‘Entourage’: Dazed and confused
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When we last left the summer series, Vince was hot and bothered and walking away from a fiery stunt crash. Turns out the explosive car stunt has since left our “Entourage” star, as Ari said, “a little off since the accident.” The inevitable fallout reared its head this episode, titled “Buzzed,” in odd ways: First, he slept for 18 hours straight. Then, he couldn’t get his moppy hair off his mind (though truth be told, that thing was starting to reach the outer limits of acceptable moppiness), so he pulled a Felicity and chopped it all off. While Drama immediately took to the new streamlined ’do (“we look more alike than ever!”), an angry Nick Cassavetes likened the crop to “Tobey Maguire from ‘Brothers.’” Which still may be better than publicist Shauna’s comment: “I thought you were Samantha Ronson from behind!” Ha!
Vince’s transformation only started there. It seems the movie star’s near-death experience has launched him into an existential state where he feels the need for speed and jump out of planes or heli board in order to feel truly alive.
He’s also saying things that he shouldn’t. Like when he did the ultimate PR no-no and told Maria Menounos that the Cassavetes movie would “probably end up sucking” during the “Ferrari” junket, thereby sending E and Shauna into a tizzy. It’ll be interesting to see how Vince will deal with this whole world of trouble that he set up for himself by bad-mouthing his new movie, getting that hair cut and jumping on the Scotty Lavin bandwagon.
Turtle suffered a snag in his bumping babe business when his corporate AmEx was embarrassingly rejected by the cute waitress at the diner.
His attempt to show off his big-pimping business deflated, Turtle finds out the culprit was a $10K charge to Tiffany’s made by none other than former employee Alex. Turns out, of course, that it was all a big misunderstanding, because Alex was just following orders when she bought Turtle’s ma a nice bauble, and it was the jewelry store’s fault that they accidentally added another zero to the credit card transaction. Mostly, though, it all seemed to be a pretty obvious way of getting Turtle and Alex some face time. Turtle apologized for the misunderstanding, and before the episode ended, Alex looked like she might be having a change of heart about her predatory former employer.
The clock on his holding deal ticking away, Drama’s getting ever more disconsolate about finding that one script that will propel him to stardom. And in a nice show of bro-solidarity, Vince even enlisted the sharp script-reading skills of E to help him out. But not one seems to be the right fit for our boy Drama. Drama, feeling as outcast as a leper, turns to a strip bar for comfort. That is, until his new manager E decides to call on some of his show-runner pals to see if one can’t write a show built around the unique Johnny himself.
Self-proclaimed king of Hollywood Ari is now making his bid to be the king of the world and take over the NFL. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has finally nibbled on Ari’s persistent line and announced that he was in town for the afternoon and will give the über-agent a chance to pitch selling the TV rights. And these NFL big dogs really looked so cool during this sequence; the impressive super-dome shots and the slick footage of Jones and his NFL cronies walking in tandem at the airport showed how alike the NFL and Hollywood really are. Also, loved how Jones persistently called Ari “Aerie.”
Landing this deal has become Ari’s top priority, and he’s cleared his schedule of everything else, including Vince’s PR snafu and the 90 minutes spent driving to the middle of the Valley to see the Murano chandelier that Sophia Loren once owned and Mrs. Ari desperately wanted. “It’s the NFL, baby,” Ari said to his wife as explanation. “I sell the TV rights and I will buy you Italy.” Though Ari suffered a small PR crisis of his own when Mrs. Ari walked in on him being all celebratory and huggy with Lizzie Grant. And while Lizzie seems to be a team player now, anyone else get the feeling that she may be jockeying for something more than Andrew’s old position?
It was nice to see some of last season’s guest stars return, like Autumn Reeser as Lizzie (though that Flobee’d hair has got to go) and Scott Caan as Smarmy McSmarmyson, a.k.a. Scotty Lavin, E’s colleague and best frenemy. Not to mention the snappy Debi Mazar as Shauna Roberts. And how great did she look in that skintight dress at the junket? You can see why Maria Menounous’ ex made his indiscretion.
Also great: The cameos by Nick Cassavetes, neck tattoos bulging and fuming after he found out about Vince’s new haircut, a deliciously catty Menounos and the somewhat needy, vaguely creepy, very deviant and always entertaining Bob Saget and his sick polygamist story.
Vince’s hair: yay or nay? Think Vince getting caught at the strip club will come back to haunt him? Who do you think is stealing checks from Ari? Why can’t Lizzie Grant have better hair? Anyone else up for some L.A. Gold football?
-- Allyssa Lee
Related:
Complete ‘Entourage’ coverage on Show Tracker
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