While the rest of the world was busy obsessing over the Mad Men premiere, tonight's episode of Entourage featured cameos by Shawne Merriman and a ping pong obsessed John Stamos. Some things never change!

Remember when Jeremy Piven abandoned his Speed-the-Plow role because he'd "eaten too much sushi," got "mercury poisoning" and "almost died?" Well, Piven is STILL clinging to the Sushi Defense™. Inside, video of Piven's unintentionally hilarious new interview with Peter Travers.

President-elect Obama asked Illinois Congressman and hard-charging political attack dog Rahm Emanuel to be his Chief of Staff. Emanuel's brother is Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood agent who famously broke away from ICM to start his own agency. On the HBO series Entourage, Jeremy Piven plays an incredibly thinly veiled fictional version of Ari Emanuel, named Ari Gold. Ari Gold, in the new season of Entourage, was weighing an offer to leave his agency to head a studio. Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel still hasn't decided if he wants to stay on as a powerful Congressional Democrat or move to a position of great power but less autonomy in the Obama White House. Above, watch fictional Ari struggle with the choice, and below, real-life Rahm hems and haws on television. Real life imitates fiction imitating the brother of real life.

With just a little over a week until the new season of Entourage begins, we thought we'd take a moment to salute the most complex and rewarding of all relationships in that ongoing industry sausage fest: that of Ari and Lloyd. And no better examples of their glorious co-dependency exist than in those moments when everyone's favorite double-banger-securing Zeus completely loses his shit on his fiercely loyal Gaysian henchman. Defamer videographer Molly McAleer combed through the Entourage archives to find the greatest of all spittle-flecked Ari-Lloyed exchanges—though call us biased, our favorite one didn't make the cut.

Here's how we picture Jeremy Piven spent his weekend: Seated in a darkened theater, two attractive brunettes on either side, staring up at Robert Downey Jr. engaged in a delightful bit of business involving not-yet-perfected booster-boot technology, and thinking to himself, "I can do that." That said, here's your latest Piv update, courtesy of Rush & Molloy:

The valet at the Malibu Nobu asked if, in lieu of the standard tip, he could have a much desired Hollywood moment and "hug it out" with Jeremy Piven. Piven reached for his wallet to only discover that it was full of large bills and slowly went in for the hug.

As is their custom in the run-up to various awards ceremonies, Newsweek has once again assembled a panel of nominees to discuss issues important to the modern kudos-hopeful, allowing their guests a rare chance to gather together to discuss their craft and make the occasional comment about the absurdity of introducing the notion of competition into their collaborative art form. In their new Emmy Roundtable piece, they've hoarded Masi Oka of Heroes, Entourage's Jeremy Piven, Brothers & Sisters' Sally Field, and Ugly Betty's America Ferrera for the chat, and it didn't take long for Piven, last year's Best Supporting Actor winner for his portrayal of lovable, Gaysian-haranguing agent Ari Gold, to express his frustration over not having more input into creative decisions that might result in more screentime:

After fifteen decreasingly entertaining seasons of Entourage, there is hardly a premium cable subscriber in America unaware that the character of Ari Gold, memorably portrayed by Emmy-winning Matsuhisa pariah Jeremy Piven, was inspired by Endeavor superagent Ari Emanuel. (Fun fact: Gold's "Hug it out, bitch" catchphrase was adapted from Emanuel's far less succinct, "I will fuck your skull until your head explodes, toss your body in a dumpster behind the CPK, then maybe send a nice muffin basket to your widow to show there's no hard feelings.") In today's Gatecrasher column, the NY Daily News' Ben Widdicombe induces an anonymous former Endeavor employee to explain how watching his fictional doppleganger's amusing antics has affected the behavior of the genuine Ari article:

College Humor, a website run by boys who've hung out together since high school in Maryland—back before they were "famous"—has now completed its transformation into the Entourage of the web. First they got a development deal with Paramount, complete with writers from The Office. The early success of their t-shirt and blog empire means they now have to hurdle the vagaries of oodles of money, Barry Diller (who has a controlling interest in their company) and book deals. Yesterday they jumped right through the looking glass. We hear that College Humor ringleader Ricky Van Veen (the Vince of the gang, and surely prettier than Adrian Grenier) "took a meeting" with crazed power-agent Ari Emmanuel, the Endeavor founder on whom Entourage's Ari Gold is based. (College Humor Co-founder Josh Abramson, totally the Eric of the gang, should have been there to police!) Halfway through their pow-wow, Ari calls some producer. "Hey, I have this kid here.... Hey, kid, what's your name again?" Welcome to Hollywood, boys! Don't let all the empty promises go to your heads.