Last October, I brought you the story of “Real World” alum John Devenanzio suing HBO and the creator of “Entourage” over their use of the name Johnny Bananas in a show-within-the-show starring Kevin Dillon’s character, Johnny Drama. I found the entire concept of someone from “The Real World” suing someone from “Entourage” over character issues to be hilarious from top to bottom. Well, I have two important updates about this groundbreaking case: 1) The case has been dismissed. 2) I still find the whole thing pretty hilarious.

In the lawsuit, Devenanzio charged HBO, parent Time Warner and Entourage creator Doug Ellin with featuring an “unwarranted, unauthorized and unfavorable mention of plaintiff’s name and personality and allusions to plaintiff’s physical and mental character.”

HBO responded by saying that Devenanzio had a “fundamental misunderstanding of the law governing publicity and privacy rights.” The network asserted that nicknames are not protected under New York law, that the plaintiff had failed to establish a connection between his identity and what he saw on the show and that the plaintiff’s lawsuit failed because the nickname wasn’t used in advertising and thus didn’t meet the “commercial” bar for such a claim.

Ultimately, though, Billings gave HBO a victory on a less sexy technicality. The episodes in question started airing on Aug. 15, 2010, and Devenanzio didn’t bring the claim until Oct. 3, 2011. The one-year statute of limitations window had closed, so the judge finds the lawsuit to be less “Johnny Bananas” and more “Johnny Rotten.” [The Hollywood Reporter]

What a bummer — both the way the lawsuit ended and that horrible, horrible joke at the end of the third paragraph of the blockquote. All of it has left me so unsatisfied. I mean, sure, win however you can win and get out cheap and fast and all that, but this trial had SO MUCH potential. They could filled the jury box with water and turned it into a hot tub. They could have called tons of bimbos and bros as witnesses. The cast of “The Real World” could have gotten in a fight with the cast of “Entourage” on the courthouse steps. The lawyers could have shouted things like “OBJECTION! THE WITNESS IS A DICK!” There could have been fist bumps galore and raging post-trial parties with beer pong and strippers and such. It would have been great.

My point here is that the second season of “Franklin & Bash” premieres Tuesday, June 5th at 10 p.m.

During the day, Sarah Tressler works as a society reporter for the Houston Chronicle. By night, she’s a stripper. She’s like Clark Kent, if Clark Kent changed out of his normal clothes into his Superman outfit in front of a large group of horny men. She combines her two talents into a blog, “Diary of an Angry Stripper” (amazingly not the name of a made-for-Lifetime movie…yet), which deserves ALL the blog awards (Bloggies?) for a post she wrote about her time spent with Jeremy Piven while she was an intern at Us Weekly. It confirms everything we thought about the “Entourage” star: namely, that he’s a douche. Here are some choice excerpts.

I had probably talked to him for less than ten minutes, and in that time he had managed to insult the wait staff, several of the people who were trying to get his attention, the magazine I was reporting for, and, indirectly, me. “My assistant taped the UFC fight on my DVR at my apartment. You’re more than welcome to come join me.” My D-Bag meter was ringing like a fu*king cowbell. Abort, abort!

“I’m working on a very emotionally exhausting show right now, and I really need something more nurturing – so if you’re looking for someone to spar with,” – here’s the really good part – “we can put you right back out on the street.”

I alternated between being nervous that I was not as hot as his last hookup, being amazed that I was looking at “Entourage”’s Ari Gold eat my pussy, and being bored with how mundane it was. It was all somewhat disappointing, frankly.

The full post is below. Feel free to make your best Jeremy Piven fish jokes in the comments.

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"It's like my bro Turtle said..."

Unlike some of my colleagues, I would rather set myself ablaze and wade into pool of gasoline than engage in a political discussion on the Internet. Unfortunately, sometimes an issue is so important that it can’t be glossed over. This is one of those times.

Adrian Grenier posted a photo of himself and the prez on his Facebook page earlier today with a message reading, “I promised to make the Entourage movie if he would do a cameo. He agreed. Seriously.”

It was first revealed back in 2008 that the leader of the free world enjoyed watching Entourage and fellow HBO series The Wire. “I never try to analyze these things too much, but I think Obama is someone who believes in family and loyalty,” Entourage creator and executive producer Doug Ellin told the New York Daily News at the time. “And I think at its core, that’s what Entourage is about.” [E! Online]

Now I’m pretty sure this was more of a glad-handing “Yeahyeah whatever, I’ll be in your movie” thing than a hard and firm confirmation, but still, in regards to ALL OF THIS …

Photo credit: Shutterstock

Here I was expecting the news that Showtime is developing a series based on the little-known 2007 crime comedy You Kill Me to be the most perplexing thing I’d hear all day. NOPE. I forget one thing: the Piven Factor. Ever since Jeremy Piven hung up his yarmulke adorned with women in bikinis and put away his Big Book of Small Asian Insults, to fly off into the gorgeous Los Angeles smog in the “Entourage” finale, he’s remained quiet. But the douche is back, baby, and he’s in talks to star in the most BORING sounding show ever.

Jeremy Piven is in negotiations to star in the 10-episode ITV drama series Mr. Selfridge. Announced just last week by the British commercial broadcaster, “Mr. Selfridge” will trace the life of the flamboyant and visionary American entrepreneur, Harry Gordon Selfridge (Piven), and chronicle the launch of his famous London department store Selfridge’s. Based on the book “Shopping, Seduction, and Mr. Selfridge” by Lindy Woodhead, the series, created by Andrew Davies (Bridget Jones’ Diary), is looking to capitalize on the success of another ITV period drama, “Downton Abbey.” Mr. Selfridge is set in London in 1909 at a time when wealthy women were enjoying a new sense of freedom, and “Mile a Minute Harry” wanted to indulge, empower, and celebrate these women, making shopping as thrilling as sex. (Deadline)

JESUS. That sounds terrible. It’s like a checklist of the world’s most uninteresting things: shopping, department stores, a show that will attempt to capitalize on the success of another series, Bridget Jones’ Diary, LONDON. And not only does the idea of Piven as a “flamboyant entrepreneur” make about as much sense as him once attending theater camp with Billy Zane (actually, that makes perfect sense), Selfridge was the guy who coined the term, “The customer is always right.” Meaning, we’ll get to hear an endless amount of inaccurate, “hang in there, kitty” phrases that mean NOTHING from the guy who once asked America, “Got Milf?”

We hardly knew you, “Detroit 1-8-7.”

TV.com has put together a death montage of all the shows that went to the Great Reduced Price DVD Section In the Sky in 2011. It’s like the In Memoriam section of the Oscars, except instead of sadly saying, “I totally forgot that person died this year,” you gleefully laugh, “HAHA, remember “The Cape”?” #10episodesandnomovie

Of the approximately 100 (!) series included in the tribute, only nine are even watchable: “Big Love,” “The Closer,” “Free Agents,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Men of a Certain Age,” “Smallville,” “Sports Show with Norm Macdonald,” “Traffic Light,” and “United States of Tara.” If you add “Bored to Death” to the list, which only got the ax last week, that means approximately nine/tenths of TV is pure crap. That actually sounds too generous.

BUT, when we look back at 2011 in a couple of years, let’s not remember it as The Year of the Protest or The Year We Got Osama bin Laden; let’s remember it as The Year “Entourage” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show” Finally Went Off the Air or The Year We Said NO to “How to Be a Gentleman” and “H8R.” U-S-A! U-S-A!

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