By Mark La Monica
Upon possession of "Entourage: A Lifestyle is a Terrible Thing to Waste," the new book about the show, the first thing you need to do is flip to page 49 and laugh.
If you don't laugh at the classic photo of Drama, please return the book and use the money to purchase a self-help book because you clearly have some issues to work out. One (or more) of those Deepak Chopra or Joel Osteen books should do the trick.
The "Entourage" book is a clever repackaging of things we already knew and photos we've already seen mixed in with things we didn't know and photos we've never seen. For example, there's really no reason to read the recaps of every episode since we've all seen them at least 12 times. However, what prevents you from skipping over those pages are the P.S. notes at the end of several episodes of the each season that take you behind the scenes and advance the story a bit.
The first rule of writing reviews is to give the reader a taste of the topic without giving it all away. So, we'll just throw one nugget out there to elaborate on the P.S. stuff mentioned above: The episode recap for "Busey and the Beach" (my all-time favorite episode) includes a note that Busey didn't paint the "Emotional Dyslexia" artwork, but it now hangs in his house.
Here are some more thoughts from the book:
* The "exclusive" interviews with the cast members cover a lot of things we've already read or seen, but each of them have a few new nuggets, which is pretty much the theme here with this book.
* Kevin Connolly's quick-hit anecdotes about Derek Jeter and Suge Knight are pretty funny.
* Mrs. Ari's story about her first day filming a scene for "Entourage" is as whirlwind exciting to read as it was whirlwind exciting to do.
* Vince's lady friends are more impressive as a conglomerate in this two-page spread than they are spread out over four seasons.
* Putting a face and (printed) voice to the real-life Johnny Drama (Johnny Alves) fulfills a need for everyone of us in The Drama Club. It's weird to explain, but you'll feel a little better about life after reading that interview.
* It's impossible to read "The Godfather" book and not see Al Pacino or James Caan in your mind at each mention of Michael or Santino Corleone, respectively. The same is true for reading the "Ari's Therapy Thermometer."
* We know exactly how each character dresses in the show, so it's no shock to see a Knicks jersey featured in the Turtle style section. What is pretty nifty, though, is reading how costume designer Amy Westcott finds all the clothes for the characters and what goes into building their style. And for all those readers out there who ask where Drama gets his shirts, this section of the book may answers some of those questions.
* Casting director Sheila Jaffe mentions the actual difficulty of finding "a hot blond girl" for the show. Then you see a four-page spread of all the hot girls that have already appeared on the show and you wonder what the heck she's talking about. Actually, you forget what the heck she's talking about because you're looking at four pages of hot girls.
* We've been big fans of the Ari-Lloyd dynamic on the show ever since there was an Ari-Lloyd dynamic. The two pages of various Ari-Lloyd exchanges is a nice touch. Again, nothing new to regular viewers of the show, but it's still funny to read. Tsetse fly!
* New interviews with Bob Saget, Seth Green and Ralph Macchio highlight the section on cameos and guest stars. It's an impressive array of people who have stepped into the show either as themselves or as guest stars.
* Those of you planning a trip to L.A. will love the final feature of this book. It's a location guide to all the places "Entourage" filmed scenes at in the first four seasons. It blends the "Entourage" history of the place with menu and description info, just in case you want to want to know what to order at Jack N' Jill's in Beverly Hills when you ask your friend if he stole a Shrek doll.
The book hits the stores nationwide on Tuesday.
Comments (6)
Great review. Totally on target. The book is a great mix of what we already knew and some new tidbits. It's like sharing stories with an old friend, and finding out some new insight in the process.
Love having the boys in hard copy, so I can take them everywhere!
Just a heads up to anyone with SIRIUS...Kevin and Adrian were on Stern today, and it was a fantastic interview. We got to hear about all the amazing trim the boys pull in real life, the girls they met on the show, and how (in real life) Kevin punched the surfer who had his car destroyed by Drama. I was also amazed to find out that Kevin might be a bigger real life pimp than Vinny Chase is on the show. If you missed it, catch a replay...it was one of the best interviews I've heard in years.
Thanks for the info, Lightweight.
For those of you who don't have Sirius, you can go to http://www.sirius.com/howardstern and listen to the interview on Howard Stern.
Sirius has free three-day trials to listen online, which works out quite nicely in this case.
The book is "fan"tastic! I place it on the bed when my husband and I are "getting intimate." It's that good!!!
haha yeahh i heard about that whole thing between kevin connolly and chad muska in the club when chad was being a dj. kevin snuck him like he did to rockys kid in rocky V lol. chad muska's a bum anyway. he's a horrible pro skater, i do some better flip in flip out shit then him
Kevin Connolly has gotten a bum rap from the media and paps and, after the Howard Stern interview, now has to deal with immature Julianne Hough saying that they are "just friends".
What lack of class this girl turned out to have.
I am sure that they did "date" and she probably enjoyed the attention and perks dating someone like Kevin Connolly brought her.
Now, she ruined it for both of them.
Better luck next time, Kevin.
I am sure that there is some girl out there that would glad to hang with a regular guy like you.