Jeremy Piven, star of the critically acclaimed series Entourage, has won the Emmy three times out of four nominations as best supporting actor.  He plays the wild and unpredictable Hollywood agent on the HBO series and has recently started appearing in Speed-the-Plow, a new Broadway revival of the David Mamet piece.  The character he plays on Entourage is eerily similar to his most recent stage character.  Both have Hollywood-type jobs and Ari Gold of Entourage seemed like a distant relative of Bobby Gould of Speed-the-Plow.  Piven, 43, swears that the two characters are very different, and if anything, he just needs a break from both.

"I should be taking a break right now," he tells USA Today.  "My pattern has been to do TV, then get in as many movies as I can when I have time off."

He has played Ari on Entourage from 2004 to present; his most recent films include RocknRolla, a British crime film directed by Mr. Madonna no more Guy Ritchie.  Released in September, RocknRolla reached the top spot in the UK box office during its first week of release.

Despite his current commitments, it was stage where Piven grew his spine.  Growing up in theater-rich Chicago, his parents ran a theater workshop near the city, where the likes of John and Joan Cusack, Lily Taylor, and Aidan Quinn made their presence.  He said his classical training attracted attention on the set of Hollywood-themed Entourage.

"In the first season, I would walk around doing exercises to warm my voice up and making faces. I got a lot of strange looks.  People were like, 'Who is this alien who's landed on our set?'  But by Season 2, I started noticing other people attempting to warm up their voices."

On the next episode of Entourage, Turtle makes a mile-high claim the guys just don't buy after he scores a first-class seat next to guest-star Jamie-Lynn Sigler.  Meanwhile, Ari is distracted, while Josh Weinstein courts Vince.


-Glenn L. Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: USA Today
(Image Courtesy of Brigitte Lacombe)