Speaking for myself, I don’t loathe Jeremy Piven, per se. I DO, however, loathe un-professionalism, stupidity and incompetence, all of which characteristics he’s shown in considerable quantity in this scandal. I believe very strongly that he did NOT want to be there and this IS how he got out of it. Everything about this just screams that he’s majorly f**ked up.
There are different definitions of “hit”. Critical is one, but financial is definitely another. In this case, strictly from a monetary point of view, yes, everyone else sucked. They sucked at having the kind of widespread celebrity name recognition that Piven does. As dearly as I love Raúl, I’m the first to admit he isn’t going to put asses in seats the way Piven could. Not yet, anyway. (I really don’t know how much of a draw Elisabeth Moss is in that respect.) The simple fact is, they were depending primarily on Jeremy’s name to sell tickets (well, and Mamet’s name, too).
For what it’s worth, here’s how I think it’ll play out. (It’s a lame excuse, but simple and straightforward may be best, here, and honestly, I’m not sure what else they can do.) A reasonable quantity of time from now, his LA handlers (the studio that produces Entourage and his agents, etc.) will issue a press release saying something to the effect that naïve, trusting Jeremy Piven fell into the nefarious clutches of this quack doctor, that he was taken in and otherwise conned by him, and that the “mercury poisoning” diagnosis was all a mistake. That in reality he was just suffering from a case of exhaustion. I’m sure they have creative people who will be able to structure a more elaborate spin on it, but that’ll be the gist of it, and by the time Entourage starts filming he’ll be miraculously all healed.
That’s what I think, anyway.
Sarcasm is an allergic reaction to stupid people.