(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley has gone back to Broadway to see “Speed-the-Plow” now that its star Jeremy Piven has left the cast complaining of sushi-induced mercury poisoning, and in a piece on Tuesday pointed out the “blessings that have arrived with his departure.”  
    
Brantley went on to say, “Mr. Piven’s absence has made me fonder of ‘Speed-the-Plow’ than I would ever have thought possible.”
    
Norbert Leo Butz replaced Piven, a star on the HBO show “Entourage,” from Dec. 23 through Jan. 11 and William H. Macy currently has the part, in the 1988 play from author David Mamet.
    
Brantley wrote that those two actors are not necessarily better than Piven. But he explains that seeing Butz and Macy in the part has allowed him to get a different view of the character Piven played, a chief of production at a Hollywood studio. And he says they have done a fine job picking up the pieces after Piven left. Brantley also said “Mad Men” star Elisabeth Moss and “Pushing Daisies” actor Raul Esparza have grown in their roles in “Speed-the-Plow” since he first saw them when Piven was part of the cast.
    
“That Mr. Piven hasn’t been part of that evolution is his loss,” Brantley wrote.
    
When Piven left the show last month, blaming mercury poisoning from too much sushi, Mamet responded by giving trade paper Daily Variety the biting line: “My understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer.”
    
Mamet was not the only skeptic. The Center for Consumer Freedom even said Piven would have to eat 108 pieces of tuna sushi role every week for his entire life to feel any new health risks from mercury.

Last week we brought you news that actor Jeremy Piven abruptly left his role in the Broadway production of “Speed the Plow” due to what he claimed was a high mercury count in his body.

A doctor who had treated Piven later told celebrity television show Entertainment Tonight that the actor had six times the healthy amount of mercury in his system. He said the actor was an “avid sushi eater” who had the raw fish twice a day, and that he also had been taking Chinese herbs which could have contributed to the problem.

But others were skeptical including David Mamet, who wrote “Speed the Plow.” He told Daily Variety, “my understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer.” After Sunday’s matinee performance, cast member Raul Esparza bashed Piven on stage saying that working without Piven was “the first time I really enjoyed playing this show,” according to a report on Foxnews.com.

But this one is better. On Monday, The Center for Consumer Freedom, which calls itself a nonprofit group devoted to promoting personal responsibility and protecting consumer choice, issued a press release about “sushigate.” It said “the entire medical literation doesn’t contain a single documented U.S. case of mercury poisoning from eating fish sold in restaurants or supermarkets. ” Using a calculator at MercuryFacts.com, they reckoned Piven would have to eat 3.4 pounds of sushi-grade tuna — 108 pices of tuna sushi role every week – every week for his entire life to feel any new health risks from mercury.

We’d note that Piven’s doctor did include the detail that Chinese herbs could be involved. In any case, we’re left to wonder just how fishy is this story of Piven and mercury poisoning. Any thoughts?

Barack Obama’s first appointment as U.S. president-elect comes with an inside-Hollywood connection.  His newly chosen White House chief-of-staff-to-be, Illinois congressman Rahm Emanuel, is the older brother of Ari Emanuel, a founding partner of the A-list, Beverly Hills-based talent-management firm Endeavor.

So colorful and well-known a showbiz figure has he become that he inspired the character of the sly Hollywood agent Ari Gold, played by Jeremy Piven, on the HBO series “Entourage.” The role has earned Piven two Emmy Awards.

The younger Emanuel broke away from the talent agency ICM in 1995 to help start Endeavor, which has since grown into one of the leading deal-brokers in the entertainment industry with a client roster that includes Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jude Law, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Adam Sandler and Steve Carell. Among the stars he personally represents are Larry David, Michael Moore, Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Wahlberg.      

Having grown up in suburban Chicago, Ariel “Ari” Z. Emanuel is the youngest of three brothers — Ezekiel , an oncologist and bioethicist, and Rahm, a former aid to President Bill Clinton who later was elected to the House of Representatives from Illinois and became a confident of Obama. Ari Emanuel, too, has been active in Hollywood political circles, hosting fundraisers for Democratic candidates that included a $2,300-per-plate event for Obama during his presidential campaign.

Their father is a Jerusalem-born pediatrician who was active in the pre-independence Israeli underground, and their mother was a social activist and onetime Chicago-area nightclub proprietor.

In 2006 Ari Emanuel made headlines when he publicly condemned actor-director Mel Gibson for making anti-Semitic remarks at the time of his arrest for drunken driving. Emanuel called then on others in Hollywood to show their outrage by ”professionally shunning” Gibson.

“Entourage” star Jeremy Piven started rehearsals this week on another show about the inside world of show-business, only this time it’s on a Broadway stage.

Piven is starring in a revival of David Mamet’s play “Speed-the-Plow,” billed as a “scathing portrait of the film industry and the people who are willing to sell their souls for sex, fame and fortune.”

“It’s an incredibly timely piece. It’s actually more true today even than when he wrote it,” Piven told reporters at the start of the second day of rehearsals on Tuesday.

“We did a reading yesterday and I was surprised yet again how powerful and funny this piece is,” said Piven, looking a little-bleary eyed before the morning rehearsal.

The cast also includes Elisabeth Moss, star of the hit TV show “Mad Men” and familiar to many as the president’s daughter in “West Wing.” She is reviving a role played by Madonna in the last Broadway production of the play 20 years ago.

The third major role is taken by Raul Esparza, the only one of the three who has trod the boards on Broadway before.

Piven starred in the off-Broadway play “Fat Pig” by Neil LaBute in 2004 but this will be his Broadway debut.

Previews start on Oct. 3 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and opening night is Oct. 23. 

PICTURE: Reuters/Mike Cassese (Actor Jeremy Piven arrives at special presentation screening of ‘RocknRolla’ at Toronto International Film Festival, 4 Sept. 2008)

If there’s one Hollywood rule that is nearly universal, it is that stars will almost always be late to anything – to dinners, to events, to interviews — and that even includes so-called “gifting lounges” where they get stuff free. Free!

Gifting lounges are nothing new at film festivals such TIFF, Sundance or Cannes or at big award shows (the value of past Oscar gift bags notoriously runs in the tens of thousands of dollars) but lately organizers have been doing more than just giving away items to create buzz around their venues. They look upon the lounges as “media hubs” where actors schedule press interviews, photo shoots and parties — not just as quick, down-and-dirty stops to grab free stuff.

We ventured over to Hollywood Life magazine’s gifting lounge at the Toronto International Film Festival to get an idea of why companies want to give their designer goods to stars (the answer is publicity) and if the added attention actually helps sell more products (that answer is yes).

“Our customers are looking to celebrities and seeing what they should wear and where they should shop. We’ve found a lot of success as a brand through courting celebrities and dressing celebrities and converting that directly into sales,” said Sarah Wetenhall, a spokeswoman for British-based French Connection (otherwise known as FCUK), one of the sponsors at the Hollywood Life House. 

So on the festival’s opening day, Hollywood Life House sponsors including Hamilton watches, Parasuco denim, Hennessy cognac and Miami Boutique Hotels, and a handful of Toronto television media were eagerly awaiting the fashionably-one-hour-late cast members of director Guy Ritchie’s “RocknRolla” with an eventual appearance of Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Toby Kebbell and Thandie Newton and a disappointing no-show from “Entourage” star Jeremy Piven.

Still, the sponsers say it is worth the wait, and eventually celebs do come around.

“From a hundred celebrities who pass through here, if two of them are caught wearing this, or are on the ‘cover of’ or ‘inside of’ (a magazine) that’s what it’s all about, ” said Parasuco spokeswoman Ida Mirijello.

Montreal-based Parasuco, famed for it’s rock-star embellished jeans and outfitting Bon Jovi’s latest world tour, also sponsors award shows such as the American Music Awards and Golden Globes, where “Desperate Housewives” star Nicollette Sheridan picked up a pair of “Rock Me Baby” jeans a couple years ago and showed them off on the Late Show with David Letterman.

“Here she is on the David Letterman show, blinging her butt to the world, that’s what it’s all about,” said Mirijello