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by The Hollywood Reporter
Everyone knows the story about Richard Gere. Few know how it started. For four decades, a salacious and unproven rumor has shadowed one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Investigative reporter Allen Salkin spent six years chasing its origins — and uncovered a story about gossip, power, politics, the internet and the peculiar wiring of our own brains.
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- Yesterday53 min
8 - The Alibi
Gere has a story he tells friends about where this all started but does it hold up? We chase an espionage angle, consider Chinese disinformation as retaliation for his Tibet activism, file CIA FOIA requests and find surprising extra motivation for Gere's '93 Oscars speech.
- 1 weeks ago1h 6m
7 - A Guide to Dating Gerbils
The Toronto Film Festival, a Hollywood sitcom writers room, and a Manhattan humor magazine provide clues through the murkiest origins of the rumor. Testimony from writers and reporters, and a key archival discovery, give unsettling clarity about when and how it might have started.
- 2 weeks ago49 min
6 - Fear and Biting in Mesa
Gerbils have been illegal in California since 1924. So how does the rumor even work? Allen road-trips to Arizona to meet real gerbils, becomes a casualty of a nasty hamster, consults Sigmund Freud, and calls up New York's "Rat Czar" to sort out smuggling logistics.
- 3 weeks ago45 min
5 - Without a Base, Without a Trace
Is "gerbiling” actually a real thing? Between a bestiality investigator's case file, a 2024 FBI report, and doctors who've seen things, we go looking for the line between urban legend and actual medical phenomenon.
- 4 weeks ago46 min
4 - Tail Between His Legs
In the 1980’s after Rock Hudson's death, Hollywood's homophobia is in full panic mode, and American culture is whispering about – and mocking – the sexuality of leading men. Plus: another newsman, another gerbil rumor, real damage, and the case for "Gerbil Rumor Infection Syndrome."
- Sep 24, 202646 min
3 - Sex Object
Playing pimps and hustlers, attacking the press, projecting an unreadable sexuality — welcome to early Richard Gere. Bret Easton Ellis, Karina Longworth, and journalist Michael Gross help explain how the star became the perfect vessel for a rumor this sticky, and Howard Stern asks Sylvester Stallone if he started it.
- Sep 17, 202640 min
1 - The Word
Say "gerbil" to someone and watch their face. Everyone's heard the rumor. Nobody knows where it came from. Reporter Allen Salkin isn't sure he should be the one to dig into it, but a tip from the daughter of an '80s ER doctor changes his mind.
- Sep 17, 202651 min
2 - The Philadelphia Gerbil Panic of 1985
Could Jerry Penacoli — Philly's golden-boy newsman, be the Gerbil rumor's actual patient zero? Eyewitnesses and archival tape tell a wilder, sadder story than anyone remembers. Did the rumor jump cities before it infected Gere?
About Gerbil
Everyone knows the story about Richard Gere. Few know how it started. For four decades, a salacious and unproven rumor has shadowed one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Investigative reporter Allen Salkin spent six years chasing its origins — and uncovered a story about gossip, power, politics, the internet and the peculiar wiring of our own brains.
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It's a free AI-powered email that summarizes new episodes of Gerbil as soon as they're published. You get the key takeaways, notable quotes, and links & mentions — all in a quick read.
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