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‘Entourage’: This one’s for charity

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This week, we’re putting a spotlight on the less fortunate. Charity golf events. Charity cases. A passing reference to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. And to be honest, this episode could have used some charity as well. Because while it had some fun encounters and a few choice lines, let’s face it: It was kind of heavy on the filler.

At least there was some eye candy. And by that I mean the shiny new Maserati that Ari purchased to win back a still-angry Mrs. Ari. Oh, and some celebrity cameos — the half-hour revolved around a charity golf tournament, after all. George Segal played benevolent Zen-master manager and Sloan godfather Murray Berenson. And Tom Brady and Mark Wahlberg showed up as themselves. Mark Wahlberg got to call someone else’s crew a funky bunch for a change (maybe a perk for being executive producer on the show; though, sadly, no hello to your mother).

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Tom Brady supplied the Gisele references and a weak-sauce story in which Turtle, a die-hard Giants fan, was determined to give the Patriot the cold shoulder. The boyfriend of Jamie-Lynn Sigler spent much of the episode huffing and puffing his pot smoke and threatening to tell Brady that he sucks, um, big hairy toes. Of course, Tom butters Turtle up with some sweetly delivered words of the “we should hang out sometime” variety, and we’re supposed to believe that suddenly Turtle is putty in his hands? Not that Brady looked like he would give a flying fig either way, but I thought Turtle was a little quick to roll over and get into bed with the sworn enemy (then again, maybe that’s the power that a proposed dinner with Gisele has over men). At least it offered Wahlberg the chance to give a nicely delivered rebuke to Turtle, admonishing him to “stop staring at the guy like you want to ... him.”

Drama’s insistence on betting his teammates he’d golf under his handicap also didn’t quite make par in my book. I half expected Drama, decked out in some sporty golf knickers, to be some kind of shark and hustle his teammates out of their ducats. But no. He trash-talked, whiffed, cursed and then used Tom Brady’s custom-made club and whiffed again. Yawn.

There wasn’t even a good dig from Drama about E’s height in this one. Though E didn’t need the slight, because he kind of acted like a tool the entire episode. First, for having that insipid poolside conversation with Ashley (“Should I sleep over tonight?” “Do you want to?” “I want to.” “Then I want you to.” Kill me now!). Second, for lying yet again to Ashley when Sloan called. And, finally, for throwing a massive hissy fit after discovering Sloan was behind his being paired up with Murray Berenson at the event. E couldn’t stand being treated as a charity case by his ex-girlfriend, of all things, and petulantly refused Murray’s generous offer to work for him. “What do you think of that?” spit E. “I think you’re an idiot,” Sloan responded. Amen. Will someone please slap some sense into that guy?

Thank goodness, then, for Jeffrey Tambor, who reprised his role as a loopy, incorrigible version of himself, and played it to the nines. Whether he was goosing up his agent-client privilege with Ari (“Who are you to judge me, agent scum?”), tearing up the greens (literally), sweetening his score or having a colorful exchange with his kids (“This is a family day. Shut the ... up and hit the ball!”), Tambor inhabited his own plane in this episode, and his scenes with Ari offered the bright moments of this otherwise dull and disappointing half-hour. Loved how Tambor portrayed himself just this side of crazy, and how Ari dutifully (for the most part) played off his quirky whims. And it’s always perversely more interesting when Tambor evokes the fire and brimstone (like the last episode he was in, when he said TV was “Satan’s work”). “You guys laughing at Ari, huh?” Tambor scoffed at Vince and the crew. “Don’t you know he’s the devil? You want to extricate yourself from his destructive powers.”

What did you think of the episode? What was your favorite celebrity cameo? How much of an idiot is E for not taking the job with Murray? What would you give up for a dinner with Gisele?

— Allyssa Lee

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