jeremy piven (32 posts)

Entourage's Kevin Connolly not only comes out for good causes, he supports his costar Jeremy Piven.

Sporting a full red beard while at an event for the Noreen Fraser Foundation for cancer at the Maloof estate in Beverly Hills Wednesday, Connolly dished about his costar Jeremy Piven, who was reportedly upset over The Piven Monologues, a theater spoof about the situation surrounding his mercury poisoning.

"I mean, Jeremy's got a good sense of humor. I'm sure if it's all in good fun he won't have a problem with it," said Connolly. "On the other hand, you know Jeremy also won his case, so maybe his producers are wrong... So maybe they should cease and whatever it is. Maybe they should just be quiet."

And why the beard? Read on for that, some Entourage dish and his thoughts on this weekend's Emmys…

Keep Reading

Maury Phillips/Getty Images

The fish story is off the hook, but apparently no one's throwing it back into the ocean. Stories about Jeremy Piven and his mercury poisoning dramz seem to have no end.

Yesterday, Joe's Pub in New York City, which is run by the renowned Public Theater, put on The Piven Monologues, a special, comedic reading of the "s--tstorm," as the website describes it, or comments said about the actor following his sudden departure from Broadway's Speed-the-Plow. An additional performance of the show is scheduled for next month.

Needless to say, the Piv isn't too pleased about this.

According to the New York Post, the Entourage star has sent the Public Theater a cease-and-desist letter.

"We didn't say you cannot do the play, we said you can't make defamatory statements about our client," the star's attorney, Marty Singer, told the newspaper.

________

Look at things we imagine smell much better in our 10 Guys We Crave gallery!

Jeremy Piven is now healthy enough to laugh about his recent exposure to the elements. And to share his side of the story, having been exonerated in theater court.

"I think everyone loves a good fish story," he quipped as he discussed the mercury poisoning that almost took him out of the game last year and left his producers thinking Piven had wimped out on them.

When asked by David Letterman about the ailment that forced the Emmy winner to quit the Broadway revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow in December, Piven joked that mercury poisoning sounded more like "a rich man's disease...like something you might get from the leather seats in your Lamborghini, like a rash—like a rash that hurts."

Alas, he just got it from eschewing red meat and dairy and loading up on fish for the last 20 years.

Keep Reading

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Jeremy Piven is once again free to pursue a career as a thermometer.

A professional arbiter has ruled that Piven did not breach his contract with the producers of Speed-the-Plow when he pulled out of the Broadway play last year, citing near death by spicy tuna (also known as mercury poisoning).

"I'm pleased with the outcome of the arbitration and to be completely vindicated in this matter based on the facts and the medical evidence," Piven said.

In making the decision, the arbiter said it sided with the testimony of the actor's medical team and threw out that of producers' doctors as the latter failed to ever examine Piven, despite ample opportunity, at any point before, during or after his sushi-inflicted three-day hospital stay.

The ruling claimed there was "sufficient evidence to establish that Piven's decision was a reasonable one; that it was reasonably based, and that the contrary evidence is insufficient."

The scales of justice have never been so scaly.

________

Well, Piven seems to have recovered nicely. Check out our raw footage of the Entourage star partying it up, Lakers-style.

O'Neill/White/INFphoto.com; John M. Heller/Getty Images

UPDATE: Reps for both Chris Kattan and Jeremy Piven say there was no fight. "Jeremy and Chris did see each other at MTV and they were joking around backstage before a talk-show appearance, as people often do," says Piven's rep. "If it was interpreted as a fight, someone wasn't paying attention. Both gentlemen spoke on the phone yesterday, there is no issue."

________

Sometimes, especially after calling in sushi sick to your Broadway play, you have to work extra hard to convince people to see your mediocre-looking movie. That's just what Piven's been doing with The Goods, hitting up both WWE and Big Brother, not exactly the most traditional promotional outlets, and so far everyone's been keeping the mercury poisoning thing on the down-low.

That was until he stopped by MTV's It's On with Alexa Chung and faced off against Kattan (who's still working, btw!).

According to the New York Daily News, the former SNLer greeted Piven backstage with a little joke, because that's what comedians do. He said, "So, what are you here to promote, your Broadway play?"

Oops, wrong joke. Cue Piven tantrum...

Keep Reading

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Jeremy Piven is getting a little steamed up—and it isn't from more toxic sushi.

A day after Speed-the-Plow's producers announced June 8-9 as the arbitration dates in the matter of Piven's abrupt departure from the Broadway production due to high mercury levels, the Entourage star says he's ready to take on his former bosses.

"Mr. Piven is looking forward to testifying in arbitration along with his doctors so that the truth comes out about the very serious health risks caused by mercury exposure, which the Obama administration has recently described as the world's gravest chemical problem," publicist Sam Mast said in a statement.

Keep Reading

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Mercury man Jeremy Piven's got a hot date...with an arbitrator.

The powers that be behind the Broadway production of Speed-the-Plow announced today that an arbitration hearing will take place June 8 and 9 to decide whether the Entourage star violated his contract when he abruptly quit the play over concerns of mercury poisoning from eating too much fish.

Piven, 43, has insisted he was only acting under doctors' orders when he departed to detox in December at the height of the holiday season.

But that excuse didn't fly with producers and playwright David Mamet, who quipped that Piven was pursuing "a career as a thermometer."

Keep Reading