Before I had a chance to get out, "Mandy, why'd you break Vince's heart like that twice?" she was gone. My bad.

But I did promise myself that if there was another Mandy sighting later in the evening, I'd drop that one on her.

There was another Mandy sighting later in the evening.

I broke my promise to myself. But there was a reason for this one:

Yep, Minka Kelly, aka Lyla Garrity from "Friday Night Lights."

Ridonkulous!

Mandy Moore is still kryptonite, but in a good way this time.

"Entourage" recently has been filming scenes for Season 5 in Hawaii. According to Pacific Coast News, Hawaii is doubling as Mexico for the purposes of the episode's plot. Pacific Coast News also has a bunch of photos from the set.

Forgive me for asking this, but was it really easier for a show situated in Southern California to go to Hawaii to replicate Mexico instead of just going a few miles south to the actual Mexico?

I'm probably just a bit upset for three reasons:

1) Pure jealousy
2) Mad they didn't shoot in Hawaii in late May when I'll be out there.
3) Does this mean the show's one traveling episode per season won't be in New York this time around?

Some interesting takes on stuff.

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/theatre/drama/story/0,,2266616,00.html

* The new season of Entourage is scheduled to start Sept. 28.

* Adrian Grenier wins the Blue Sky Award for Environmental Activism

* Doug Ellin suggests that Dom will return for a few episodes and that Entourage could last eight seasons.

* An enterprising lad compares the characters on "Entourage" to the top teams in NCAA hoops this season.

I spent at least two hours watching clips of my boy, Johnny Drama. He might just be the best character ever created. So please allow me to pass along his defining scene, a clip from "The Resurrection" in Season 3.5.

* HBO and YouTube are in cohoots to set up a YouTube channel for "Entourage" and other HBO programming. Now we won't have to worry (too much) about copyright issues. There's no specific Entourage playlist as of the time I posted this at http://youtube.com/hbo but there quite a few clips. Enjoy.

* Anybody catch crazy Gary Busey on the Oscar red carpet last night? I think he's suffering from emotional discombobulation.

* Many conflicting reports out there, but quite a few suggest that Entourage will return in the Fall. Will try to nail this down soon.

* Remember Emily, Ari's assistant from Season 1? Well, the actress who played her, Samaire Armstrong, is in the recording studio working with producer Dave Hillis of Starlodge Entertainment on a new album. Thanks to Blog reader Anonymous for the scoop and link.

* Remember the Sundance episode where Vince races the boys down the slopes? He does it in real life, too.

* Happy-go-lucky Vinny Chase takes an evil turn as Adrian Grenier plays the villain in "Adventures of Power," starring Honey Brothers bandmate Ari Gold (no, not that one). The film showed at Sundance.

* HBO on Broadband will allow viewers to download episodes of "Entourage" and other shows to their computers.

* Emmanuelle Chriqui landed a role in "Cadillac Records," the story of Etta James, who will be played by Beyonce. A nice score for us fellas!

* For those still curious about the life of "Entourage" in this writers' strike era, understand this: there's an HBO Entourage party planned at the Super Bowl. It's at Myst on Feb. 1. That can't be a bad thing, right?

* The Honey Brothers will perform at that party.

* If you want to dress like Johnny Drama, you'll need to pick up a pair of New Balance classic 574s.

But at least this one features Emmanuelle Chriqui in a more prominent role than we're used to seeing. Enjoy the trailer.

Props to Ari, even though we were pulling for Drama to score his first award.

Seeing how there's no show and this press conference thing is so whack, there's nothing more to say.

Our weekly/somewhat frequent update on the happenings with the cast of our favorite TV show:

* Drama's finest moment ever -- at the Grand Canyon -- was written specifically to get Kevin Dillon some awards. Turns out others are cashing in, too. David Nutter was nominated for a Director's Guild Award for Comedy series, based on that episode.

* Who will win the Golden Globe for Supporting Actor on Sunday night: Jeremy Piven or Kevin Dillon? We simply won't entertain the notion that the other nominees stand a chance. We're pulling for Drama, just to spread the love around the cast.

* I love the permeation of "Entourage" into other worlds. Check this one out from some animal section of this Web site. Makes no sense, but I'm all for stretching metaphors and anecdotes.

This writers' strike doesn't seem to want to end it, does it? It's as if Billy Walsh were in charge or something.

Initially, most of us didn't really care about the strike since we all figured that once the inventory of new shows ran out, they'd settle the strike and maybe we'd have a week or two of reruns.

That was a few months ago. Now, its time to officially begin worrying if this WGA strike will affect Season 5 of "Entourage."

Adrian Grenier and Rex Lee have already said they're not sure if there will even be a Season 5 this summer. Typically, all the scripts are just about written by now and shooting would start in February.

But Doug Ellin and his crew aren't allowed to write during the WGA strike. (Whether or not they have been writing or at least thinking about script ideas is known only by them.)

Co-executive producer Rob Weiss said last August that they planned on sitting down to discuss the new season in September. How far those talks progressed is again known only by those in the room.

Even if all 14 episodes of Season 5 have been written, they can't be shot until the strike ends, if it ends.

How much longer can the strike go on before HBO moves along with its Sunday night summer programming?

There are other questions at hand, too:

* If the strike ends soon, how quickly can the Entourage crew mobilize without sacrificing show quality?

* If the strike doesn't end soon, how quickly can the Entourage crew mobilize without sacrificing show quality?

* Would the perception and enjoyment of the show for viewers suffer by airing in the Fall instead of summer when we all have a more care-free attitude.

Yeah, I'd say it's time to start worrying. Perhaps the WGA and studios should turn to Jeremy Piven in full Ari Gold mode to mediate. We know he'd get the deal done.

* Emmanuelle Chriqui gets some love from Slate.com (and us) for her work with Baron Davis on IFC's Framed series.

* Will the writers' strike spell the end of "Entourage?" Adrian Grenier wonders.

* It's not all about the environment for Adrian Grenier. He helps feed the homeless, too.

* Uh oh, maybe my brilliant script idea from 2006 involving Vince and Lindsay Lohan could take hold!

The show pairs an athlete with a celebrity. The athlete becomes the actor and the celebrity becomes the first-time director for a short film. Neat concept.

Emmanuelle Chriqui, aka Sloan, was first up with Baron Davis of the Golden State Warriors. Together, they produced a pretty funky little short. However, IFC's site doesn't have the video available and YouTube searching only resulted in this clip from the half-hour show.

Still, check it out, and look IFC's Web site for future airings. She did a pretty good job with the story pitch.

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin,"30 Rock"
Steve Carell, "The Office"
Ricky Gervais, "Extras"
Jeremy Piven, "Entourage"
Tony Shaloub, "Monk"

Some seriously stiff comp for Piven, but at least it's not a nomination for Supporting Actor as has occurred in the past with other award shows. Baldwin has to be considered the favorite, but let's hope Ari can dig into his bag of tricks and pull this one out.

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
"30 Rock"
"Desperate Housewives"
"Entourage"
"The Office"
"Ugly Betty"

Perhaps even stiffer comp here. "30 Rock" is brilliant, even though only 4.2 million Americans are smart enough to watch it. Still, that number is slightly higher than the Entourage ratings, for those who care about that stuff.

I wonder if now the calf implant doctor will take Drama's SAG insurance.

The SAG Awards will be given out Jan. 27 at the Shrine Exposition Hall and can be watched on both TNT and TBS.

Kevin Connolly returned home to Long Island to join with Mike Bossy and the Islanders in helping out local kids for the holidays.

Intrepid videographer friend Bobby was on the scene to do some video (8 a.m. was just way too early for me). As a thanks to Bobby, give a click to his new boxing blog, The Neutral Corner.