Jeremy Piven can't help but play a tastemaker in everything these days.
The star of both the British series Mr. Selfridge and the eagerly anticipated Entourage movie, which is currently shooting in L.A. (right across the street from E! today, in fact!), sat down on E! News Monday to dish on the excitement surrounding both of his current projects.
First of all, yes, the reunited Entourage cast is having a blast.
"I think for the people that watch the series and are fans, I think they're going to be really satisfied because everyone's back, and we picked up where we left off, and then we have incredible cameos," promised Piven, who won three Emmys playing super-agent Ari Gold on the HBO comedy.
(Watch the clip to hear about one particular cameo that audiences should be quite...taken with.)
In fact, during one such cameo, Piven could've sworn that a laugh track was playing while they shot the scene.
"And I look out of the corner of my eye and the paparazzi are laughing," he recalled. "The fact that they've let their cameras down for even a second to laugh means we're onto something."
And happily, production has not been affected by Kevin Connolly's broken leg (ouch!), suffered last week on set in Miami during a scene where his character, Eric, is tossing a football around with Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. (Another cameo!) In fact, Connolly was out shooting today (albeit sitting down on a bus stop bench) in L.A. with Kevin Dillon and Jerry Ferrara.
Mr. Selfridge, heading into its second season on PBS' Masterpiece, is onto something too, probably thanks to Piven in the lead role as the titular founder of Selfridges department store in London.
E! News' Terrence Jenkins and Ali Fedotowsky took it upon themselves today to test Piven's fashion acumen when it comes to the British term for something vs. what we Yanks call it.
"Can I use Tom Ford as a lifeline?" Piven wondered.
But he did very well, even knowing what a "bum bag" is.
"It's what we call a fanny pack," he said right off the bat. "For the record, and you won't be able to use any of this because it's a family show, but fanny means vagina in the U.K....They just all freak out [when they hear an American say 'fanny pack'], like, 'Why would you want to wear a vagina pack?'"