, underprepared, and demanding millions of dollars. And at the very moment he was trying to resuscitate his career, he found himself desperately t...

This week in the Wrap Party, Zeth and Jake are talking about the great Michael Madsen, who recently passed away at the age of 67, as well as debating what is the greatest movie soundtrack of all time, and their music and movie recommendations inspired by this week's full episode subject, Sharon Stone. Next week, get ready for our episode on Marlon Brando. In the meantime, Zeth and Jake want to hea...

In a single year, Sharon Stone was nominated for awards for both Best Actress and Worst Actress – for the same role. She launched a million sexual awakenings with one quick display in Basic Instinct. Her performance in that film was so vivid that it inspired stalkers to track her down. It may have even served as the inspiration for one fan to commit murder, cannibalism, and necrophilia. This episo...

This week in the Wrap Party, Zeth and Jake are talking about Roman Polanski and separating the art from the artist, handing out fresh music and movie recommendations, and responding to your voicemails, texts, emails, and DMs. Next week, get ready for our episode on Jane Fonda. In the meantime, Zeth and Jake want to hear from you. What are you watching and listening to? What did you think of the Ro...

As a child, Roman Polanski escaped from a Krakow ghetto on the day the Nazis took his father to a concentration camp. As a new filmmaker, he became the toast of young Hollywood with his 1968 horror masterpiece,  Rosemary’s Baby . But after the brutal murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, at the hands of the Manson family, Polanski unraveled. He wound up committing a heinous crime that led him to escape...

This week in the Wrap Party, Zeth and Jake are talking about John Holmes,  Boogie Nights , commercials from the ‘80s and ‘90s, Gen X, the difference between Eddie and the Hot Rods and Eddie and the Cruisers, summer playlists, and washed-up protagonists. Next week, get ready for our episode on Roman Polanski. In the meantime, Zeth and Jake want to hear from you. What are you watching and listening...

John Holmes unexpectedly found fame in the 1970s with a freakishly large appendage that proved a gateway into the burgeoning adult entertainment industry. He appeared in over 2,000 porn films and is alleged to have slept with over 14,000 women. But a severe drug habit put him in close contact with some strange bedfellows in the Los Angeles underworld, including a ragtag gang of junkies and dealers...

On this week in the Wrap Party, Zeth and Jake are talking about becoming immortal on the big screen, discussing music and movie recommendations inspired by the late, great Bruce Lee, and responding to your messages about everything from Will Smith to David Lynch.  Next week, get ready for our episode on porn star John Holmes and the infamous Wonderland Murders. In the meantime, Zeth and Jake want...

Bruce Lee got into so much trouble as a kid in Hong Kong that his parents banished him to the place of his birth: America. There he found all kinds of new trouble to get into. He upset kung fu traditionalists with his revolutionary style of fighting. He challenged long-held perceptions in racist Hollywood. He was an outsider determined to change the system the hard way – but did bringing about cha...

On this week in the Wrap Party, Zeth and Jake are talking about entertainers who simultaneously dominate the small screen, the big screen, and the airwaves, as well as responding to your messages about everything from Jack Nicholson’s wild Hollywood nights to how one big studio head may or may not have had mob ties. Next week, get ready for our episode on Bruce Lee. In the meantime, Zeth and Jake...

John Belushi may have been one of the funniest comedians of his generation, but he wasn’t just a funny guy. He was a rock star. He partied with the Stones, fronted a world-class band of R&B legends, and was responsible for a punk rock riot in Rockefeller Center. He drew the ire of street gangs in Chicago, attempted to steal a boat with his blues brother, and performed one of his final episodes...

Welcome to the Wrap Party, the weekly bonus episode of the HOLLYWOODLAND podcast hosted by longtime Double Elvis writer and editor Zeth Lundy, along with HOLLYWOODLAND's host, Jake Brennan. This week we're talking about crimes of the century, rock star comedians, and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Next week, get ready for our episode on John Belushi. In the meantime, Zeth and Jake want to hear from you....

A century ago, at the birth of movie superstardom, silent film star Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was at the center of a scandal that rocked Hollywood to its core. He was accused of a murderous sex crime so depraved that it turned the nation not only against him but against Hollywood itself. It led to the trial of the century, and a test of whether America’s elite veil of privilege could be pierced by t...

Long before he raised the People’s Eyebrow, dropped the People’s Elbow, and laid the smackdown on the candyass world of Hollywood, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson ran a jewelry theft ring in Waikiki. He and his peers worked the posh shopping district, snatching and grabbing whatever they could get their hands on and then pawning their haul for cold, hard cash. As a result, he was arrested nearly ten tim...

In some of Hollywood’s best-loved movies, Jack Nicholson played jokers, sailors, inmates – even the Devil himself. But he never played by the rules. He allegedly mooned a crowd of thousands at a basketball game. His bedroom kinks were laid bare in the papers. He fought the MPAA and the LAPD. And in 1994, he attempted to establish his own set of rules when he attacked an idling Mercedes-Benz with a...

In 1989, shortly after winning his first Grammy Award at just 20 years old, Will Smith was arrested and charged with assault after a brawl at a popular Philadelphia radio station left one man nearly blind. It almost ended his career just as things were getting started. But Will Smith overcame this challenge, and so many others, to become one of the most successful actors in Hollywood. That is, unt...

Before he was headed to infinity and beyond, Tim Allen was headed to life in prison for a low-level drug deal in Michigan. This is the story about how his first career ended in a life-changing bust, and what he had to do in order to survive and find a way out. This episode contains themes that may be disturbing to some listeners, including discussions about suicide. If you’re thinking about suicid...

Today we’re bringing you an incredible episode from You Must Remember This about director Frank Capra. The director of It’s a Wonderful Life, who won five Oscars in the 1930s for films that embodied the pre-World War II notion of American exceptionalism, was pushed into semi-retirement by the early 50s by changes in tastes and political priorities. Capra was brought back to the Hollywood director’...

Before he was deemed “the Glue” by his castmates at Saturday Night Live , Phil Hartman worked as a rock ‘n roll roadie and a graphic designer. He created album covers for the bands Poco and America, as well as the logo for Crosby, Stills & Nash. He did those things as a card-carrying member of the peace and love movement. A movement that was infamously disrupted by the Manson family, a ragtag...

Robin Williams’ manic mind moved at such a breakneck speed that cocaine had the opposite effect than it had on most other people: it slowed him down. Robin’s primary addiction, however, wasn’t cocaine. He was addicted to the dopamine rush of being on a stage, where he could let his mind run wild with free association, and be rewarded with uproarious laughter. He was addicted to proving himself as...

Sharon Tate’s entanglement with Charles Manson and her husband, filmmaker Roman Polanski, as well as her involvement in some of the long-rumored hedonistic events at her home on Cielo Drive put her at the center of a counter-narrative that explosively disrupts the supposed motive for the Manson family murders. Was Sharon Tate blissfully ignorant of the darkness that had been bubbling beneath Holly...

Sharon Tate was a sophisticated beauty who literally stopped traffic when she walked down the street. She began her movie career when America was becoming sexually liberated, and despite the ease with which she was made a sex symbol, she aspired to be respected as a serious actress. Decades later, however, she is perhaps best-remembered as one of the victims found brutally murdered at her Cielo Dr...

  …the Hollywood and true crime spinoff from the award winning music and true crime podcast, DISGRACELAND, and the newest expansion from the folks at Double Elvis. The most dramatic non-fiction stories ever heard come from the world of entertainment. Specifically the dark side of entertainment. The true crime stories from Hollywood; the mysterious death of Brittany Murphy. The vicious, real-life m...

Mel Gibson is the explosive action star who plunged straight into  Mad Max ’s Wasteland and straight into insanity. Molded by a violent childhood and an early taste for alcohol, his reputation as a thrill-hungry lunatic extends from movie sets to the director’s chair, where he’s unflinchingly recreated scene of bone-crushing torture and human sacrifice. His ability to fly off the handle at a momen...

With his chiseled jawline and matinee idol good looks, Armie Hammer could have been another leading man like Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt. But Armie Hammer was not most movie stars. He wasn't even most people. On the surface, his life was perfectly curated and appeared picture-perfect, with no major public scandals or dirt-digging by the press. But his increasingly bizarre appearances in interviews and...