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The Entourage movie will soon be upon us, and nothing can stop it. Its marketing push has been so aggressive that the only person on Earth who can fully absorb and appreciate it all is probably Jeremy Piven's obnoxious Ari Gold.
Co-star Kevin Connolly is Hollywood's most vocal and visible Islanders fan, sneaking team gear into episodes, directing a movie about scam artist/owner John Spano for ESPN, doing voice-overs for team ads and videos and, oh, drafting Brock Nelson from the NHL podium in 2010.
But series creator Doug Ellin, who wrote and directed the feature, is also a fan and he recently sat down with Huffington Post Live (The Viking Quest of online chat shows) to talk about his sports history, the team's move to Brooklyn and who he's rooting for in the playoffs.
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Among the nuggets:
- So it's Connolly and Ellin in blue and orange and Jerry Ferrara (Turtle) and Kevin Dillon (Johnny "The Brother" Drama) in Rangers blue and red. Befitting Vince Chase, the show's charismatic blank slate main character, series star Adrian Grenier must prefer to sit out the hockey arguments and spend his time surrounded by girls in various states of undress instead.
- Ellin is "pulling hard" for the Rangers because of his friendship with Rick Nash and his wife and also because "it's New York." Unfortunately, the crack scientific teams at the Lighthouse Hockey Institute of Hockey Fandom Research examined this "Rooting for New York" phenomenon last season and declared it complete and total bullshit. Points off for Ellin.
- Okay, points returned for wearing a Denis Potvin jersey to MSG as an 11-year-old. I wouldn't even do that as a 39-year-old.
- He's "devastated" by the Islanders move to Barclays Center. He was present for three Stanley Cup victories at Nassau Coliseum and saw the team rise from Nets ticket giveaway gift to legendary dynasty. This also mirrors the rise of Vince from indie movie unknown to the star of James Cameron's blockbuster Aquaman, the highest-grossing movie of all time.
So while the Islanders are done and you (most likely) won't be living the fabulously opulent, irresponsibly breezy and sexually adventurous Entourage lifestyle any time soon, you can see the movie when it opens nationwide on June 3 and gain maybe a tiny glimpse of both.
Or you can see Mad Max: Fury Road again to watch that chained-up gimp dude really play a real guitar that really shoots real columns of real fire all over an apocalyptic wasteland. As Entourage taught us, do whatever you want, bro.