The Yes Men
Entourage: The Complete First SeasonHBO Video
Given that narcissism in Hollywood is not so much rampant as a legal requirement, it is hardly shocking that one of Tinseltown’s favored, and most proficient, talents is self-portraiture. While the movie industry’s interest in Westerns, documentaries and midget gangster movies may wax and wane, its interest in itself has remained a constant, resulting in such classic films as Sunset Boulevard, The Player and, most recently, Adaptation. It is in such exalted company that HBO’s sitcom Entourage holds its own.
The creation of comedian-turned-screenwriter Doug Ellin and onetime It Boy Mark Wahlberg, Entourage hinges around Adrian Grenier’s freshly minted, L.A.-dwelling movie star—imagine Skeet Ulrich back when he was going to be the next big thing—and his best friend/conscience Kevin Connolly, as they deal with Hollywood’s trials and temptations. But this pair are really just straight men for Connolly’s fellow hangers-on—the slimy, sex-mad Jerry Ferrara, and Kevin “Not Matt” Dillon, in the role he was literally born to play, as Grenier’s C-list actor half-brother, Johnny Drama. Desperate for a comeback, Drama is a deliciously pathetic character who, as Ferrara’s character scoffs, would “take it in the ass for a guest spot on The Hughleys.” Meanwhile, the script’s deft zeitgeist-capturing is backed up by cameos from such playing-themselves stars as Gary Busey, Jessica Alba and, naturally, Wahlberg himself.
But there is no doubt that the main reason to buy this DVD set is Jeremy Piven’s turn as Grenier’s agent, Ari “Call me Helen Keller because I’m a fucking miracle worker” Jacobs. Previously a nicely acidic but underused talent on assorted films and TV shows, Piven here is awesomely demonic as a man who would probably let his own mom take it up the ass if it would further his career. Any similarity between Ari Jacobs and Mark Wahlberg’s own agent, the legendarily combative Ari Emanuel, is by all accounts very much not coincidental. Hooray for Hollywood!
