Friday, October 12, 2007


ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 9
“The Young and the Stoned”
Written by: Dusty Kay
Directed by: Mark Mylod


It’s one of those episodes that has nothing to do with the wheeling and dealing for Vinnie’s latest project, but it’s nonetheless a solid half-hour with two out of three subplots that get my vote.


Subplot 1: While trying to find his way to the gang’s new digs (courtesy of the Lost in the Clouds check), E’s Aston-Martin is rear-ended by Anna Faris, who happens to be in nothing but a towel (she’s just come from Pilates is just the start of a semi-long, involved story). Since Anna doesn’t have any of her insurance papers on her, she gives E her cell number.
E feels they had some kind of Moment, but he gives her a call only to find out she gave him the wrong number. Tracking her house down via Star Maps, E drives on over, and Anna claims she gave him the wrong number ‘cause her phone is new and she’s totally number dyslexic.
Since she ended up trashing her tires in the accident, Anna’s waiting for a cab that’s already late to take her to a meeting. E volunteers to drive her, and finds out that it’s a meeting for her new project, a romantic comedy trying to be something more called Brown-Eyed Girl, a script E remembers since Vince passed on it a while back.
When Anna pressures E into telling her what he really thought of the script, he says he didn’t like it and thought the third act just didn’t work.
Later on, Anna calls E and asks him out for dinner. It turns out that a) she wants to pick his brain for his thoughts on her career; and b) she’s got a boyfriend, who calls her during dinner.
Anna ends up asking E to be her manager.


Subplot 2: Mrs. Ari is asked to reprise her role as town slut Kendall Scott for the anniversary of The Young and the Restless. Ari, possessive and mindful of the fact that it’s a daytime soap, isn’t thrilled about the offer. When he finds out that part of what Mrs. Ari is supposed to do is to seduce Latin soap hunk Javier Gracho (whom Lloyd, solid fan of Y&R that he is—he hasn’t missed an episode in a dozen years—has as wallpaper), he freaks.
Ari visits the set and when he’s told by the missus in no uncertain terms to get lost, he pays Javier a visit. Prepared to lift Javier up from the wasteland of daytime TV, Ari dangles the promise of primetime and Ugly Betty, just so long as Javier doesn’t kiss Mrs. Ari.
Javier spoils a shot when he doesn’t liplock with Mrs. Ari, and points to Ari when he’s asked what’s wrong. Exasperated that Ari won’t let her be kissed, Mrs. Ari grabs Javier and kisses him herself, after which, they do the scene.
Later on, an argument in the Gold master bedroom. Ari’s just really jealous that some other man is kissing his wife, and Mrs. Ari is pissed that Ari suggested she’s aged and that she’d suffer from being shot in High Def. It turns out that Mrs. Ari was asked to return as a regular, but she’s happy and content with her life (she did walk away from acting for this), and she just wanted one day to have this little crazy on-camera “fling” to assure herself that she’s still quite the desirable hottie.
The Golds then have hot monkey love. (Ari’s such a lucky dog.)


The third subplot involves Turtle, three girls, a cop, and some weed.
Despite that less than stellar subplot, “The Young and the Stoned” is a great half-hour, with the introduction of Anna Faris (who’s always struck me as a really funny actress far too big for the Scary Movie franchise) playing herself. There’s always such promise whenever someone plays themselves on Entourage (or, more accurately, a version of themselves), and when it’s over a number of episodes (as Mandy Moore did in Season 2), the results can be truly excellent. I’m looking forward to more of Faris.
That, coupled with the Y&R subplot, take this episode through the roof.


(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

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