Jeremy Piven: The Un-American Cop-Out
2008 has stressed America's morale in unimaginable ways. Growing jobless numbers, astronomical fuel costs, a senseless war, and the worst economy in decades have challenged the family budget as employees have been forced to make more and more concessions just to keep bread on the table. An American worker who was wise enough to only take the mortgage he could afford and lucky enough to keep a job that was supposed to be his career, bites his nails as he nervously waits for the next shoe to drop.
We've watched the big guys get a free pass at taxpayer's expense. Responsibility for our economic crisis is not just pushed aside but rewarded by bailouts that make the Iraq War look like the receipt from a 99-cent store. If the beleaguered worker were to give in to the popular fashion of throwing in the towel, our country would go into an economic freefall that would destroy what America has sweat and bled for throughout her history.
Each one of us owes a debt of servitude towards our fellow countrymen who -- despite daunting external forces -- continue to make America work. We're a country who survive by necessity and lead by innovation. When faced with a tyrant, The WWII generation beat back oppression, helped rebuild the world, and constructed a domestic infrastructure that still serves us very nobly. Now it's our generation's turn to do the hard work.
God is not minding the store; success is up to each one of us. The worst-case scenario would occur if we just opt out of our financial and personal responsibilities. We can never adopt the idea that the foibles we are experiencing today will be written off because "back in 2008/2009, everybody behaved that way." Complacency has happened before. How many of us remember accepting racial slurs when we were young because "everybody said them?" If popular fashion dictates dropping out, how many Americans will choose to stay in the race?
Just as blue-collar America struggles, everyday thousands of actors work long hard hours at jobs they tolerate for a chance to shine in one of America's theatres. Dance classes, acting classes, pseudo-agents, endless scams and empty promises stand in the way of the lucky handful who grab the public's discerning eye. The few who make it without the help of a hefty surname have stories that rival any challenge in a Dickens novel.
Broadway is an Indy 500 and a Mozart concerto fused into one. It's where talent, self-disciple, and a great team separate a real star from just another lucky Hollywood break. From Hepburn to Helen Hayes, James Stewart to Hugh Jackman, Broadway challenges Tinseltown's most experienced to prove their muster under the Great White Way's critical eye. Weeks of rehearsal and months of work are rewarded by the audience's cheers, the camaraderie of the cast, and the respect of an actor's finicky peers.
When David Mamet's Speed the Plow opened at the Barrymore Theater this fall, Entourage alumnus Jeremy Piven was a natural choice for the role of the fast-talking agent who weighs art against a sure thing. New York Times critic Ben Brantley lauded praises on Piven and the cast. Speed the Plow was a success. Subsequent offers would likely follow for everyone involved in the show.
Just because you play a role doesn't mean you have any character. Last week Jeremy Piven abruptly left the production claiming mercury poisoning resulting from eating sushi. His physician ran damage control, making TV appearances on his patient's behalf. It was a low in the history of Broadway. Every actor who ever uttered the edict "the show must go on" rolled his eyes, or rolled over in his grave.
As the fiasco unfolded, I thought about all the Americans who fight against backaches, headaches, and unhappiness working at jobs they barely tolerate to keep a roof over their head and food on the table. I thought the summer I spent in South Florida. Road crews were working tirelessly through the August heat to finish a drawbridge for the winter season. I'd sit at the traffic break in my air-conditioned car watching older men shoveling hot asphalt onto the road; to me that was work, and none of them were loafing.
America will pull out of this economic spiral, but only through leadership, hard choices, self-sacrifice, and probably a healthy does of inflation. Make no doubt about it; Piven offered an explanation for his departure, but it was no excuse. I can only hope the producers of Entourage end Piven's contract before he gets his hand on another California roll.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Piven, being a native Chicagoan, one might suspect that sushi is perhaps not all that high on his preferred star treatment menu. But even if he has gone all culinary Hollywood, why is there no mercury poisoning epidemic amongst his peers?
Having enjoyed seeing Piven play the every-agent-I-ever-knew, I know him to be a fine actor in the HBO venue. All that is beside the point. Having had to take sick days from time to time, I would certainly give the benefit of the doubt to him on his need not to go to work right now. I only hope that the diagnosis is wrong and that he recovers fully.
It turns out that William H. Macy is taking over Jeremy Piven's role starting January 13th. That will be at least as good as seeing Jeremy Piven; I've been wanting to see him on the stage for years.
So I managed to call in a few favors and scraped together the $59.00 for a rear mezzanine seat on his opening night, despite the bleakness of my personal fiscal status.
Jeremy Piven's heinous act (that could have had such a dramatic impact on our economy) will not ruin the future for all members of Equity Actors Union not to mention the other related theatre guilds.
I'm so glad; I was losing sleep over this issue.
You know, I thought Mamet's quip (about Piven leaving acting to get a job as a thermometer) was pretty funny. Piven probably laughed when he heard it too.
But between his co-stars using the stage to rag on him and this post above - what the hell, people? You're just being unnecessarily cruel. They guy's got freakin' mercury poisoning. Lay off.
dude, lighten up. not everything is a metaphor, especially hollywood actors and broadway plays.
Gross article. The whole world may be a stage, but the show is just a damn show and each performance has the lifespan of a daily newspaper.
I don't really get this article. Is it about the economy or Broadway, or Jeremy Piven?
I thought that Piven was really sick from mercury poisoning. I thought Broadway shows had "understudies." I mean, he can't be so indispensable that he is not allowed to be sick. I had not realized that being a Broadway actor was the ONLY job in the world where you couldn't get sick.
Piven doesn't strike me as a whiny-a$#. I would imagine that he really must be sick or he wouldn't have given up on what must have been a well-received role. Just because it wasn't cancer or hepatitis or a heart attack-- or something else that is a "traditional" serious illness, doesn't mean it is not serious!
I thought David Mamet's comment was real unfunny.
This was a terrible article, he starts off talking about the failing economy and then just goes to criticize Piven, as if it's all his fault
Honestly, sometimes I get so weary of the righteous indignation of my fellow lefties. And, of all things, using the phrase "un-American" as condemnatory. It didn't work with HUAC, and it shouldn't work now. Or ever, in any context. Arguably, flag-burning is the most 'American' act there can be, because it proves the tolerance inherent in our democracy. So - quitting a Broadway show, for whatever reason - please. Don't take yourself so seriously.
Well, darnit, what's the story?
Why did he leave?
I just can't get too worked up over this. It would have been nice for him to stay in the show until I got around to buying a ticket for it (I'm unemployed), but if he wants to break his contract, or be sick with mercury poisoning, or whatever.... so what? The play has gotten a lot of publicity; at least one reviewer praised his cast-mates' performances while expressing disappointment in his, and best of all....
the playwrite's comment about him pursuing a career as a thermometer was hilarious. Lots of us are out of work. It stinks. We move on and do the best we can. Dogfood for dinner anyone?
What a nasty, petty article. BTW - "the show must go on" committment relies on calling in the understudy when necessary.
I heard somewhere even before he left that he was having problems with the other cast members. He may have decided not to stay under those conditions. I don't think Broadway performers are so unkind that they would be so lacking in charity towards another actor unless the actor behaved very badly towards them. First. It sounds as though they don't believe his diagnosis, and maybe they have reasons not to.
The expression "The Show Must Go On", was created by theatre management to keep actors in line. An actors first obligation is to himself because no one else is going to be looking after him. I get sick everytime someone pulls out that tired :Show must go on" quote.
Un-american cop out? This can't be a serious article. Mercury toxicity has some serious symptoms and telling someone with Mercury poisoning that the "Show must go on!" is like criticizing Corky from Life Goes On for not completing the New York Times Crossword puzzle.
Wait a second: can the author please tell me again exactly why he doesn't like Piven? Because I didn't get it from the article. And what does Piven have to do with the economic crisis?
No kidding. What WAS the point of this other than to smear Piven with no reasons given.
Yes, it's Jeremy Piven who has caused the decline of Western Civilization as we know it.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
