By Mark La Monica
At the New York Season Three premiere of "Entourage" last month, Kevin Connolly stood on the red carpet and said if Jeremy Piven and Kevin Dillon don't start winning awards soon for their work on the show, "It'll just be a travesty."
Piven, who plays agent Ari Gold, gets his chance this year with his second straight Emmy Award nomination for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
He's up against Will Arnett of "Arrested Development," Bryan Cranston of "Malcolm in the Middle," Jon Cryer from "Two and a Half Men," and Sean Hayes from "Will & Grace."
The sentimental vote may go to Hayes since "Will & Grace" is done, but Piven deserves the award this year. His work has been exemplary. Of course, we're a bit biased in that opinion, given the fact that we have this space dedicated to "Entourage" and our tagline for this space models Ari Gold's catch phrase of "Let's hug it out."
The HBO show, now four episodes deep into Season Three, received four other Emmy nominations and some of them might fall into that "These awards were given out earlier because we don't want to show these people on TV" segment. This makes Piven's nomination that much more important as the show aims to reach -- and maybe eclipse -- the mega-ratings of "Sex & The City" and "The Sopranos," HBO's biggest hits.
Entourage's other nominations:
Casting for a Comedy Series
(competing with "Desperate Housewives," "My Name Is Earl," and "Weeds")
Directing for a Comedy Series
Two nods for the episodes "Oh Mandy" and "Sundance Kids."
In "Sundance Kids" the crew went to the Sundance Film Festival with "Queens Boulevard" and Vince landed the role of "Aquaman." In "Oh Mandy," Vince found out his first love Mandy Moore is in line to play Aquagirl in his next movie. Drama picked a fight with Point Break and landed a movie of the week.
(competing with "The Comeback: Valerie Does Another Classic Leno," "Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Christ Nail," "My Name Is Earl: Pilot," and "Weeds: Good S--- Lollipop)
Writing for a Comedy Series
For the episode "Exodus"
This was perhaps the best episode from Season Two. Mandy Moore crushed Vince, and Ari's attempted coup resulted in him getting fired.
(competing with "Arrested Development: Development Arrested," "Extras: Kate Winslet," "My Name Is Earl: Pilot," and "The Office: Christmas Party")
Comments (1)
All is well and good with "Entourage" receiving nominations. Kevin Connolly should check himself. The real "travesty" was the complete snubbing of "The Shield" from the drama nominations. With all due respect to "Entourage," "The Shield" is clearly the best show on TV.