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Last updated: 3:35 pm
September 6, 2008
Posted: 2:11 am
September 6, 2008
IS it real or is it "Entourage"?
The answer is not always clear. Like NBC's "30 Rock," HBO's Hollywood-based comedy series about a young, handsome, laid-back (and fictional) movie star (Adrian Grenier) and the trio of friends who sponge off of him has become an in-demand destination for real-life guest-stars.
Sometimes they play themselves and sometimes they play someone else.
"30 Rock," the Tina Fey/Alec Baldwin comedy series about a New York-based sketch-comedy show, has attracted Jerry Seinfeld (as himself) and Jennifer Aniston (playing a crazed stalker this coming season). Aniston shot her "30 Rock" scenes here last week.
Measured on the basis of sheer tonnage, "Entourage" has "30 Rock" beat so far. The fifth season of the HBO series opens tomorrow night with TV movie critics Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips - as themselves - reviewing "Medellin," the epic bomb that is now threatening to torpedo star Vincent Chase's burgeoning career.
Later in the episode, NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman shows up for a showdown with one of his stars - Vince's brother, Johnny "Drama" Chase (Kevin Dillon). Silverman's blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance consists basically of him uttering a four-letter expletive, a "performance" that's not likely to enhance his image.
In episode two, Tony Bennett and Mark Walberg play themselves (Walberg's an executive producer of "Entourage," which happens to be loosely based on his life as a young star); Leighton Meester of "Gossip Girl" plays an old flame of Vince's (not herself); and Lukas Haas and Giovanni Ribisi play redneck script writers.
Episode three has Kevin Pollak and Fran Drescher as a married couple (not themselves) and episode four has Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck (but not Barbara Walters or Joy Behar) playing themselves as co-hosts of "The View."
Tracking the many ways in which reality converges with fiction is one of the principal pleasures of "Entourage," which otherwise explores some pretty well-worn territory in its new season.
The four pals are still perennially on the make (and only slightly concerned with whether or not Vince, their ever-reliable meal ticket, ever earns another dime) and Vince's agent, Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), is still throwing wild tantrums and abusing co-workers and others so thoroughly that you wonder how he stays in business.
Likely, he survives on pure energy and adrenalin, which is pretty much how "Entourage" has made it all the way to its fifth season.
