First Paramount, Then Warners, Now… Book Soup?

Just when Hollywood thought the Ellisons might finally be running out of things to buy, along comes the sale of two of the town’s most beloved indie bookstores — Book Soup on the Sunset Strip and Vroman’s in Pasadena — to Robert Hoffman, a longtime Republican operative and tech lobbyist whose résumé includes senior Washington gigs at AMD, Broadcom and, uh-oh, Oracle.

For a town still adjusting to the Ellisons’ growing footprint, it’s enough to trigger a fresh case of Warnermount PTSD. Except Hoffman, 57, turns out to be a surprisingly unthreatening mogul.

“I hope there’s more to me than my LinkedIn profile,” he says.

In fact, the born-and-raised Angeleno says buying the stores was “an act of love.” He’s the fourth of five generations of his family to shop there, still prefers books to e-readers and browsing shelves to scrolling online. As a child actor — he appeared in the first season of Little House on the Prairie — he and his mother would stop at Book Soup after auditions. While attending UCLA, he’d browse the store before heading across the street to Tower Records.

So what’s the nefarious plan for Hollywood’s newest tech-adjacent acquisition? Apparently, there isn’t one.

Hoffman says it will be “business as usual,” with the existing leadership team remaining in place. His ambition is mostly to lure new customers — including the #BookTok generation — off their screens and into the stores to experience the IRL pleasures of book shopping.

In other words, Hollywood can stand down. At least until Larry Ellison buys the public library.

This story appeared in the Oct. 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.