Entourage

You might not know the name Alan Dale, but you certainly know the man. Perhaps you remember him as Caleb, the owner of The Newport Group and Kirsten's father on The O.C.; there's his work on 24, when he played Vice President to David Palmer during the second and third seasons; maybe you've seen him as Charles Widmore, the industrious baddie on Lost; he's been on Ugly Betty too, playing a publishing mogul. Not enough? How about The X-Files, ER, The Practice and The West Wing. Hell, this dude was even in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

When we saw Mr.  read more »

Up until last night, we'd been pretty pleased with the latest season of Entourage. The show, which lamely limped along for almost two full years has gotten its mojo back by having Vincent Chase decline into the Hollywood Bargain Bin. So it was a little disconcerting to watch the latest episode, which would have even been considered terrible by Medellin-era Entourage standards. Vince and the boys spent thirty long minutes tripping on mushrooms with Eric Roberts. And while on paper that sounds awesome, we assure you, it certainly was not.

Still, the news today that HBO has picked up Entourage for a sixth season makes us happy.  read more »

More evidence that this fall season of TV is weak: no one is watching anything!

Despite our tremendous affection for HBO's vampire drama True Blood, it tanked in the ratings. We suggested it might be Alan Ball's own personal John From Cincinnati, but it may even be worse: True Blood had fewer than half of John's viewers watch its premiere, or 1.4 million total. Fingers crossed that rebroadcasts and On Demand viewings give it a boost.

How about Fringe? Eh. It did all right, and won its timeslot last night, capturing 9 million viewers on average over its two hour debut.  read more »

Here’s a teensy weensy spoiler about what’s ahead in season five of HBO’s Entourage, which starts on Sunday night. Johnny Drama gets the best line, and it involves the word “meth” (trust us: the crowd at the Ziegfeld theater for the premiere on Wednesday night roared). Beyond that, we’ll try not to ruin any surprises for what seems (hopefully) to be a return to what made Entourage so much fun in the first place.

When it first aired in the summer of 2004, Entourage bestowed a little La La Land glitz and glamour to the HBO landscape, which was sorely missing with the then-recent departure of the Sex and the City gals.  read more »

At the Entourage season five premiere Wednesday evening at the Ziegfield Theater on 54th Street, attendees would have been forgiven if they assumed, incorrectly, that the premiere was being filmed for some meta-meta-upcoming episode. There were screaming fans, and the boys—Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, and Jeremy Piven—were dressed in suits, and stopped to pose for photos and sign autographs. Two episodes from season five, which starts Sunday, were screened for an audience that included several guest stars from the upcoming season—Leighton Meester from Gossip Girl, Friday Night Lights producer Peter Berg, Sopranos daughter Jamie-Lynn Sigler, and rapper Bow Wow.  read more »

Given the continuing dearth of primetime options, we're pretty excited for Entourage to come back on the air this Sunday. So we couldn't help take a sneak peak at some of this season's guest stars, courtesy show creator Doug Ellin. In a chat with Broadcasting and Cable, Ellin notes that Mark Wahlberg (aka Entourage inspiration) will be back, and also that Tony Bennett and Phil Mickelson will make appearances. However, we're probably most looking forward to Giovanni Ribisi showing up in a non-cameo role. More about season 5 after the jump:  read more »

We imagine Hollywood wheeling and dealing to be much like what happens on Entourage. There's booze, lavish lunches and maybe even pool parties with pretty ladies. But the LA Times has the real scoop on how Hollywood is networking and making deals these days... through online video games.

Every Thursday night, up-and-comers in Hollywood calling themselves Nerd Poker, play an Xbox Live game together and sometimes end up making deals and connections. The 95-member strong group started two years ago when Misher Films executive Kevin Chang and Variety reporter Ben Fritz wanted to do a little online gaming without being taunted by teen nerds. So they started an online gaming group of their own and invited friends in the biz.

"While the aim was not necessarily to do business, I think the casualness and the lack of pretense made us all really close," said Mr. Chang told the LA Times. "And who wouldn't want to do business with friends?"  read more »

Deadline Hollywood's Nikki Finke is reporting that NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman will be appearing this season on HBO's glitzy Hollywood fantasia Entourage.

As Ms. Finke writes:

Fox mogul Tom Rothman and NBC mogul about to go-go Ben Silverman will appear in cameos this fall as well as ABC's The View and film critics Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips. Now exactly whose idea is that edgy viewing? Unless, of course, Ben is partaking of weed or worse on air.

Mr. Silveman, who is assumed by some to be the basis for B.J. Novak's temp-turned-ambitious executive on The Office, will probably not be toking any weed on HBO after Esquire"s Matthew Belloni  read more »

Entourage's Kevin Dillion, aka Johnny Drama Chase, will play Lisa Kudrow's hubby in Hotel for Dogs, a family film adapted from Lois Duncan's children's book about two orphaned teens who hide nine stray pooches in an abandoned hotel. Johnny Drama taking care of two kids? Yikes.

Who inspired Entourage’s temperamental auteur character? Onetime Sundance wunderkind—and wild man!—Rob Weiss, now a cigar-chomping writer for the show.  read more »