“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)

Ali G and Borat creator Sacha Baron Cohen has weighed into the Middle East conflict with a recent gag in which he confused “Hamas” and “hummus” and suggested a settlement of the problem through a “time share” on land between Arabs and Jews.

That’s right, the politically-incorrect prankster is back, this time in his latest incarnation as Bruno, a camp fashion presenter in a tight leather jacket and mohican hairstyle. And his latest victims? An Israeli analyst/former Mossad official and a Palestinian academic who thought they were being interviewed for a documentary aimed at explaining the conflict to young people.

Instead they are likely to end up in Baron Cohen’s new movie due out next year, joining the red-faced roll call of duped interviewees who failed to recognise the spoof character.

So, according to ”co-dupee” Yossi Alpher, the Islamist group Hamas is mentioned in conversation, and “Bruno” interjects, asking in a thick mock-German accent: ”Vait, vait. Vat’s zee connection between a political movement and food. Vy hummus?”

He also says: “Your conflict is not so bad. Jennifer-Angelina is worse,” referring to the ex-wife and current partner of Hollywood actor Brad Pitt. Other jokes by the comedian always out to shock include: ”Vy don’t you Jews and Arabs settle the conflict with a time share on the land?”, “Ven vill you Jews return the pyramids?” and ”Vy can’t Jews and Hindus get along?”

Nothing, it seems, is off limits to Baron Cohen, a Jew who Alpher accuses of exploitation.

“Yes, dear reader, Sacha Baron Cohen is loose in the Middle East,” he writes on the www.forward.com Web site. “The end product will undoubtedly be hilarious. We’ll try to be good sports about it. But will Sacha Baron Cohen? He is exploiting our tragic and painful conflict in the most cynical and deceptive manner. I doubt he’ll give us anything in return.”

Pierce Brosnan, who played the world’s best known spy James Bond in four movies, has taken on a new role — the narrator of Thomas the Tank Engine. Brosnan, 55, follows in the footsteps of ex-Beatle Ringo Starr and  U.S. actor Alec Baldwin who previously narrated the children’s TV show. The Irish star makes his debut in the movie “Thomas and Friends: The Great Discovery,” a DVD being released on Sept. 9 by HIT Entertainment Ltd. and Lionsgate.

The creation of Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry, Thomas the Tank Engine made his first appearance in the 1945 children’s book “The Three Railway Engines”. The  TV series was first broadcast in 1984 and has since been seen in 140 countries and 25 languages.

Singer Ashlee Simpson and rocker Pete Wentz’s wedding last weekend had all the usual Hollywood glitz and secrecy attached but it seems the couple were well prepared for an un-Hollywood happy ending — walking down the aisle with a pre-nuptial agreement signed and sealed.  On Ryan Seacrest’s morning KIIS-FM radio show, Wentz, the bassist from Fall Out Boy, ’fessed up that the happy couple had signed a prenup agreement. While happy to talk about finances, when it came to rumors that Simpson was pregnant, Wentz was not so open.  Asked by Seacrest if they had picked out baby names, Wentz said: ”Ryan, this baby has not been confirmed. “