Trio lifts lid on entertainment industry

Ilove finding new pop-culture podcasts and hungrily devouring them and two new Kiwi podcasts have had me hooked. One offers an insider look into the pressures of Hollywood, and the other reviews the best in entertainment, popular culture and film.

Kiwi actress Kim Crossman (Shortland Street, Funny Girls) has launched a new podcast, Pretty Depressed, as a vehicle to discuss the topic of depression and how it manifests.

Crossman was diagnosed with burnout and depression in 2019 and, despite outwardly epitomising success, inwardly was struggling with feeling fraudulent and like a failure.

Each episode is a candid and intimate discussion with some of her closest acting peers, including JamieLynn Sigler (The Sopranos), Joseph D Reitman (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) and fellow Kiwi, Rhys Darby.

Many of her guests have experienced mental health issues and are open about the treatments they have used – from the traditional to the wacky. Crossman seems to be on a journey of discovery, with a strong new awareness of herself and what it takes to survive in the entertainment industry hot pot that is Los Angeles.

Elsewhere, the entertainment theme continues, this time via movie, TV and popular-culture conversations between Kiwi Stuff entertainment journalists Kylie Klein-Nixon and Emily Brookes.

In their new podcast Off Script, the pair talk about all things popularculture in a weekly round-up of what’s relevant and new. With awards season well under way, their early episodes offer opinions on Bafta and Oscar nominations and winners, and why Hollywood is still a big, white sausagefest when it comes to recognition.

It’s witty and contemporary and they talk the way they write – succinctly, well-researched and highly opinionated.

I look forward to many more episodes, if only to have these two keep me up-to-date on The Bachelorette NZ so I don’t have to watch it.