Jeremy Piven shines in Entourage’s new season

Author: Isah V. Red
Column: Life & Entertainment

The third season of the hit HBO comedy series, Entourage, based loosely on the Hollywood experience of its executive producer, Mark Wahlberg, is coming to Asian television beginning on Monday.

In the new season, watch out for Jeremy Piven who plays Ari, Vince Chase’s Hollywood agent.

In the four episodes (not the first four, though) that we previewed last weekend in Macau (courtesy of HBO Asia) inside a lavishly appointed suite at the Wynn Macau, one of new hotel-casinos in Asia’s emerging gambling capital, it is apparent that the New York-born actor-producer-director is stealing the thunder from Adrian Grenier (who we remember in a minor role in the Meryl Streep tour-de-force acting piece The Devil Wears Prada as Nate, the grungy boyfriend of Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs) as the centerpiece of the series as Vincent (Vince) Chase, the young hot Hollywood actor who can’t leave his Beverly Hills manse without his “entourage”—three of his longtime buddies from Queens including his manager Eric (Kevin Connolly), half-brother Drama (Kevin Dillon) and friend Turtle (Jerry Ferrara).

In this season, Ari and Eric try to keep Vince’s star rising while making sound decisions for a long-lasting career in a world of fleeting fame. And with the potential blockbuster Aquaman about to open in theaters, Vince’s star may soon rise higher than ever before. Now, the boys need to keep stroking the golden goose and make sure their star enjoys a long-lasting career in a world of fleeting fame.

The episode “Aquamom,” which opens the new season back-to-back with “One Day in the Valley,” is humorous and at the same time heartwarming. Here, Vince tries to convince his mom (Mercedes Ruehl) to be his date at the premiere of his big blockbuster Aquaman. Although she has said “yes” to his son, she soon changes her mind and decides not to walk down the red carpet.

The “entourage” thinks up of something and finally brings Mrs. Chase to Hollywood in a private jet.

Titanic director James Cameron plays himself and as Aquaman’s director. So does James Woods.

“One Day in the Valley” is contingent to appreciating “Aquamom” because it is the day the movie opens and everyone— Ari, Vince and the entourage— await initial figures from both the East and West Coasts.

The boys decide to go to one of the screenings of the movie and at the climax of the movie, a power outage cuts the showing of the film.

The reason we were at Wynn Macau last weekend was because one of the episodes in Entourage is set in a casino in Las Vegas. Titled “Vegas, Baby, Vegas” it also features a performance by Beverly D’Angelo.

The guys decide to drive to Vegas for a night of gambling. In between blackjacks, Vince gets to judge a “beauty contest” with strippers as contestants.

Meanwhile, Drama has his own agenda, and that is to get the best massage from his favorite masseur, a former football star who suspects Vince’s half-brother is coming on to him and wants more than a massage.

In all of the episodes we previewed, Piven stood out, even when the stories were focused on Vince and his entourage.

Season three of Entourage premieres with two episodes back-to-back every Monday at 11 p.m. For more of Entourage, viewers can also tune in to a marathon weekend from Oct. 6 to 7 at 11 a.m.

The Entourage marathon weekend on HBO+Signature/noticias/" title="HBO Signature">HBO Signature will run from Aug. 18 to 19 from 11 a.m.

Besrocker on a roll

Jay-R Siaboc, self-appointed ambassador of “Besrock” or Cebuano (Bisaya) rock, just got himself officially anointed when the selection committee of Awit Awards gave him the Best Regional Recording for his song “Hilot” in his native Hiligaynon. The song is included in his debut album for Star Records Hiling, which, if you couldn’t find it on the shelves of Music One or other music and video stores, you can conveniently purchase via i-Tunes online.

The album is priced at a little over $10, but you can just purchase the tracks you like best at $0.99.

So far, the best-selling titles are “Kung Maibabalik Ko Lang” and “Hilot.” Hiling has an average of 5-star ratings from customers who purchased it online.

Jay-R is currently touring North America for a series of shows until mid-August, when the group returns to Manila after a gig in Guam on Aug. 25. He resumes taping for the new ABS-CBN soap Pangarap Na Bituin in which he plays the cousin of Jericho Rosales.

Among the Pinoy Dream Academy scholars, Jay-R has the biggest potential of making it big as a singer, if only his management would give the young man the right push to showcase his budding talent.

Not exactly a looker, but he’s got a magnetic stage presence that can mesmerize even the most jaded in the audience, like myself.

Duty free shopping

State-owned Duty Free Philippines recently opened the country’s first airport duty free outlet in Mindanao and its second provincial store outside of Manila in a grand inaugural ceremony led by Rep. Prospero Nograles, Davao City Vice Mayor Luis Bongoyan, Davao Airport general manager Frederick San Felix, and DFP general manager Michael Kho at the Davao International Airport.

The new arrival and pre-departure duty free shops which are designed to cater to DIA’s passengers on regular flights from Indonesia, Singapore and Macau, will hopefully boost not only tourism in the region but DFP’s revenues as well.

Duty Free prides itself as the region’s premier travel retailer with its vast range of world-class, high-quality products and state-of-the-art facilities. GM Michael Kho assures everyone that DFP’s ninth outlet in the country shall extend the same superior service with an exciting lineup of the world-renowned brands in the confectionery, liquor, cigarettes and fragrance categories. Aside from the establishment of new branches, Duty Free has maintained its current status as a performing business institution with improved service facilities, new brands and products, and implementation of aggressive merchandising and marketing campaigns.

“All of this is being done so that we can generate the funds that will allow us to live up to our mandate to support the Department of Tourism’s product development and tourism promotions efforts as we have done in the past,” Kho revealed. Every hard-earned dollar spent at a duty free store contributes to the development of the country’s tourism industry as DFP is an attached agency of the Department of Tourism by virtue of Executive Order 46.

Source: Manila Standard Today

Copyright © 2005 - 2009. Telebisyon.net. This article is a copyright property of Manila Standard Today. This page serves as an archived copy of the article written by Isah V. Red. All rights reserved. No part of this website shall be copied or reproduced in any means possible without explicit permission from the owners.