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Great as Gold: Jeremy Piven returns to 'Entourage'

Busy actor tries to show off more than the Ari of his ways

TEN YEARS ago, if you'd told Jeremy Piven that one day his "Masterpiece Theater" gig would cost him a role in a Spike Lee movie, he'd have had you committed.

But that's his hectic life today - living and filming his own PBS series in London, trying to squeeze in Hollywood jobs and talking about his life-changing role in "Entourage," the HBO series now hitting the big screen.

"Entourage" is known for its loutish bro-comedy trappings, but beneath the surface is a persuasive look at the serendipity and chaos that is Hollywood.

Exhibit A: Piven's own career.

Twenty years ago Piven was a bit player looking for substantial roles, and turned down a chance to appear in a pilot for an ensemble TV show called "Friends."

Ten years later, just as that series was concluding its long and phenomenally successful run, Piven was still looking for more substantial roles.

What he was offered instead was a small role in another series, called "Entourage," about a movie star and his pals.

Piven would play the agent, Ari Gold.

And play him so well, he'd go on to become the de facto star of the series, a headliner, now pulled between one dream project and another.

The Chicago native is currently kicking himself for missing the window on Spike Lee's "Chiraq," a look at the violence plaguing Chicago (the title conflates Chicago and Iraq.)

"Spike's a genius. And this story really needs to be told. And I really wish I could do it, but at this point it looks like I can't," said Piven, who'd have reunited with childhood pal John Cusack. Samuel L. Jackson also has been cast.

This week Piven is doing press for "Entourage." The plot of the new film hangs on a big-budget adaptation of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" - appropriate, since Piven had to locate his Hyde side in order to play the screaming, bullying, verge-of-an-aneurysm Gold.

When the long-running series petered out four years ago, the actor was glad to leave the demanding role behind.

"I'm looking for balance in my life," says Piven, who has a reputation for being mercurial on set and in interviews.

Quick background, for those who don't know "Entourage": It was produced by Mark Wahlberg, and loosely based on the actor's experiences as a star who brought his lifelong friends to Hollywood.

The fictionalized Wahlberg is named Vinnie Chase (Adrian Grenier), and the show was meant to focus on Chase and his hard-partying bro posse (Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara).

As Chase's agent, however, Piven began to steal scenes, and writers began to write for him. Ari became the show's break-out character, and is the center of the new movie. (Piven was reportedly paid $5 million, the other stars $2 million).

Piven explained Ari's rise:

"You've got a guy, Vinnie Chase, at the heart of the story of 'Entourage,' who can be viewed as apathetic. Somehow, Vinnie just feels like everything will work out. He's really not overly invested in anything. And Ari, his agent, is over-invested in everything."

Ari Gold's passion is never in question. Vinnie, on the other hand, seems more passionate about parties than on-screen performance.

"If you think about it, we still don't know if Vinnie is a good actor," Piven said. "But there's no doubt Ari is a good agent."

And in his own way, a good husband. While Chase and friends are happily immersed in a debauched bachelorhood, Ari is a faithful and devoted husband, under the thumb of his wife (Perry Reeves).

Viewers loved it.

"No matter how much Ari squawks and screams, she's the one in control," Piven said. "That was something Perry and I always agreed had to be there."

In the show, Gold is a father at home and a father to Vinnie and his stuck-in-adolescence entourage.

"Without Ari, the boys have to go back to Queens," Piven said. "All of those guys are depending on him. He's basically trying to knock down walls and create jobs for everybody."

The movie finds Ari running his own studio, joint venturing with Vinnie on a new movie and trying to keep his star focused amid the usual celebrity-studded chaos (cameos for Tom Brady, Mark Cuban, Russell Wilson, Warren Buffett).

Ari's at home in that world, Piven is not.

"I'm a different animal," he said. "I'm not really in the loop, to be honest. I'm not going to parties with Warren Buffett, I don't roll with billionaires, I'm just not that guy. This is my fourth year living in England, doing this period drama, so I'm not in the belly of the beast."

He's talking about "Mr. Selfridge," the "Masterpiece Theater" program, starring Piven and based on the life of Harry Selfridge, a Midwesterner who founded a department-store empire in England.

Piven said it's probably the best role he's ever had - complex and evolving, in the manner of good, long-running television drama. It's changed his professional and personal life, and given him the courage to go back and take on the challenge of playing Ari.

"If I had been sitting around doing nothing when the 'Entourage' movie came up, I think I would have had a real problem with it," Piven said. "The one thing I've tried to do is never have rust. Always be busy as an actor. And ["Mr. Selfridge"] has given me this great momentum."

Piven just wishes more people would watch it.

"Listen, I get the value of promotion," he said. "Ari gets the value of promotion. And certainly nobody got it better than Harry Selfridge. The irony is, he put all of his money into promotion and PBS, God bless them, they don't have a dime to spend on advertising. So, the people who watch the show really love it, but I really feel as though it's still a little bit under the radar."