Entourage Decoder: "Less Than 30"
It's been seven months since we caught up with the princes of Queens, but it was still all about the hard, hard sell on last night's shiny-new episode of "Entourage."
For one, Vince's foxy new agent was trying to sell our boy on the merits of Edith Wharton. Meanwhile, Ari was trying to sell his way back into Vince and Eric's affections -- with a "Medellin" pitch that might be a brilliantly played bluff. As ever, Drama was obsessed with his own saleability, this time on a Sunset Boulevard billboard, and everyone's favorite opportunist Turtle sold Vince's birthday out to the highest bidders.
And more than ever, we're left with all kinds of questions about the gang's Hollywood high life, like: How much would it actually cost to rent that big ship? Why does Drama's show seem so familiar? And what exactly does Amanda mean when she disses Ari for only reading "coverage"?
ART: Turtle goes way way over-budget, or so it seems, to make Vince's birthday party the ultimate booze cruise aboard the Queen Mary. Just how much would it cost to throw that kind of blingy bash?
LIFE: Even though it seems like the boys had nearly the whole ship to themselves, we're assured by a rep for the Queen Mary, which is permanently docked in Long Beach, Calif., that for Vince's 800 closest friends, the Grand Salon was the venue of choice. Surprisingly, it only costs about $5,000 to rent the space -- but add in all the drinks, girls, party favors, cake, and according to one party planner, Turtle's bill could've been as much as half a million bucks. Good thing he got Victoria's Secret -- and Bliss, Olympus, Skyy, and Carvel, among others -- to sponsor the soiree.
ART: There's something oddly familiar about that billboard for "Five Towns" that Drama can't get enough of -- four shadowy-looking guys, one girl, NBC. What is it?
LIFE: Just take a look at this -- it's "The Black Donnellys," an NBC series about four brothers and the Irish mob in New York (much like "Five Towns") that premiered this January with much hype and the pedigree of having been created by Paul Haggis, Oscar-winning screenwriter of "Crash" and "Million Dollar Baby." But maybe Drama shouldn't get his hopes up too high -- "Donnellys" just got the 86 from the network mid-season, and there's no word on whether it'll ever return. (Haggis, of course, played himself in an episode last season.)
ART: Eric and Vince complain that the scripts that Amanda (Carla Gugino) is giving them to read are too long, unlike Ari's scripts, to which Amanda replies, "I'm surprised Ari doesn't just send coverage. That's all he reads anyway."
LIFE: For all you non-screenwriters out there, "coverage" is a one-to-two-page Cliff Notes for agents and other supposedly important folk who don't have time to read through the entire screenplay. It not only summarizes the plot, it usually offers an opinion on whether the script is a viable entity or not.
NAME DROPPINGS: Burke Williams is a swanky L.A. spa ... Ari, E and Vince have their awkward lunch at Italian hotspot Il Fornaio ... "The Glimpses of a Moon" is not in fact about a guy who can't f**k a girl for five years, but about a penniless couple trying to live the high life off their friends (sound familiar?) ... Steven Zaillian wrote "Schindler's List" and "Gangs of New York," among other renowned scripts ... And for all you West Coasters, Friendly's (where Vince says Turtle threw him a surprise party back when) is an East Coast-based chain of diner-ish eateries, and a Fribble is the restaurant's signature, um, milkshake.
