HOLLYWOOD talent agents have a new poster boy for their crass, conniving ways. He’s Ari Gold, the fabulously foul-mouthed and philistine agent in HBO’s hot new series Entourage. “Call me Helen Keller because I’m a f****** miracle worker!” is one of his less offensive explosions.
Back for a second series, the show has really hit its stride with some of the sharpest comedy since, well, HBO’s previous hit comedies: Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sex and the City, The Larry Sanders Show.
Inspired by the real-life antics of the Boogie Nights star Mark Wahlberg and his buddies from Boston, it follows the mostly upward trajectory of the young star Vince Chase and his pals. Chase has just overcome his doubts about playing the lead in Aqua-Man at Warner Bros. (“It’s Spider-Man under water”), after the specially designed suit looked too “gay”. Any similarity to the recent saga at Warner Bros over their Superman project is entirely intentional.
Wahlberg is an executive producer, and there is even an older, less successful, brother in the show’s posse, just like Wahlberg’s actor brother Donny, played with exquisite self-laceration by Kevin Dillon (brother of Matt).
The writers have made the playground of Hollywood fame just that. It’s high school with money. Dillon hides in the boot of car to try to crash the pyjama party at the Playboy Mansion. He uses his brother to get a new agent and says: “I’ve been working steady for the past 12 years, minus the last three.” He’s so insecure about his appearance that he’s saving up for calf implants.
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It might be a tad insidery but the show pops with refreshingly unflattering star cameos and unashamed name-dropping. Vince Vaughn is “puffy”, Val Kilmer is a pothead guru called the Sherpa, Gary Busey is a deranged pretentious Malibu burn-out (playing himself, naturally), and everyone scrambles to get free stuff.
Back to the show’s break-out character, Ari Gold, who is played with febrile gusto by Jeremy Piven. He just rips into the role and makes him a very human monster. Gold is loosely inspired by the top agent Ari Emmanuel, who works at Endeavor and used to represent Piven. But Emmanuel is more smooth than Gold and surely not as inadvertently witty.
Gold’s favourite method of wrapping up a full-on screaming match with a guy: “Let’s hug it out, bitch.” This has proved an instant catchphrase and has already spawned a dance song “Hug it out”, downloadable ringtones, even its own website.