What is Jeremy Piven doing since “Entourage”?
—Luke Inerfeld, Oklahoma City, Okla.
Piven, 47, is back on TV as the star of PBS’s “Masterpiece Classic: Mr. Selfridge,” playing Harry Gordon Selfridge, the Midwest businessman who went to London and turned the retail business on its head when he founded Selfridges, London’s lavish department store.
“My plan was not to go into TV, but there was no way to not do this, really,” says the New York City-born actor, who was raised in Evanston, Ill. “Knowing that he’s from the Midwest, as I am, growing up and going to Marshall Field’s, where he made his bones, I have a history with that place. So, I felt connected to him.”
While the eight-episode series has just begun airing in the U.S., it has already been picked up for a second season in the U.K., with Piven agreeing to reprise his role.
That will still give him time to rejoin the cast of “Entourage” for the film version, which has been given the green light by Warner Bros. now that the script has been completed. The film, which will shoot in late spring or early summer, is rumored to follow Ari Gold (Piven) to his new job as chairman of Time Warner.
“It was an incredible experience,” Piven says of his years on the HBO series. “Playing Ari was like the last 10 seconds of a boxing round, where you give it all you’ve got. I left it all on the field after those eight years. After eight years, you can’t be greedy. But it was left open-ended. A movie would be wonderful.”
Also upcoming for Piven is a role in “Sin City: A Dame To Kill For,” and the already released films “So Undercover,” “Spy Kids: All the Time in the World” and the animated “The Pirates! Band of Misfits.”
