Just to help get you through until then, here are a few clips from the Season 6 premiere of "Entourage."
]]>Looks like we're going to have ourselves a few Sloan sightings this season, too. All seems right with the world right now, doesn't it?
]]>Been scanning the web for Entourage stuff in anticipation of season 6 and found this: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1914477. I don't know if you've seen it. As much as I love entourage, this is pretty funny....
Paul, I hadn't seen this until your email. It's hilarious. Hope you all enjoy it, too.
]]>"Entourage" will return to HBO on Sunday, July 12. It's time to start getting excited again. I've been on YouTube all morning watching clips from past episodes, including the Ari-Mrs. Ari therapy scenes. They're arguably the best scenes in this show's history.
Among the guest stars we'll see this season: Tom Brady, Ed Burns, Zac Efron, Jami Gertz, 50 Cent, Jay Leno, Steve Nash, David Schwimmer and Mark Wahlberg.
Emmanuelle Chriqui will also reprise her role as Sloan for a few episodes, and I think the entire world is happy about that. Same goes for Jamie-Lynn Sigler.
The big hand sits on top of the 10 like King Kong Bundy demanding a five count.
I'm talking about the time of 2:50, and if you remember "The Sundance Kids" episode from Season 2 of "Entourage," you know where I'm headed here.
That's right, folks, the 2:50 meeting. It was one of Ari Gold's best scenes in terms of not-so-over-the-top antics and comedy that leads to a lasting impact down the road (how's that for a niche?).
Quick refresh: E gets a lunch with Harvey to talk about "Tapping the Source." Ari laughs at the time of 2:50. Vince adds, "Who meets at 2:50?"
Why do we care now, as we sit just a few months away from the start of Season 6? Well, why not?
Even though time only allows for 2:50 to occur twice a day in a particular time zone, it's amazing how many 2:50 meetings one person can attend in one day.
Think about the next time your boss makes you go attend a silly, fruitless meeting. Tell him, "Guy, that's a 2:50 meeting." If he doesn't get it, consider finding a new boss. And then send him this link so he can watch the video.
(Then, if you're really gutsy, set up a daily meeting schedule in Outlook for 2:50 p.m. and send it to him.)
I've stayed away from all the "mercury toxicity" stuff involving Jeremy Piven and his early exit from "Speed-the-plow."
Personally, I don't really care. Just show up and be Ari Gold. The rest of life is up to you.
But if you want to read a real undressing of Piven by Page Six, here you go. Note: It's brutal.
But again, so long as nothing happens to Ari Gold's character, the position of "Entourage: Let's Blog It Out" is we don't care about off-screen stuff.
(Getty Images)
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We'd like to thank all who participated in the voting for the Season 5 Joshie Awards. (We'd also like to thank all who put up with my delinquency in posting the winners. Life and work threw me some Tom-Gordon-in-his-prime curveballs the last few days, thus causing the delay. No excuses, but that's my excuse.)
The results are quite interesting, I think. A few surprises, a few predictable winners and a few that I'm really glad the Vegas oddsmakers different offer any lines on because I'd have Marvin calling me right now telling me to file for Chapter 11.
The results are below, and be sure to frequent newsday.com/entourage (that's a shortcut URL for this blog) throughout the offseason for more goodies. Season 5 may have ended, but we'll have some during the time between now and June when Season 6 hits the airwaves.
]]> Best Comeback Character: Turtle's mom (34.5 percent of the vote)Best Best Printable Line: "Because the Jew has arrived and he doesn't like Germans." by Ari Gold (35.7%)
Best Johnny Drama Moment: Getting drunk and singing at the Sweet 16 then throwing up on the cake (46.4%)
Best Random Hot Chick: Any of the girls in Mexico (38.3%)
Best Guest Star: Jamie-Lynn Sigler (53%)
Best Storyline: Ari's debate over taking the studio job (36.1%)
(edged out Vince's season-long career struggle by two votes)
Best Location: Queens (54.2%)
Best Character You Want to See More Of: Dana Gordon (45.9%)
Best Overall Performance: Ari Gold, who in between all slimy maneuvering, flashed more honest moments than ever before (56.6%)
Best Ari Gold Moment: The verbal and physical assault on Adam Davies (24.7%)
Edged His "congratulatory toast" to Barbara Miller at the Powerful Women in Hollywood luncheon by 1 vote
Best Scene: Ari accosting and smacking Adam Davies in front of everyone at the old agency (37.3%)
Best Episode: Episode 12, Return to Queens Blvd. (60%)
]]>Grenier is a drummer and his Honey Brothers crew has a movie called "Adventures of Power." When it will come out, I have no idea. Some time in 2009, I believe.
It stars Grenier, Ari Gold (not Jeremy Piven!), Michael McKean, Jane Lynch and some other folks. It screen at Sundance and earned Audience Choice Best Feature Film at the Vail and Memphis film festivals. "Adventures of Power" also won the Grand Jury Prize at the San Antonio and TriMedia Colorado film festivals and Best Comedy at the Philadelphia Film Festival.
Who knows what any of that really means since there are roughly 423 film festivals nowadays. But here's the trailer. It's about air drumming. It could be amusing.
In the meantime, it's now Joshie Award season!
The Joshies celebrate excellence in "Entourage" each season. And the "Let's Blog It Out" offices spent Monday night in the judges' circle watching and nominating scenes and characters in 12 different categories. We even incorporated your suggestions this time around for the third annual Joshies.
Below you will find all the nominees. At the bottom of all 12 categories listed is a link to the voting booth. The polls will remain open until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2. Then, on Thursday, Dec. 4, we'll announce the Season 5 Joshie Award winners.
We'll start with the two new categories for this season, then continue with the original 10 Joshie Award categories.
]]> Best Comeback Character• Turtle's mom
• Dom
• Alan Gray
• Bob Ryan
• Seth Green
Best Best Printable Line
• "My mom's all over me. She's treating me like she usually treats Johnny." - Vince
• "Because the Jew has arrived and he doesn't like Germans." - Ari
• "Oh yeah, yeah, I'm sure she's got a fetish for guys who are built like a 'South Park' character." - Ari
• "You will come back stronger than ever. Like Lance Armstrong . . . but with two balls!" - Ari
Best Johnny Drama Moment
• The "Five Towns" poster shoot "I don't go right" meltdown
• When he put a fish in Carl Erts' car
• His meltdown over Jacqueline not answering phone
• Getting drunk and singing at the Sweet 16 and then throwing up on the cake
• Meltdown on the "The View"
Best Random Hot Chick
• Cara, Vince's old friend from Queens
• Any of the girls in Mexico
• Natasha, Vince's model friend
• Reina, the other model who goes after E
• Vivica, Natasha's roommate
Best Storyline
• Vince's season-long career struggle
• Vince vs. Verner, the "Smoke Jumpers" director
• E's trials and tribulations in the industry
• Turtle getting a serious girlfriend
• Ari's debate over taking the studio job
Best Location
• On the beach in Mexico
• On the set of "Smoke Jumpers" in Big Bear
• Queens
• Joshua Tree
Best Guest Star
• Bow Wow
• Eric Roberts
• Jamie-Lynn Sigler
• Jason Patric
• Paul Ben-Victor (Alan Gray)
• Seth Green
• Stellan Skarsgård (Verner the director)
Best Character You Want to See More Of
• Adam Davies
• Barbara Miller
• Dana Gordon
• Mrs. Ari
• Shauna
Best Overall Performance
• Turtle, who goes from blasting porn in the SUV to confessing his real name en route to falling in love with Jamie-Lynn Sigler
• Vincent Chase, who finally begins to take control of his life and a proactive interest in the career.
• Ari Gold, who in between all slimy maneuvering, flashed more honest moments than ever before.
Best Ari Gold Moment
• The honest "You're in movie jail" and "We need to rebuild you" conversation with Vince
• The verbal and physical assault on Adam Davies
• Telling Lloyd to pull the plug on the projector during a screening
• Talking to Lloyd while tripping at Joshua Tree
• Standing over Alan's coffin telling him he doesn’t like him
• Hammering away at Amanda Daniels about the studio job
• His "congratulatory toast" to Barbara Miller at the Powerful Women in Hollywood luncheon
Best Scene
• Beach party in Mexico in the premiere
• Ari accosting and smacking Adam Davies in front of everyone at the old agency
• Vince asserting himself and demanding Ari find him a movie to do
• Vince and Johnny singing at the Sweet 16
• Vince and Ari's emotional conversation at the airport
• Ari, Dana Gordon and Verner screaming at each other over "Smoke Jumpers" in Gordon's office
• E getting fired by Vince on the street in Queens in the finale
Best Episode
• Episode 1: Fantasy Island
• Episode 3: All Out Fall Out
• Episode 5: Tree Trippers
• Episode 8: First Class Jerk
• Episode 11: Play'n with Fire
• Episode 12: Return to Queens Blvd.
Oh the joys of coming home again.
The Season 5 finale of "Entourage" nailed that sentiment, and at the perfect time of year. I've always been a huge proponent of the parallels between when a show airs for the first time and the actual time of year it is.
The first four seasons of "Entourage" aired during the summer and it completely enhanced the show's carefree, live-life-to-the-max attitude. When Season 5 was delayed because of the writer's strike, I wondered how that would affect the way we subliminally compute this season in our brains.
]]> But Season 5 wrapped up with the boys coming home to Queens, to family and friends and the old bar (and that subtle placement of a New York Islanders pennant on the wall at Drama's new bar), four days before Thanksgiving.Seeing Vince, Johnny, E and Turtle sitting around the Chase dining room table, with friends and family coming in and out, I was reminded of days of yore when me and my boys would come home from college for the holidays (this was way before Facebook, and right around the time e-mail was rolled out en masse to colleges).
The new stories we told from college. The laughs we had from old high school stories. The looks we got from our parents when we came home after 3 a.m. slightly more inebriated than when we had left the house and how they couldn't really do anything about it anymore.
I still remember exactly how Mama Pat's ziti tasted after a 2 a.m. reheating at Lawyer friend Steve's house. Or how Mama La Monica would wake up when we came home at 4 a.m. from a night in the city and just start cooking for us like that scene in "Goodfellas."
I can't tell you what we did any of those nights while we were out on the town. But I remember everything about being with the crew at night's end. These are the moments that, as we get older, we'll reflect on fondly when episodes such as the Season 5 finale roll along.
REMINDER: THE JOSHIE AWARDS VOTING OPENS TUESDAY AFTERNOON
With that, it's time to channel my "thinking like a New Yorker" bias that I just claimed didn't exist a few minutes ago.
Does anyone else want to see more episodes shot in New York? Not a full season or anything like that because that would change the dynamic of the show, but maybe three or four episodes in Season 6?
I didn't care when Barry Bonds took the cream and the clear, and I wouldn't care if "Entourage" did the same thing here. There's such a different energy in New York than Los Angeles, and the Season 5 finale proved that. The photography of this episode felt different, too, but again, I'm a lifelong Long Islander and New Yorker, so I'm probably completely biased on this.
But filming a few episodes in New York City could reinvigorate "Entourage" among those who may not have enjoyed this season's overall story arc. Of course, we think those viewers are crazy, but five seasons is five seasons, and with the way people consume television these days, no show is above minor tweaking and storyline expansion.
Still, I'd love to see Johnny Drama have a meltdown in his own bar and then storm off into the streets of Queens. I'd like to see Turtle ride the subway. I'd like to see Vince play a plastic bucket drum with a street musician. Maybe E ordering a coffee and danish from a breakfast truck on the street? And can you imagine Ari Gold being approached by a bum on the street? Hello, future Joshie Award for Best Scene!
]]>Thus, we'd be shocked if Vincent Chase ever took home the Big Knish for the most Best Printable Lines in a season. But every now and again, the writers throw him a bone. As do we.
Vince smoked the competition and scored the BPL in the Season 5 finale. Sitting on the stoop talking to Ari after being harassed by his mother (how many New York natives can relate to Mercedes Ruehl's performance as Mrs. Chase?), Vince drops this bomb:
"My mom's all over me. She's treating me like she usually treats Johnny."
Great line. Of course, Ari locked up this season's Big Knish last week, his second straight and third overall. Watch for the Big Knish ceremony on Wednesday afternoon.
]]> Final Season 5 Best Printable Line StandingsAri Gold 5
Johnny Drama 3
Turtle 2
Vince 1
Random prisoners 1
E 0
But when you commit to the Ari Gold Mine during the first episode of the season, you still have to find the AGM. Such is life when chronicling our favorite TV show.
Seeing Ari in Queens was awesome. He made it even awesomer (not a word) by delivering Martin Scorsese on the phone, flashing that smug "Look how I awesome I am" grin and then calling E "a little McNugget."
Ari the Savior is occasionally more fun than Ari the Slayer. Occasionally.
]]>But once the phone sex scene between Turtle Sal and Jamie-Lynn Sigler arrived, I put all that aside. Turtle using his mother's land line to talk naughty with his girl Jamie-Lynn and getting caught doing is exactly why we love "Entourage."
Well played, Mr. Ellin. Well played.
Victory
Turtle deleting all logs
]]>My flight from Nashville doesn"t land until after midnight, so get a good night's rest on Sunday, then hit the blog hard Monday morning.
I know, I know, how can the world's pre-eminent "Entourage" blogger skip town for the season finale, especially when they finally come home to New York?
Well, when your boy -- in this case, Lawyer friend Steve -- drops a buddy pass on you at 2 p.m. Friday, it's hello Nashville, hello Jets, goodbye undefeated Titans.
Don't get too mad, though. Remember how quickly Turtle Sal ran to the airport when his boy Vince needed him? And he was chillin' with gorgeous Jamie-Lynn Sigler at the time.
Plus, remember this season"s slogan: "Entourage. Live it."
This is as close to that as I can possibly get on my salary.
J-E-T-S JETS! JETS! JETS!
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