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Entourage aired from July 2004-? on The HBO Cable Network.

HBO presents Entourage, the hit comedy series executive produced by Mark Wahlberg that takes a look at the day-to-day life of Vincent (Vince) Chase, a hot young actor in modern-day Hollywood, and his entourage. He's brought with him from their hometown in Queens, NY: manager Eric, half-brother Drama, and friend Turtle. The series draws on the experiences of industry insiders to illustrate both the heady excesses of today's celebrity lifestyle, as well as the difficulty of finding love and success in the fast track of show biz. Now that the boys are getting used to the perks of stardom, Eric, along with superagent Ari, keep Vince's star rising while making sound decisions for a long-lasting career in a world of fleeting fame.

Adrian Grenier ("Drive Me Crazy," "Hart's War") stars as Vince. Kevin Connolly ("Antwone Fisher," "John Q") plays Eric, Vince's closest confidant who's learning the rules of the business as he tries to help Vince make the right choices and keep his trajectory aimed high. Kevin Dillon ("The Doors," "Platoon") plays Vince's half-brother Drama, whose own acting aspirations have been eclipsed by Vince's success. Jerry Ferrara ("Grounded for Life," "Leap of Faith") plays Turtle, the house manager, who's always up for a good time. Jeremy Piven ("Old School," "The Larry Sanders Show") plays Ari, Vince's aggressive, high-powered agent, who clashes with Eric over his client's decisions.

Also appearing in ENTOURAGE are Debi Mazar ("Goodfellas," "The Tuxedo") as Vince's publicist Shauna and Rex Lee as Lloyd, Ari Gold's much-maligned assistant.

An Article from The New York Times

TELEVISION; With Friends Like These

By JESSE MCKINLEY
Published: July 11, 2004

THERE'S a moment early in the series premiere of ''Entourage,'' the new HBO comedy, which is likely to cause some cringing among certain young Hollywood stars and the posses who trail them. Vincent Chase, a vapid but great-looking star on the rise, played by Adrian Grenier, is being pestered by his best-buddy-slash-aspiring-manager Eric (Kevin Connolly) to read a script for a movie pitched as '' 'Die Hard' at Disneyworld.''

Vince can't understand why. He never finished the script for his last film. ''I didn't even know who the killer was till I saw the thing,'' he laughs.

''There's nothing in the show that's not something that one of us has experienced,'' said Doug Ellin, the show's creator. ''Mark was very clear that we don't want to make a fake version of this. He wanted it to be real.''

The Mark of which he speaks is the actor Mark Wahlberg, who not only serves as an executive producer of the show, but the model for Vince -- and through some combination of these two roles, as Hollywood's latest tattler-sociologist. In the first two episodes alone, the show takes swipes at sycophantic agents, promiscuous groupies, pseudo-virginal pop stars, dimwitted star siblings and, of course, immature, insecure, unprepared movie stars.

But it's the funny, painful exploration of the phenomenon known as the entourage that sets the show apart from other industry satires. Like the fictional Vince and the real Mr. Wahlberg, many young stars surround themselves with a ring of friends who travel with them, hang out with them, often live with them. Everyone gets something from the arrangement: the new star gets the comfort of people who have known him for more than five minutes, and the friends get the fun of his reflected glow. But it's also a profoundly awkward, inherently inequitable relationship: dependent on their old friend's fame, money and connections, the buddies end up essentially working for the star, often in petty capacities, and inevitably getting on his nerves. But they go along with it, for such are the rewards of reflected celebrity. On ''Entourage,'' that dynamic is played out for full humiliation: most of Vince's friends are practically manservants, doing his driving and cooking; one is reduced to telling a girl: ''Come on, make out with me. I'll show you where Vince eats breakfast.'' (It works.)

Mark Wahlberg based the story on his own experience as a young star, when he routinely partied until dawn, romanced untold numbers of starlets, tussled with rival entourages (including Madonna's) and built a tight inner circle made up of other Boston natives and an assortment of oddballs he collected along the way. For these friends, having their most parasitic moments replayed for a national audience can't be all that comfortable, but when Mr. Wahlberg championed the project, they went along with it, for such are the rewards of reflected celebrity: several of them are credited as producers or consultants.

THE biggest question about ''Entourage'' may be why Mr. Wahlberg, a firmly established star with both box office and critical hits to his name, would decide to expose the often embarrassing circumstances of his own social life to millions of HBO subscribers. It's as if Tom Cruise were starring in a fable about Hollywood secrecy, or Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt were writing a script about high-profile coupledom. After all, almost no one in Hollywood knows more about entourages than Mr. Wahlberg. He has headed his own posse for the better part of the last 15 years, as he transitioned from being the bad-side-of-Boston rapper Marky Mark to the respected, bankable star of movies like ''Boogie Nights,'' ''Three Kings'' and ''Planet of the Apes.'' Through it all, Mr. Wahlberg, 33, has prided himself on his eclectic mix of hangers-on.

As he explained in a recent interview in his suite in the Trump International Hotel and Towers in Manhattan, Mr. Wahlberg sees these companions as useful, even necessary. ''My thing was always that having the people I have around keeps me grounded,'' he said. ''If you're an actor and you're working on films on a pretty regular basis, you're going to have people around you constantly anyways, so why not make it people that you like, that you're comfortable with? It just always made more sense to me. If you're going to have a driver, why not have someone you know and that you like?''

At the same time, Mr. Wahlberg is well aware of how some entourages work, mining stardom for treats they could never afford on their own. ''You have the yes men and you have the no men,'' Mr. Wahlberg said, mentioning guys who would praise his talent and then in the next breath demand, ''Buy this Maybach,'' a top of the line luxury car, or, ''How come we don't have the new Rolls?''

The characters on the show are based directly on real-life cronies of Mr. Wahlberg's. Turtle, the rotund, crassly funny, baseball-cap wearing driver (played by Jerry Ferrara) is based on a struggling rapper named Donkey who performs under the name Murder One. The character of Johnny Drama (played by Kevin Dillon, brother of the former teen idol Matt), is Vince's half-brother, his cook and an also-ran actor. He is modeled in large part on John Alves (whose nickname is the same as Mr. Dillon's character's), a bodybuilding security guard-slash-spiritual guide who was tapped by Mr. Wahlberg's brother, Donnie, to keep his kid brother out of trouble. (At 16, Mr. Wahlberg was convicted of assault and served 50 days in a state penitentiary.) It was Mr. Alves, who had done a couple of episodes of obscure television shows, whom Mr. Wahlberg credits with getting him into acting. In the show, Johnny Drama is nakedly, pathetically jealous of Vince's effortless success.

''I'm a lot like this guy, I've had an up and down career,'' said Mr. Dillon, 38. ''And I've definitely crashed on Matt's couch a number of times, and he's picked up a lot of checks.''

The character of Eric, the sensible one who acts as a go-between with the star's agent, is largely based on Steve Levinson, Mr. Wahlberg's actual manager and another of the show's executive producers, and Eric Weinstein, a middle-aged Bronx native, who first met the star on the set of ''The Basketball Diaries'' in the mid 1990's, when Mr. Wahlberg was new to Hollywood and searching for confidantes. On the show, the character of Eric is the smart, sensible friend and the only vaguely moral presence. He regularly clashes with Vince's agent, Ari Jacobs, played by Jeremy Piven.

Unlike the members of the entourage, Ari is a seasoned Hollywood professional, whose relationship with Vince involves a comparatively simple kind of mutual exploitation. He is also the most brutal -- and brutally funny -- character on the show, a screaming, bullying, womanizing 10-percenter. Mr. Wahlberg says the character is also a loving -- yes, loving -- tribute to Ari Emanuel, Mr. Wahlberg's famously brash agent at the Endeavor Agency. (Mr. Emanuel says that he is ''amused'' by the portrayal.) In yet another insider twist, Mr. Emanuel used to represent Mr. Piven, who says the character is also a more general take on the kind of ''high-strung, fast-talking, $40 million-before-you're-40 guy'' common in Hollywood. ''I've had people come up and say, 'Oh my god, you totally got him -- how did you do that?' and they're talking about someone I never heard of,'' Mr. Piven said.

He added that he thought that the show's realism came from Mr. Wahlberg's experiences as a flavor-of-the-month star who managed to parlay early attention into a durable career. ''It's true that old saying: you write what you know,'' he said. ''And if anyone's been in the belly of the beast, it's Mark Wahlberg.''

THE real reason Mr. Wahlberg has chosen to expose and lampoon his entourage may rest in the logic of the entourage itself. In a bizarre extension of the usual posse dynamic, the show is providing jobs, and even a bit of exposure, for these longtime friends and hangers-on. In fact, the original idea for the series came from Mr. Weinstein, who started to film a documentary about the odd assortment of characters who still surround Mr. Wahlberg. The star liked the idea, but preferred to turn his posse into a fictional group, in order to more brutally satirize himself, his friends and the industry that made him a star.

Mr. Weinstein, who had never developed a television show, was more than happy to offer up his sometimes-humiliating experiences for the delectation of HBO viewers. In yet another example of an opportunity available only through Mr. Wahlberg, Mr. Weinstein received an associate producer credit on the show, while Mr. Alves (the real Johnny Drama) is billed as a consultant. But even more than the credential, these posse members -- who for years have held Mr. Wahlberg's doors and fetched his drycleaning -- are finally having a moment in the spotlight, even if it's coming at their own expense.

Mr. Weinstein, 49, says he has no problem with viewers laughing at the entourage -- ''The show shows how close we all are,'' he says -- and feels proud of the work he does for his boss. ''It's neverending,'' he said. ''I do construction, I'm the estate manager, travel agent, I read scripts. It's a team effort.''

Mr. Wahlberg says his entourage, and the industry, are looking forward to the show. ''Some people are a little nervous, and they should be, because we're not going to pull any punches,'' he said. ''If you get it and you want to be in on it, cool. If not, you're probably going to be on the butt end of a couple of jokes.''

As tough as ''Entourage'' is so far, both Mr. Wahlberg and Mr. Ellin say things are just going to get more cringe-inducing. ''We've definitely held back,'' Mr. Ellin said. ''We will get more outrageous.''

And Mr. Wahlberg promises to continue mining his life, in real time, for material. As an example, he mentioned that his mother -- who was at the previous evening's starry New York premiere for the show -- might have a cameo as Vince's mother in an upcoming episode. The idea is for her to ride in a car with the pot-smoking entourage members and, as a result, end up with a contact high. How, pray tell, did this idea come to him? ''Well,'' said Mr. Wahlberg with a sheepish grin. ''She was in the car with us last night.''

A Review from The New York Times

TV WEEKEND; Young Star and His Orbit
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: July 16, 2004

A FEW things have changed in the three years since NBC's chairman, Bob Wright, wrote his famous memo bemoaning the ascent of HBO. There is more sex and violence on network television. In ''Desperate Housewives,'' a new ABC drama this fall, a sultry suburban matron has vigorous sex with the lawn boy on a dining room table and, more shocking, smokes a postcoital cigarette in his arms.

But innovation is still missing. This coming season offers at least three variations on ''The Apprentice,'' two mom-exchange shows (''Wife Swap'' on ABC versus ''Trading Spouses'' on Fox) and two boxing contests (NBC's ''Contender'' versus Fox's ''Next Great Champ''). CBS has spun off yet another forensics drama, ''C.S.I.: New York.'' Even ''Lost,'' a new drama on ABC about spooky happenings on a desert island, sounds familiar: ''Gilligan's Island'' meets ''The X-Files.''

Nothing on network television is as smart, original and amusing as ''Entourage,'' starting Sunday night on HBO, and this eight-episode series is far less racy and violent than many of the new network shows. (The language, however, is coarse and at times downright vice presidential.)

Set in Hollywood green rooms, Cadillac Escalades, pool parties and the hip Melrose Avenue clothing store Fred Segal, ''Entourage'' stands out for many reasons, but the most obvious is that it sidesteps all the usual television genres to introduce a new anthropological species: a young Hollywood subculture with its own language and rites. Created by Doug Ellin, and inspired by the Marky Mark-era excesses of one of its executive producers, Mark Wahlberg, the series centers on a hot young movie star, Vince Chase (Adrian Grenier), and his three oldest friends and hangers-on from Queens. Theirs is a ''Saturday Night Fever'' friendship based on lifelong inequality. Even in high school, Vince was the John Travolta-like star whose laid-back magnetism kept the other three losers aloft.

Eric (Kevin Connolly) is the quiet, sensible one who traded a job as night manager of a Sbarro to manage Vince's career. Johnny Drama, Vince's half-brother and a would-be actor, is the neediest of the three; played by Kevin Dillon (Matt's brother), Johnny is a tower of bluster and self-delusion. Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) is happy to live off Vince's leavings.

''C'mon, just make out with me,'' Turtle says to a young woman partying at Vince's mansion. ''I'll show you where Vince eats breakfast.'' (She agrees.)

Their hapless brushes with agents, publicists, Rolls-Royce dealers, Mexican gardeners, pop stars, business managers and sexy bimbos are beautifully observed and often wickedly funny. If the series has television antecedents at all, they are ''The Larry Sanders Show'' and ''Curb Your Enthusiasm,'' but ''Entourage'' owes the most to ''Swingers,'' a 1996 movie starring Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau that is mentioned reverently in the first episode. And most improbably for a series dedicated to a dense young actor and his parasitic posse, there is a certain sweetness peeking through the satire; at long last, a ''Clueless'' for lads.

Television sitcoms usually rely on a fish-out-of-water conceit. In ''Entourage,'' Vince is a fish in water, a natural star who has all the right moves in a town where even the smartest people can be felled by one wrong decision. His cronies are more graceless, trading shamelessly on their friend's money and status and in exchange assuming manservant tasks: shopping, cooking and running errands. They live an ''Animal House'' lifestyle, but beneath the high spirits, hedonism and ''Jackass'' stunts (they play golf on the roof of Vince's mansion, betting on who can land a ball on the roof of Ed Begley Jr. or Pierce Brosnan), the show lays bare the highs, slights and unspoken insecurities of show business.

Social standing, with its hairline humiliations and trivial preoccupations, is the core of high school sitcoms and Proust, but it is left largely unexplored by most adult television shows. Real life, however, is rarely as stark as it is depicted on ''Law & Order'' or ''Falcon Crest''; most people are driven by more workaday yearnings that fit somewhere between those of the Guermantes and ''Welcome Back, Kotter.''

The high school pecking orders that persist well into middle age are the life blood of ''Entourage.'' So is the teasing, boastful banter that young men exchange in lieu of conversation.

The send-up of Hollywood mores and manners is merciless. Celebrities like Jessica Alba and Jimmy Kimmel make cameo appearances. Jeremy Piven plays Ari Gold, a rapacious Hollywood agent who is a lot like the real-life rapacious Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, and also a little like the egomaniacal producer Kevin Spacey played in ''Swimming With Sharks.'' Ari is enraged that Vince delegates all his career decisions to Eric, who had the temerity to pass on the script for ''Matterhorn,'' an action film Ari described as '' 'Die Hard' at Disneyland.''

Ari takes Eric to dinner at Koito to put him in his place. ''That sake you are drinking -- my wife and I discovered it in Hokkaido, when we were visiting Sofia on the set of ''Lost,' '' he tells Eric at warped-agent speed. ''I dunno. It didn't really capture the place. It's twice as boring in real life.''

Ever since the 1999 sitcom ''Action,'' a startlingly barbed satire of the movie industry that starred Jay Mohr and was canceled after only a few episodes, network executives have concluded that viewers do not want to watch shows about show business. But ''Action'' was not given time to develop an audience. In a world where weekend box-office results are front-page stories even in small-town newspapers, and an entire generation grew up on People magazine, ''Access Hollywood,'' VH1's ''Behind the Music'' and ''E! The True Hollywood Story,'' studio lots and Hummer showrooms are to today's viewers what western saloons and courtrooms were to their parents.

Hollywood has been described as ''high school with money.'' HBO's ''Entourage'' suggests that actually high school is Hollywood without valet parking.

ENTOURAGE
HBO, Sunday nights at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time

Created by Doug Ellin; Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, Mr. Ellin and Larry Charles, executive producers; Timothy Marx, co-executive producer; Rob Weiss, co-producer.

WITH: Adrian Grenier (Vince), Kevin Connolly (Eric), Kevin Dillon (Drama), Jerry Ferrara (Turtle), Jeremy Piven (Ari), Debi Mazar (Shauna), Samaire Armstrong (Emily) and Monica Keena (Kristen).

A Review from USA TODAY

HBO comedy 'Entourage' is one sweet treat
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

There's something to be said for a well-made trifle.
Indeed, a near total absence of profundity and pretension is one of the joys of Entourage. A meandering comic soap about life among Hollywood's idle rich and famous, Entourage doesn't push as hard to impress, or to break through TV's boundaries, as most HBO series do. And it is the better for it.

Just because the series isn't deep, however, doesn't mean it's vapid. In its own understated way, Entourage is a kind of comedy of bad manners, an anti-morality play in which victory almost always goes to the least deserving.

At the top of that list is Vince (Adrian Grenier), a star to whom more than his share of good things flow. At the temporary bottom is Ari (Jeremy Piven), a still-successful agent who has lost Vince as a client and fears he may be losing the sharpest part of his edge.

Ari's goal as the show launches into the second half of its season? Get Vince back and regain the evil joy he takes in firing people and insulting the staff.

The plus side of Ari's search for non-redemption, aside from the opportunities it provides Piven for a wider range of rants, is that it makes room for a new agent in Vince's life: Amanda, played by the always enticing Carla Gugino. There's obvious sexual tension between the two, and just as obviously, there's only one direction in which that tension is going to lead.

The crisis is built around Vince's search for a new film. Amanda wants him to do an Edith Wharton movie. But Vince and Eric (Kevin Connolly) still long to do the much-discussed Medellin. And Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) and Drama (Kevin Dillon) continue their hunt to bed every brain-free woman in Hollywood.

Plot matters less than the trappings of success. Yet underneath all that geniality is the strain that comes from knowing your hold on the trappings is tenuous.

Piven justifiably grabs much of the attention, but the entire cast is worthy of praise, starting with Grenier as the not-as-guileless-as-he-seems Vince. And has any sitcom ever put forth a more believable picture of a deluded hanger-on than Dillon's Drama?

So indulge. Entourage, after all, is all about Hollywood, and indulgence is what Hollywood is all about.

A Review from Media Villiage

TODAY'S COMMENTARY Thursday, July 15th 2004
"Entourage" on HBO:
'Dramedy' Other Networks Wish They Could Produce
By Jack Myers

"Entourage" blends "Sex in the City's" New York sensibilities with Hollywood's status seeking artificialities, and replaces four female friends who are gracefully approaching middle age with four male friends who are desperately holding onto their childhood.
Just when you thought it was safe to go out on Sunday nights, HBO has another new hit series that's worth either staying at home for or finally buying your TiVo or HBO On Demand. "Entourage" is the best new show of the summer season and represents more evidence that no other network holds a candle to HBO for developing break-through hits that advance the state of television comedy. It makes little difference that "Entourage" is no more a sitcom than "Sex in the City;" that's the EMMY category it is destined to eventually be nominated for. "It's more of a fictional reality show," creator Doug Ellin told Jack Myers Entertainment Report. "It's a satire blended with reality." Ellin developed the series with executive producers Mark Wahlberg and Steve Levinson, and has written the first eight-episode arc with Rob Weiss and "Seinfeld" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" writer Larry Charles.

"Entourage" breaks the cardinal rule in Hollywood that you do not write about the business, and you especially don't ridicule and satirize the behavior of stars. Based on the experiences of Wahlberg and his entourage of high school friends who lived with him and off him as he emerged as Hollywood "A" list talent, "Entourage" not only ridicules and satirizes stars, agents, and studio executives -- it offers them a vehicle to ridicule and satirize themselves. In the first few episodes there are guest appearances by Wahlberg, Jessica Alba, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, Val Kilmer, Larry David, Scarlett Johannson, Sara Foster, and Luke Wilson, all playing themselves. Ellin is not surprised his series appeals to people inside the business, but says "we wanted to develop something that would relate more to people outside than inside the business." He is surprised by the show's appeal to a broad audience, especially older audiences. "We tried to make something somewhat sophisticated even though it's in an immature world. We set out to be more than campy and satirical. It was our intent to be serious. It is 100% real -- nothing is exaggerated. This is a show about friendship with the backdrop of Hollywood," Ellin says. "It's about 28 year old guys, their friendships, and trying to find themselves."

Vince, the Wahlberg character played effectively by Adrian Grenier, is actually a composite of many actors, says Ellin. He adds "Mark was concerned from the get-go that we stay true to the actual experiences of young talent who suddenly achieve stardom and those around them." Ellin cites the storyline of Vince getting an awful review in Variety and blowing all his money to compensate for it as an example of a realistic experience.

Jeremy Piven plays agent Ari Gold to perfection, creating one of the most captivating new television characters to come along in years. Gold is obviously based on Ari Emmanuel, one of the biggest agents in show business, and if anyone in Hollywood is going to feel dissed by "Entourage" it would be Emmanuel. "Not so," says Ellin. "He loves it. The character is done with loving fun, and in fact Ari is one of the agents who sold the show to HBO." Ellin had Piven in mind to play the Emmanuel character from the start, and when casting was being done, Emmanuel called from Europe to ask that Piven be given the role or that the name of the character be changed.

"Entourage" blends "Sex in the City's" New York sensibilities with Hollywood's status seeking artificialities, and replaces four female friends who are gracefully approaching middle age with four male friends who are desperately holding onto their childhood. Although "Entourage" takes place in a world with a far different reality than the rest of the world, the characters seem immediately real and comfortable, while it took a couple of seasons before SATC's characters seemed honest and real. Kevin Dillon, Kevin Connolly, and Jerry Ferrara each establishes his own unique personality, quirks and audience appeal.

"Entourage" is the ensemble dramedy other networks wish they could produce but can't. "We never considered another network except HBO," says Ellin.

An Article from The New York Times

Talent Agent, And Battler, In Spotlight

By BERNARD WEINRAUB
Published: August 2, 2004

The reptilian Hollywood talent agent in the HBO series ''Entourage'' is named Ari. And even Ari Emanuel, one of Hollywood's top agents and a partner at Endeavor, acknowledges, with a faint grin, that the agent is more or less based on him.

The show is about a young movie star (played by Adrian Grenier) and his posse of childhood friends from Queens who trade on his money and fame in exchange for serving as his flunkies. A key character is Ari (Jeremy Piven), a frightening agent with a heart of lead who pops Viagra for no apparent reason and dismays everyone around him with his appalling behavior. After screaming at someone, the agent opens his arms and asks to ''hug it out.''

''People definitely see me in the character,'' Mr. Emanuel said in a sleek conference room at his talent agency in the heart of Beverly Hills. ''There's aspects of it that I see. Am I flattered? Are you kidding? I'm scared. I'm scared every time a new episode comes up.''

By all accounts, Mr. Emanuel does not scare easily. At 43 he has emerged as one of the more charismatic and successful figures in the talent agent business, a volatile charmer with a streak of foot-tapping impatience. Mr. Emanual says he's hyper, dyslexic and has a lot of energy. His clients include the directors Martin Scorsese and John Woo; Aaron Sorkin, creator of ''West Wing''; Larry David, co-creator of ''Seinfeld'' and creator of ''Curb Your Enthusiasm''; Conan O'Brien, the television host; and the actors Michael Douglas and Mark Wahlberg. The show is inspired by his first years in Hollywood as he moved from being a rapper and model to acting.

Mr. Wahlberg said the show's characters were loosely based on the members of his own entourage in his Boston neighborhood but far more likable.

''We didn't want to alienate the audience,'' he said. ''Not that I'm not likable. I'm a good Catholic boy. But my past was heavy. Some of my guys had done time. My guys were from the street. My guys had been in trouble. If we had created something real, it would have been more like 'Oz.' We wanted something happier.''

Even those agents and executives who are not fond of him acknowledge that beneath his sizzling style -- beneath his friendly ''booby'' when taking a call or his unfriendly profanity when he fails to get what he wants -- is a shrewd and calculating businessman who has helped turn Endeavor into one of the most successful agencies in Hollywood.

''Ari is relentless,'' said Leslie Moonves, co-president and co-chief operating officer at Viacom, who runs CBS. ''There's no more loyal a guy for his clients. He'll beg, borrow and steal to get his clients what he wants. He clearly loves this business. He loves the art of the deal.''

Mr. Emanuel said with a sigh, ''I'm not a shrinking violet.''

Indeed. He even startled his partners as well as rival agents and executives in Hollywood recently when he publicly assailed one of the most powerful men in town, Michael Eisner, chairman of the Walt Disney Company. At issue was Mr. Eisner's decision not to release the Michael Moore documentary, ''Fahrenheit 9/11.'' Mr. Moore is one of Mr. Emanuel's clients.

It is unthinkable in Hollywood for an agent, who needs all the business he can get, to publicly criticize a mogul who runs an entertainment conglomerate. (Whispered criticism and nasty gossip are another matter.)

In this case, Mr. Emanuel said, Mr. Eisner blocked Miramax, which it owns, from distributing the Moore documentary, which strongly criticizes President Bush's actions before and after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mr. Emanuel said that last spring Mr. Eisner asked him to pull out of the Miramax deal because if Miramax got involved, it would endanger tax breaks that Disney receives for its theme parks and hotels in Florida, where Mr. Bush's brother, Jeb, is governor.

Disney executives denied the accusation. (Bob and Harvey Weinstein, co-chairmen of Miramax, later personally acquired the rights to the film, which has been distributed by Lions Gate Films).

Although there was concern within Endeavor that Disney would no longer respond to phone calls from the agency, within several days the studio executives and the agents were back in business

''We would not have gotten the release our film received without Ari's work,'' Mr. Moore said in an interview. ''He took a big risk. He did something agents were not supposed to do when he went on the record. He broke one of the unwritten rules. He made sure the film wasn't shelved.''

Mr. Weinstein, who has known Mr. Emanuel for years, said over the phone: ''Ari is fearless in a town where nobody is fearless. He is not afraid to take on anybody, and that includes me, which he has done.''

Mr. Wahlberg said Mr. Emanuel gives his all for clients: ''He's an all-American wrestler. He works harder than anyone else. He put me in a position where I can produce, develop other material too.''

Doug Ellin, the creator of ''Entourage,'' has said that the character was loosely based on two agents, Mr. Emanuel, and his own agent, Jeff Jacobs of Creative Artists. Both agents signed releases waiving the right to sue. But it is Mr. Emanuel, as portrayed by Mr. Piven, a former Endeavor client who knows the agent, who seems to serve as the model, for better or worse.

Though Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Wahlberg both said the series was mostly fictional, there are bits and pieces of the character and the show that ring true.

''I see absolute aspects of me in his character, in his personality,'' Mr. Emanuel said. ''I'm a little calmer now than I was a while back -- not a lot, but a little calmer. I'm married and I have three kids. I'm calmer. But this guy is very fast and very quick and he's a lot funnier than I am.'' (Mr. Emanuel said he does not chew Viagra or do much hugging.)

In one scene, the Ari character lashes into the movie star's business manager, who formerly managed a pizza restaurant, for involving himself in the star's career. ''I don't have business with people like you -- I don't do this,'' the agent says icily. ''Do you think Hugh Jackman calls and says: 'Hey, Ari, love the script. Gotta run it past the pizza boy'?'' (Mr. Jackman is an Endeavor client).

At another point the fictional Ari lashes into the manager again. ''Are you a Communist or a socialist or don't they teach you the difference at Pepperoni U?'' he bellows. ''I'm just a lowly Harvard grad with a J.D. M.B.A. from Michigan.'' (Mr. Emanuel, who graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, said these scenes and many others were fictional.)

Agents and executives who have worked with Mr. Emanuel or tangled with him said the depiction of him on the show is close to the truth.

(Endeavor's A-list clients include Adam Sandler, Matt Damon, Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Garner, as well as executive producers of shows like ''C.S.I.,'' ''The O.C.'' and ''Without a Trace.'')

But others said that Mr. Emanuel's sometimes intemperate behavior often seems to be a tactic to get what he wants. ''For someone who gives off this aura of being so crazy, there's no one in the end who's more rational and sane,'' said Jeff Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group. ''Do I think it's an act? It's his M.O.''

Mr. Emanuel credits his powerfully competitive streak to growing up in a Chicago household where, he said, everyone seemed to be in competition. He was the youngest of three brothers and had to shout the loudest. The oldest brother is Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, an oncologist and chairman of the department of clinical bioethics at the Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health. His middle brother is Rahm Emanuel, a top White House adviser to President Bill Clinton and now a Democratic Congressman from Illinois, covering the northwest side of Chicago and parts of suburban Cook County.

Mr. Emanuel, whose Israeli-American father is a retired pediatrician, recalled that his mother, a psychiatric social worker, would take the boys on protest marches against the Vietnam War and other issues. Mr. Emanuel himself is one of Hollywood's more active Democratic Party fund-raisers.

''There was never a time at the dinner table when politics didn't come up,'' Mr. Emanuel said. ''We always argued. I suppose that affected the way I talk to people. It doesn't mean you don't like somebody.''

Mr. Emanuel began his career in the 1980's as an assistant to Robert Lantz, a veteran New York agent who represents Milos Forman and others. Mr. Lantz suggested that Mr. Emanuel move to Los Angeles and helped him get a job in the mail room of the Creative Artists Agency in 1987. Mr. Emanuel, who said he often speaks to Mr. Lantz, said the older agent taught him four lessons:

''You have to have taste, you have to be aggressive, you have to be fearless and you have to have the ability to sell.''

Mr. Emanuel added: ''You have to have a very strong backbone, too, because you're going to get rejected more than you're going to get accepted. At this point I've got a strong backbone.''

Correction: August 4, 2004, Wednesday An article in The Arts on Monday about the Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel gave an outdated title for Michael D. Eisner, the Walt Disney executive with whom he dueled over the distribution of ''Fahrenheit: 9/11'' while representing its director. (The error also appeared in an article in the section on May 25 about efforts to find a distributor.) Mr. Eisner is chief executive, no longer chairman.

An Article from The New York Times

Madison Ave. Joins the ‘Entourage’ Hangers-On

By STUART ELLIOTT
Published: August 23, 2006

MADISON AVENUE is joining the retinue surrounding “Entourage.”

The HBO series, which completes its third season on Sunday, is not a breakout hit, like its network siblings “Sex and the City” and “The Sopranos.” But the attractive cast, the glamorous show-business story lines and the show’s popularity among men have made “Entourage” — about the picaresque adventures of a young movie star and his posse — appealing to marketers.

Cast members like Kevin Dillon and Jeremy Piven are appearing in campaigns for brands like Diet Pepsi and Gap. Cingular Wireless and HBO produced “mobisodes,” mini-episodes for watching on mobile phones, that feature the cast. And Hyundai Motor America has introduced a minivan called Entourage (although the company calls it a coincidence).

The attraction of marketers to “Entourage” speaks to the continuous interplay between advertising and popular culture. From the so-called golden days of radio to the dawn of network television to today, successful shows have served as a talent pool for potential product peddlers.

Another example is the ABC series “Desperate Housewives,” which is returning for a third season on Sept. 24. Cast members like Marcia Cross, Eva Longoria and Nicollette Sheridan are being featured in campaigns for brands like Diet Pepsi, 7Up Plus and Vive from L’Oréal Paris.

In some instances, a hit show can become a perennial source of ad talent. The stars of “Sex and the City” — now in reruns after its series finale on HBO in February 2004 — are still being asked to take part in ads.

•Kristin Davis, who played Charlotte, will appear in a campaign starting next month for Kikit clothing, sold by Jordache Enterprises. And Mario Cantone, who portrayed Anthony, is the voiceover announcer for a campaign that began last month for Sunsilk hair care products from Unilever.

“Entourage,” with its ensemble cast and its plots centered on four men about town, reminds many viewers of “Sex and the City” and its four women about town. The similarities have attracted marketers seeking to appeal to younger consumers.

“In Generation Y, it’s all about belonging,” said Susan Cocco, senior vice president and executive marketing director at Colangelo Synergy Marketing in Darien, Conn., which works for brands like Fram, Guinness and Schick.

Members of the generation born from 1981 onward “look for ways to distinguish themselves from the group, but not to separate from it,” Ms. Cocco said. “We talk to clients about consumers needing a reason to belong to your brand instead of believing in your brand.”

For the Gap division of Gap Inc., Mr. Piven is appearing in a campaign for T-shirts that features familiar celebrities (Mia Farrow), new faces (Pete Wentz of the band Fall Out Boy) and those who are somewhere in between (Mr. Piven).

“We’ve seen him before, but he’s coming into his own in this role,” Trey Laird at Laird & Partners in New York, the Gap agency, said of Mr. Piven, who plays a hyperbolic agent named Ari Gold. “The show has kind of propelled him to the next level.”

Another appealing quality to “Entourage,” said Mr. Laird, who is president and executive creative director at Laird & Partners, is that “it has a lightness to it, but it’s not brainless TV.”

“It’s a little bit of a guilty pleasure,” he added, “and we all need a little of that.”

Mr. Dillon, who portrays a character named Johnny Chase, nicknamed Johnny Drama, is part of a campaign for Diet Pepsi, created by DDB Worldwide in New York, part of the Omnicom Group. The campaign playfully presents Diet Pepsi as if it were a human celebrity; Mr. Dillon, in a magazine ad, is helping a can of Diet Pepsi hook up with a hottie

Mr. Dillon is appropriate for the campaign because “the show pokes fun at the celebrity phenomenon in the same way we’re doing,” said Russell Weiner, vice president for colas marketing at Pepsi-Cola North America in Purchase, N.Y., part of the Pepsi-Cola division of PepsiCo.

The appeal of “Entourage” to male viewers fits with efforts by Pepsi-Cola North America to increase the male appeal of Diet Pepsi, traditionally a brand for women. Consumption of the brand is now evenly divided between men and women, Mr. Weiner said.

Is the decision to give the Entourage name to the Hyundai minivan, which came out at the beginning of the year, an effort to interest men in what is typically a product bought by women?

• “There was never any connection” between the minivan and the series, said Christopher Hosford, a spokesman for Hyundai Motor America in Fountain Valley, Calif., part of the South Korean company Hyundai Motor.

“The show might have been on the air when we started the research” in 2004 to name the minivan, Mr. Hosford said, adding that he recalled “there were a couple of people in sales, working with names, who weren’t aware of the TV show.”

“With over 600 model nameplates, anything anybody calls any car is likely to show up someplace else,” Mr. Hosford said.

So do not be surprised if the next truck aimed at the macho male market is named Deadwood.

An Article from The Boston Globe

TELEVISION
He gives 'Entourage' an assist
Rex Lee's former day job played a role in his becoming a full-time actor

By Suzanne C. Ryan, Globe Staff
April 8, 2007

Insulting comments about your ethnicity and sexual orientation aren't tolerated in a workplace, unless you're Lloyd, the harried assistant to Hollywood agent Ari Gold on HBO's comedy series "Entourage," which returns for the second half of its third season tonight at 10 .

Lloyd, a gay Chinese-American man, is routinely yelled at, told to "grab your best dress," and even given the finger by his boss. He soaks it all in because he has a vague promise he'll be promoted to agent status -- in 24 months.

For actor Rex Lee, who portrays the put-upon Lloyd, the abuse and humiliation is surprisingly easy to take, considering Lee is a Korean-American gay man.

"When we're in the middle of a take, it's usually not enjoyable," says Lee. "Then they call 'Cut!' and it's all over. I am not actually Lloyd and it's not actually happening to me.

"The truth is," he adds, "I am so happy to be a working actor."

The character Lloyd was a late addition to the comedy series, which debuted in 2004. Jeremy Piven plays the narcissistic Gold, the on-again, off-again agent for the hot young Hollywood actor Vince Chase . Mark Wahlberg is an executive producer of the show, which is loosely based on his experiences.

Originally written as an African-American, Lloyd was introduced in the second season after Lee bested 200 other men for the part. The actor remembers executive producer and creator Doug Ellin was sprawled on a couch, giggling through his entire audition.

"This guy could be a show on his own," Ellin recalls thinking. "He and Jeremy have a chemistry that feeds off each other. They are a bizarre combination. Just looking at them together is funny."

As an actor, Lee is uniquely qualified to play Lloyd. At the time of his audition, he was working in Los Angeles as an assistant for a group of casting directors for television commercials. "Some of the people, in their own way, were like Ari," he says. "They took themselves really seriously. During the course of the day, they would get very tense. It wasn't always a pleasure from start to finish."

Certainly, none of his former co-workers were as rude as Gold. In fact, they allowed him to keep his job while he filmed his first season on the show.

"People are shocked that I didn't stop that job until January 2006," Lee says with a laugh. "I would be at my casting job and actors would come in and say, 'What are you doing here?'

"The reality of my situation was that my first year on the show, I got paid the minimum an actor is allowed to get paid," he says. Now that he's a series regular, Lee says he gets "nice big checks" and he no longer works the casting gig (although he never officially quit).

Lee, who spent his early childhood in Somerville, Woburn, and Newton before moving to Los Angeles, has wanted to be an actor since he was a young child. His father, a doctor, and mother, a homemaker, discouraged him and he eventually pursued a career as a concert pianist at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music before switching his career focus back to acting.

After appearing in various television commercials, he landed his first TV show speaking part on CBS's "Dave's World" in 1994.

Since then, Lee says he's been cast only in subservient roles. He wonders if racism is why, but selects not to dwell on the matter. "I have the right to be upset but I'm choosing not to be," he says.

"I want to be a working actor," Lee explains. "I have this strange knowledge that when 'Entourage' is over and they are casting the next sassy receptionist at the next office sitcom, I know I can go after that role and have a good chance of getting it. I would love it if at the end of my career, I can say 'Wow, what a lovely varied career I had.' All actors aspire to that. On the other hand, if I arrive at the end and say, 'I played an interesting array of assistants,' it won't be the end of the world either."

For now, Lee is focused only on "Entourage," which is filming its fourth season. Will Lloyd get a spinoff? "The show is called 'Entourage' -- it's about those boys," Lee says. "I would love if it became 'The Lloyd Show.' That's not going to happen."

An Article from The Seattle Times
Published on April 8, 2007

Is "Entourage" falling apart?
By Florangela Davila

The main problem I have with the first five new episodes of the third season of "Entourage"? No Jessica Alba.

Yes, some honeys appear tonight, when the show returns. A couple of Victoria's Secret models show up for a Vince-centric bash. But I'm starting to get bored.

What I used to love about this show, drinking it in cocktail-like, was how it felt so insidery Hollywood. Taking us to the clubs and the movie premieres; showing us the perks of being squarely on the celebrity A-list.

Up until now, I couldn't get enough of pretty boy Vince (Adrian Grenier) and his crew deliciously partaking in celebdom: Vegas one weekend, the Playboy mansion the next. Except for the time Mandy Moore (playing herself) broke Vince's heart, he's had no trouble getting the girls, and that's been fun to watch. Then there are his pals Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) and Johnny "Please, please recognize me" Drama (Kevin Dillon), always eager but so utterly out of their league, countering the show's debauchery with their buffoonery.

The show's central conceit is this whole fish-out-of-water thing; the key fish being actor Vince. And we've watched him splash around the Hollywood pond: starring in a hit movie, buying a mansion, buying some motorcycles for his pals.

We've even met his mother, and in June, we saw how this foursome (Vince, Turtle, Drama and Vince's manager, Eric) got out of whack when a fifth guy — an old pal from Queens — showed up and tried to fit in. We've seen what might happen if one of the guys settles into a serious relationship (Eric, played by Kevin Connolly). That storyline? Not all that exciting.

Now, beginning tonight, there's Amanda, Vince's new agent (remember, he fired Ari in the last episode last summer). Played by Carla Gugino, Amanda's a bosomy brunette with nice arms who's supposed to be as "hot" as they come. But I just don't see it — and when Vince falls for her? Nope. Didn't buy it all.

So I'm starting to wonder: Has this show run its course? Is some, oh, sordid scandal all we have to look forward to?

If anything can save the series, it's the gloriously single-minded Ari Gold, Vince's manager, played by the wonderful Jeremy Piven. A look at the five upcoming episodes solidly reinforces just how much the show ought to orbit around Ari. Ari and his ever-loyal assistant Lloyd (Rex Lee). Ari and his ever-tolerant Mrs. (Perrey Reeves). Ari and the dos and don'ts of Yom Kippur. All of this is fresh and different, trumping what we've mostly seen Vince and his buddies already do.

So listen up, HBO: Ramp up the Ari factor, preferably with winning Lloyd. Or else risk having us flee from pretty-faced actor to Showtime's pretty-faced King Henry VIII.

For a Website dedicated to Entourage go to http://www.entouragetvseries.com/