Entourage: Let's Blog It Out

* Thank you, GQ! Peep the latest issue of the men's style magazine on newsstands this week for a smokin' hot photo shoot with smokin' hot Emmanuelle Chriqui. Regular Entourage blog readers know about our special affinity for Sloan, and we're begging for a return arc on the show. Please!

In the meantime, here's a funny little story about our favorite Emmanuelle courtesy of the Daily News. If that doesn't make you want to move to Malibu, or start a new career as a photographer, nothing will.

After reading that, head over to GQ.com for more photos. And then peep your head below for the video, compliments of my new favorite magazine Web site.

* Adrian Grenier and his Reckless Productions company joins forces with investment group J. Loar Inc.

According to various Internet reports, Leighton Meester of "Gossip Girls" fame will take another turn as Justine Chapin on "Entourage" this season.

T.I. is also set to do a cameo on the show this season, which no doubt will help album sales of his third solo effort "Paper Trail," which hits stores Aug. 12. Well, maybe it will also boost illegal downloads.

Time for plot guessing with these two cameos. My random guesses are below, read them and then post yours.

For Leighton Meester: The obvious call here is something to do with Vince and a bed (or a coat room), but I'm going in the other direction. I say Drama lands a date with her in some kind of reverse cougar plotline.

For T.I.: T.I. teams up with Rufus, who after installing home audio systems and repairing cars, is now a club owner. Turtle befriends T.I. backstage at a concert, gets on to his tour bus and actually reveals his first name to land a girl. That girl turns out to be T.I.'s sister and Turtle gets thrown off the bus.

Again, these are just random guesses. Your turn.

- La Monica

Waiting in line to pick up a media credential for UFC 83 at Montreal's Bell Center this past weekend, Mandy Moore strolled right on by with a few friends.

Before I had a chance to get out, "Mandy, why'd you break Vince's heart like that twice?" she was gone. My bad.

But I did promise myself that if there was another Mandy sighting later in the evening, I'd drop that one on her.

There was another Mandy sighting later in the evening.

I broke my promise to myself. But there was a reason for this one:

Yep, Minka Kelly, aka Lyla Garrity from "Friday Night Lights."

Ridonkulous!

Mandy Moore is still kryptonite, but in a good way this time.

If that headline confuses you, let me explain.

"Entourage" recently has been filming scenes for Season 5 in Hawaii. According to Pacific Coast News, Hawaii is doubling as Mexico for the purposes of the episode's plot. Pacific Coast News also has a bunch of photos from the set.

Forgive me for asking this, but was it really easier for a show situated in Southern California to go to Hawaii to replicate Mexico instead of just going a few miles south to the actual Mexico?

I'm probably just a bit upset for three reasons:

1) Pure jealousy
2) Mad they didn't shoot in Hawaii in late May when I'll be out there.
3) Does this mean the show's one traveling episode per season won't be in New York this time around?

Here's a little Q&A with Adrian Grenier from The Guardian over there in the U.K., compliments of Intrepid videographer friend Bobby.

Some interesting takes on stuff.

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/theatre/drama/story/0,,2266616,00.html

Season 5 of "Entourage" is indeed in production as I blog, which means these hot stove reports will soon be replaced with things about the new episodes.

* The new season of Entourage is scheduled to start Sept. 28.

* Adrian Grenier wins the Blue Sky Award for Environmental Activism

* Doug Ellin suggests that Dom will return for a few episodes and that Entourage could last eight seasons.

* An enterprising lad compares the characters on "Entourage" to the top teams in NCAA hoops this season.

After delving back into the Entourage hot stove reports earlier today, I've pretty much spent the rest of Monday on YouTube watching clips from Entourage.

I spent at least two hours watching clips of my boy, Johnny Drama. He might just be the best character ever created. So please allow me to pass along his defining scene, a clip from "The Resurrection" in Season 3.5.

It's been a few minutes since I checked in with a hot stove report. Sorry for that. Been crazy busy with things, plus most of the news is just gossipy stuff about Adrian Grenier growing a beard. (Sorry, but we don't care about that stuff here.)

* HBO and YouTube are in cohoots to set up a YouTube channel for "Entourage" and other HBO programming. Now we won't have to worry (too much) about copyright issues. There's no specific Entourage playlist as of the time I posted this at http://youtube.com/hbo but there quite a few clips. Enjoy.

* Anybody catch crazy Gary Busey on the Oscar red carpet last night? I think he's suffering from emotional discombobulation.

* Many conflicting reports out there, but quite a few suggest that Entourage will return in the Fall. Will try to nail this down soon.

* Remember Emily, Ari's assistant from Season 1? Well, the actress who played her, Samaire Armstrong, is in the recording studio working with producer Dave Hillis of Starlodge Entertainment on a new album. Thanks to Blog reader Anonymous for the scoop and link.

* Remember the Sundance episode where Vince races the boys down the slopes? He does it in real life, too.

* Happy-go-lucky Vinny Chase takes an evil turn as Adrian Grenier plays the villain in "Adventures of Power," starring Honey Brothers bandmate Ari Gold (no, not that one). The film showed at Sundance.

* HBO on Broadband will allow viewers to download episodes of "Entourage" and other shows to their computers.

* Emmanuelle Chriqui landed a role in "Cadillac Records," the story of Etta James, who will be played by Beyonce. A nice score for us fellas!

* For those still curious about the life of "Entourage" in this writers' strike era, understand this: there's an HBO Entourage party planned at the Super Bowl. It's at Myst on Feb. 1. That can't be a bad thing, right?

* The Honey Brothers will perform at that party.

* If you want to dress like Johnny Drama, you'll need to pick up a pair of New Balance classic 574s.

"You Don't Mess With the Zohan" would appear to be another in a long line of movies Adam Sandler made that he shouldn't have.

But at least this one features Emmanuelle Chriqui in a more prominent role than we're used to seeing. Enjoy the trailer.

Jeremy Piven just beat out Kevin Dillon for the Golden Globe Supporting Actor in a series.

Props to Ari, even though we were pulling for Drama to score his first award.

Seeing how there's no show and this press conference thing is so whack, there's nothing more to say.

By Mark La Monica

Our weekly/somewhat frequent update on the happenings with the cast of our favorite TV show:

* Drama's finest moment ever -- at the Grand Canyon -- was written specifically to get Kevin Dillon some awards. Turns out others are cashing in, too. David Nutter was nominated for a Director's Guild Award for Comedy series, based on that episode.

* Who will win the Golden Globe for Supporting Actor on Sunday night: Jeremy Piven or Kevin Dillon? We simply won't entertain the notion that the other nominees stand a chance. We're pulling for Drama, just to spread the love around the cast.

* I love the permeation of "Entourage" into other worlds. Check this one out from some animal section of this Web site. Makes no sense, but I'm all for stretching metaphors and anecdotes.

By Mark La Monica

This writers' strike doesn't seem to want to end it, does it? It's as if Billy Walsh were in charge or something.

Initially, most of us didn't really care about the strike since we all figured that once the inventory of new shows ran out, they'd settle the strike and maybe we'd have a week or two of reruns.

That was a few months ago. Now, its time to officially begin worrying if this WGA strike will affect Season 5 of "Entourage."

Adrian Grenier and Rex Lee have already said they're not sure if there will even be a Season 5 this summer. Typically, all the scripts are just about written by now and shooting would start in February.

But Doug Ellin and his crew aren't allowed to write during the WGA strike. (Whether or not they have been writing or at least thinking about script ideas is known only by them.)

Co-executive producer Rob Weiss said last August that they planned on sitting down to discuss the new season in September. How far those talks progressed is again known only by those in the room.

Even if all 14 episodes of Season 5 have been written, they can't be shot until the strike ends, if it ends.

How much longer can the strike go on before HBO moves along with its Sunday night summer programming?

There are other questions at hand, too:

* If the strike ends soon, how quickly can the Entourage crew mobilize without sacrificing show quality?

* If the strike doesn't end soon, how quickly can the Entourage crew mobilize without sacrificing show quality?

* Would the perception and enjoyment of the show for viewers suffer by airing in the Fall instead of summer when we all have a more care-free attitude.

Yeah, I'd say it's time to start worrying. Perhaps the WGA and studios should turn to Jeremy Piven in full Ari Gold mode to mediate. We know he'd get the deal done.

* "Entourage" scored a No. 11 placement on the San Francisco Chronicle's list of the best in television for 2007.

* Emmanuelle Chriqui gets some love from Slate.com (and us) for her work with Baron Davis on IFC's Framed series.

* Will the writers' strike spell the end of "Entourage?" Adrian Grenier wonders.

* It's not all about the environment for Adrian Grenier. He helps feed the homeless, too.

* Uh oh, maybe my brilliant script idea from 2006 involving Vince and Lindsay Lohan could take hold!

IFC debuted this series called "Framed" on Dec. 14, but I just got around to watching the first episode.

The show pairs an athlete with a celebrity. The athlete becomes the actor and the celebrity becomes the first-time director for a short film. Neat concept.

Emmanuelle Chriqui, aka Sloan, was first up with Baron Davis of the Golden State Warriors. Together, they produced a pretty funky little short. However, IFC's site doesn't have the video available and YouTube searching only resulted in this clip from the half-hour show.

Still, check it out, and look IFC's Web site for future airings. She did a pretty good job with the story pitch.