In Case You Missed It: Teenage Paparazzo

When many of us think of celebrities, we think of the glamorous lifestyle, the notoriety, and all the cool stuff we could do. Fame, noted by most celebrities, has its ups and downs. But of all the good and bad things, the most annoying of all of them might be the paparazzi. Known as the vermin of the entertainment industry, paparazzi are everywhere, but their job is to seem as if they’re nowhere to be seen. But as much as we hate them, it seems as if we know less about them than the celebrities they’re chasing.

Adrian Grenier, the star of HBO’s Entourage in which he plays a movie star, is beginning to have the line between reality and fiction blurred due to his fame in real life. He’s adjusting to the lifestyle of Vincent Chase both on and off the screen, except in real life he’s not playing a character. He’s Adrian Grenier. One day, while coming out of a club, amidst the mob of paps around him, he sees a young boy snapping his picture. He approaches the child; to only find out that he’s a thirteen-year-old paparazzo named Austin Visschedyk, a smooth and fast-talking kid from Los Angeles. This street-smart adolescent had recently gained interest in the life of a paparazzo when he met Adrian. This boy fascinated Grenier and before he knew it, he was making a film about him.

Camera crew in hand, Grenier and Visschedyk began taking the Hollywood streets by storm; Austin for his pictures, Adrian for an answer. Teenage Paparazzo offers not only a look into the life of a celebrity, but the people who put these celebrities on the cover of every gossip magazine known to man. The film, which was directed by Grenier, shows the human side of the paparazzi, insisting on talking to them one-on-one rather than dehumanizing them and writing them off as scum like everybody else in Hollywood has. Austin was only the beginning for Grenier. The life of a pap is unlike anything else; the adrenaline, the constant motion, the 24/7 workweek, and most of all, the money. Austin was making anywhere from $500-$1000 for a good shot of a hot celebrity, more if it met certain requirements.

I don’t want to spoil too much of the things that go on in Teenage Paparazzo, because that’s half the fun, finding out what’s going to happen next. Weaving in interviews with various celebrities as well as Austin’s story, the film really does give the viewer a neutral view of the lifestyle of both the paps and their victims. The relationship between certain paps and certain celebrities isn’t as strained as many think, which I find to be very interesting. With that being said, most of them are and it can get very, very, annoying. The price of fame is a price to pay, and Grenier is sure to convey this to the viewer. He explains what its like to walk out of your home and not three steps later start being flashed by camera lights at every angle.

If Teenage Paparazzo succeeds at something, it’s the truth that rings throughout the entire film. We’ve seen these people on TV, we see them in movies, on the news, on the internet, but do we know them? No, of course not. We think we do, but we don’t. It seems that a lot of people have yet to recognize that, though.

5/5 Bears

Entourage: Season 8, Episode 8 – “The End” Review

This is it my friends. The end. The last time we will see the crew of Entourage together (until the inevitable movie). No more of my boy, Johnny Drama acting a complete fool with his permanent scowl. The show has had a good run and even though there were some low points, I’m really gonna miss it after tonight. Still a few things to deal with going into the finale: Vince and his quest to have a legitimate relationship with the beautiful and high morality Sophia. Ari and the never-ending saga of he and his wife staying together or getting divorced. And of course the Baby Mama drama between Eric and Sloan. So with that, let’s get right into it.

This episode starts with Vince making the announcement that he is getting married to Sophia in Paris… in the same day that the episode takes place. Everything is going great for our main character, but this episode was all about tying up the two major loose ends of Ari and his wife Melissa, not to mention Sloan and Eric.

Ari, looking good.

Ari is just about at wits end not giving two shits about work. He and Mrs. Gold have one last therapy session deciding to tell the kids about the divorce. After speaking to his daughter about whether or not he listens to her, Ari finally sees what he has to do and I can’t believe he didn’t do it before. He quits his company, sells his shares and goes to his house for one last ditch attempt with Melissa. Ari tells her what he did and wants to move to Florence, Italy with her and just be together and she agrees.

Ahhhhh, it’s so tough being rich… I was actually impressed by the emotion in the scene where Ari wins her back and even though it was a little cliche’ I still enjoyed seeing them have a happy ending.

With Eric and Sloan, we had a little back and forth tipping of the scales as Johnny and Turtle try to mend things to have Sloan at the wedding. Then Vince tries to do the same through Sloan’s father Terrence, but only serves to make things worse. In the end Vince convinces her to give Eric a last shot and be a father to their child. By the end the whole crew meets at the airport where a jet awaits the wedding party. Vince surprises Eric by unveiling a waiting Sloan and a jet that will take them anywhere they want and Eric goes his own way as Vince, Ari, Turtle and Johnny board the plane for Paris…. and credits roll.

I give the episode a 4 out of 5 bears because it felt a little rushed to tie everything up and give the boys a proper send off. I thought maybe an hour finale would have done it justice, but I suppose the ambiguous ending works too.

The only one we actually get to see a little more of is Ari as he and Melissa live the life in Italy. Ari actually gets a call from his old boss who is offering him the top spot at his studio. You can tell Ari is seriously considering it until he hangs up and Melissa is back with wine. But on the other hand he does lie about who it was to her and who knows maybe we’ll see an Ari Gold spin off show that I’d totally watch!

I said God-Damn!

Entourage: Season 8, Episode 7 – “Second to Last”

So let’s get to the part of the show that’s most interesting to me at the moment. Eric and Sloan. I was just thinking that in the last episode Eric may have been jumping the gun thinking that Galecki and Sloan were an item, but after Turtle spots them at lunch together I can’t help but think they are. Eric does too as he storms off angrily…. from the bed where just slept with Sloan’s ex-mother-in-law… again. Sparks fly at the farmer’s market and later a huge bombshell is dropped. I can only imagine where it goes from here.

Things are looking bad for Turtle. The only way for him to get Don Pepe’s off the ground is to find more money from his investors. Amare Stoudamire and Michael Strahan both tell him to screw himself and Derek Jeter says so much in a nicer way. To top things off, the tequila line that Turtle decided to invest in went public, making Mark Cuban and many other investors a ton of money. Sorry you lost out on that one Turtle. It will take a miracle for Turtle to pull the restaurant gig off at this point without asking Vince for help, which he vowed to not do. Will Vince bail him our or is Don Pepe’s done?

Things are only looking up for Drama after he and Dice successfully won in their work strike to get higher paydays and Johnny Bananas to stay on the air. Now he is going to star in his own movie, involving the miners and a rescue dog, on the Hallmark channel. Not much but it’s a starring gig. Hats off to Drama, even the bad ones he wears.

Vince still continues his pursuit of Sophia in this episode, this time with a bit of a different result thanks a lot to Drama and Turtle. And just when I thought Ari was over his wife, Dana urges him to try winning her back because he tells her how he is still in love with her. It seems like everything is starting to go good for everyone except E. Will Ari get his wife back before season’s end? We’ll have to wait and see in the next episode.

I give this one a 4 out 5 grizzlies. The show is definitely living up to the expectations I had at the beginning of the season even though I had begun to lose hope. Keep up the good work fellas!

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Entourage: Season 8, Episode 6 – “The Big Bang”

This episode starts with Johnny standing picket line firm and Eric dealing with blow-back from the guys. I was glad to see Ari get through the episode finally able to accept that divorce is the only option and he is doing it by the books at this point. I never understand why he was being so nice to Mrs. Gold when it was so obviously over for her and that he was the only one trying to salvage the marriage. Bravo to Ari for being strong finally and taking no shit. He never took shit from anyone except the Mrs. and now she has joined the distinguished club.

Eric finds out some disturbing information that may or may not be true: That Sloan is banging Johnny Galecki. That’s like Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie…. gross. Eric actually gives Scott the ultimatum of dropping Galecki or dissolving their partnership. How far you’ve fallen Eric my boy.

Vince continues in his seemingly futile quest to gain a date with the brilliant Sophia, only managing to make himself look like a stalker. Turtle likewise starts to experience difficulties when his partners seem none too interested in his plans for his new restaurant Don Pepe’s. On the bright side of his terrible storyline we do get to see David Spade briefly in action.

Drama just keeps getting better and better. He stands strong after Phil threatens to screw up his Miner/Rescue Dog movie if he doesn’t return to work on Johnny Bananas. Dice then gets the call…. Phil caved to their work strike and as Dice says – “Johnny Bananas rides again.”

I liked the episode, but I’m hoping the second half of tonight’s double premiere is a little better than this one. I give the episode a 3 out of 5 grizzlies.

Entourage: Season 8, Episode 5 – “Motherf–ker”

This episode was okay, with Drama and Vince both having some shining moments. Starting off with Vince having an interview with a very hot journalist named Sophia. Vince has multiple interviews with her, clearly trying to get together with her while still revealing a lot of himself in the second interview. By the end she still won’t give in to meeting socially with Vince and our main character is absolutely smitten by what he can’t have.

Ari and Mrs. Ari’s tumultuous relationship continues in this episode, Ari screwing up some parenting time with his kids which results in Mrs. Ari letting Ari know she is moving forward with a divorce. But all is not lost for our boy, because Dana having got over her anger is willing to still be with Ari, which I think needs to happen for him at this point. The divorce is happening and it’s time for him to move forward.

Drama had a big moment in this episode trying to deal with Dice’s terrible replacement (played by Jamie Kennedy) and getting Dice back to do the show. Johnny tries to be super selfless in this episode, offering Dice a part of his salary to make them equal but Dice refuses telling Drama he should have walked to show some solidarity. By the end of the episode Drama does just that. I applaud the goofball to the max.

Eric has a little bit of action both business wise and sexy wise. Sloan’s ex-mother-in law comes a callin’, wanting Eric to manager her career. Eric agrees and over drinks ends up opening up to her about his break up with Sloan. Then he fulfills his destiny as the episodes title: Motherf–ker. Because he does just that and afterward Sloan calls him asking if her ex-mommy in law was in L.A. Eric of course lies and says it’s only a management thing. He also finds out that the whole sex part was just a thing to get back at Sloan’s father. Good going team Eric.

I give the episode 4 out of 5 grizzlies. Finally they are past all of the Vince rehab and drug testing issues and it looks like maybe Ari will finally give up the terrible battle that is his failing marriage. Keep up the good work next week Entourage!

Entourage: Season 8, Episode 4 – “Whiz Kid”

Unless you’re a complete imbecile, you’ll know that the title of the episode tonight is talking about Vince. Thankfully the majority of the episode is about Vince taking a whiz. You see, even though there was no wrongdoing on his part from the previous episode’s suicide, Vince is still in a bit of a predicament: Since there was cocaine in the house Vince’s probation officer still wants to have him take a drug test. Which is fine, right?

Wrong. Vince admits to E that he indeed took a couple of hits from a joint after getting out of rehab. Smooth move bro. Ari is having a grand old time with Dana and her sexy self but is striking out on every front with Mrs. Ari. After showing up late to couples therapy and getting walked out on, Ari declares war by taking Dana on a date to Bobby Flay’s resteraunt. This whole ordeal puts him on pretty shitty level with both Dana for him using her like that and Mrs. Ari for taking Dana to the resteraunt to antagonize Bobby. I realize Ari loves his wife but he has to realize that it may be over with her and he has quite a thing going with Dana who is almost entirely like him but as a woman. And as far as looks go Dana wins hands down.

But back to Vince’s whiz. After realizing that nothing Drama picked up will help him, (big surprise) Vince turns to Billy for help. Billy’s solution? Wear a patented fake penis with someone else’s urine in it to cheat the test. Vince agrees but on the way into the test asks E to follow him into the bathroom and tells him the plan. E tries to talk him out of it stating it would make things worse if he got caught. Vince appears to agree and after the test everyone eagerly awaits the results at home.

Finally Vince gets a call from his lawyer who tells him that he is good to go and the results came back negative. The guys all wonder about what could have happened until Vince announces that he went through with the fake schlong! Boom! I honestly didn’t see that one coming.

I give the episode a 5 out of 5 bears, because this was easily the season’s best episode yet. I really liked that it just focused on Vince for the most part, because he really is the main character in the show and they did a good job of building up a little suspense with the urinalysis results. Hopefully next week the Ari/Mrs. Ari drama comes to an end.

Entourage: Season 8, Episode 3 – “One Last Shot”

The episodes keep picking up, especially in the Drama/Dice department. It’s probably best to start off with Turtle since he’s really the most useless character this season. He basically gets pushed out of the liquor business, relegated to just collecting a ton of money as a stockholder instead of doing all of the leg work with distribution. Turtle of course wants to work and ends up selling his and Vince’s stock so they can invest in opening a restaurant. And by the way Alex breaks up with Turtle. Moving on…

Hurr Durr Durr

The best part of the episode is the drama that happens with… Drama. I will take this opportunity to say that William Fichtner is one of the most underrated actors out there. He gets relatively small roles but nails them with precision everytime. His role as Phil on Entourage is no exception. After Drama and Dice try to overreach, Phil let’s Eric know that it’s not going to happen when Johnny Bananas hasn’t even premiered yet and basically says the whole thing is not happening unless the two lead voice actors fall in line. Eric and Drama go to see Dice who has fallen so far in his celebrity status that he refuses to let anyone else “f–k” him and won’t back down. In the end they move forward without Dice towards an uncertain future.

Ari is out and trying to get back into the dating game in an effort to forget about his troubles with Mrs. Ari Gold and finally makes it happen in the end. It was kind of a bummer to not see much happening with him and this is most definitely the least we’ve seen of Lloyd in a season. It seems like we’ll get a bit more as he dines with his new lady at Mrs. Ari’s new boyfriend’s restaurant.

Vince is moving forward with Johnny’s movie role, working with fellow NA member Carl Ertz, a douche you may remember the 2008 episode ‘Fantasy Island’. Everyone else disapproves of course, but Vince who is very forgiving since rehab wants to give Carl a chance. All does not go well as at the end of the episode Carl relapses and then kills himself leaving Vince and Turtle there at the scene. Next episode will show us what kind of spot this puts Vince in and I can’t wait.

I give the episode 4 out of 5 bears because it is really picking up speed now. With only five more episodes I think we’ll make it to a real proper send off for the boys!

Entourage: Season 8, Episode 2 – “Out With a Bang”

Vince is back in good spirits in this episode, but his whole story in this episode about getting his script for the dog and miners is kind of second fiddle to the rest of the guys stories in this episode.

Drama brings Andrew Dice Clay in for representation by E, since the two of them work together on Johnny Bananas. There is the worry that the show will not do very well with test audiences but once the numbers come back Johnny Bananas is going live in three weeks. After hearing this Dice Clay tries to talk Drama into trying to taking charge and demanding more for their participation in the show. Drama of course is not hard to sway.

Ari is of course still obsessed with getting back with his wife and Lloyd brings him some not so welcome news about a restaraunt Mrs. Ari is frequenting. Ari is visibly pissed because he can’t get over the fact that his wife is possibly and probably dating a “f–king waiter.” His words, not mine so don’t lash out at me wait staff world.

I thought the most interesting part of the episode was Eric and Sloan’s interactions. They’re kind of at each other’s throats until Eric goes to pick the rest of his things up at her place. After getting his watch back the inevitable happens: They bang.

Then they go their separate ways. But by the end of the episode Sloan calls hims back and it seems like E is hopeful they will get back together until Sloan drops the bombshell: That she is moving to New York and effictively out of his life. In my opinion, just get it over with so he can move on to better things. Even though Sloan is about the hottest chick on the show.

The episode was good and I award it 4 out of 5 bears. It seems like the good episodes always fly by way too fast and I sincerely wish that Entourage was more than a half hour long because then almost every episode would be good. Hopefully next week keeps up with the good vibes from this episode.

Entourage: Season 8, Episode 1 – “Home Sweet Home”

Well, this is it. Entourage’s last season so you had better enjoy the crew and their last hurrah! The season starts with Vince being 90 days sober and Eric/Sloan still in the final throes of a breakup. Drama and Turtle are busy at the house and making it completely drug free and in true Drama fashion Johnny is even throwing out the Advil.

Amidst the throng of fans and media gathered to watch Vince be released, Drama, Turtle, Ari, Scott and Eric all show up to pick him up for lunch afterwards with nothing but work lined up for him. Vince has his own ideas for a movie, which as he goes to the restroom, everyone at the table can’t believe. Ari is right, a story about a Romanian guy and his dog searching for survivors in a mine does sound like a Lifetime movie.

It was great watching everyone watching Vince and asking where he is going like he’s a piece of glass. After Vince mentions a party or something exciting to do since being out of rehab the guys agree to arrange something while he rests up. Drama announces that it will be a sober party to which they invite Billy Walsh who brings a plethora of the hottest sober chicks I have ever seen.

Ari shows up to the dry party after a very unpleasant visit to his estranged house and estranged wife. Mrs. Ari as it turns out has been seeing someone else and Ari doesn’t take that too well.

Basically this episode falls victim to the same thing that most bad episodes of Entourage do: Nothing happens. I understand it was more of a wrap up episode to tie up loose ends from last season. Vince proves that he is fine and does not need to be coddled by everyone and Turtle accidently sets the house on fire. By the end the air has been cleared between Vince and everybody else as he sees the burning house as a clean start…. which is good because this last season really needs to get rolling. I give the episode a 2 out of 5 bears, just because I was able to see some footage of Johnny Bananas. That needs to be on the air for real!

It was intriguing to see them hiding all the alcohol and drugs from Vince when Eric was addicted to using his phone to call Sloan, Turtle just wanted his cigarettes and Ari was needing that drink. Good job guys….