Far be it from us to criticize the actions of the aughts’ premier fictional Hollywood wannabes E, Turtle, Johnny Drama, and Vinnie Chase, but Entourage was hardly a bastion of progressive thought and feminist ideals in between its many scenes of men yelling “fuck” at each other through a Bluetooth earpiece. The show was often a collection of stories where women could be ogled, demeaned, and abused in the name of “Hollywood satire,” one that would often venerate the ogler, demeaner, and abuser. It’s a celebration of bad behavior, and a sterling example of pre-MeToo chauvinism that this industry can’t seem to get rid of. Even worse, at least according to one of its stars, the Entourage set wasn’t much better than its scripts.
Speaking to The Irish Times, star Debi Mazar, who joined the show in season one as Chase’s publicist Shauna, said the show went from “joy-fest” to sausage fest after her initial appearance. “It was a lot of fun, until it wasn’t,” Mazar says. “In the third season, the set was a testosterone-fueled environment […] I’m tough, but it got toxic towards the end for me.” The turning point, unsurprisingly and unfortunately, came after she returned from maternity leave following the birth of her second child. Behind the scenes, the Entourage crew wasn’t too enthused about how her body looked afterwards. More specifically, “They didn’t like that I got fat, even though I got skinny again.” It appears they follow the Randy Quaid rule of hotness: Pregnant ladies ain’t sexy.
Entourage ran from 2004 to 2011, earning Jeremy Piven a trio of Emmys in the process, before shoehorning the boys into a movie we’re not even sure its fans remember. The enduring legacy of the series is that it made the pervasive misogyny and sexism inside Hollywood entertaining, even as the production members engaged in bad behavior behind the scenes. Still, Mazar was “grateful” for the steady work. “It was complicated because I’m outspoken and never held back my discontent,” she continues. “But I always was professional, and I’m grateful I was on it.”
She’s hardly the first to complain about sexist Entourage experiences, even as its creator denounces the “PC culture” that criticizes Entourage actors being treated like Entourage characters. It would be nice if actors like Mazar and other women in the entertainment industry didn’t have to chase their misogyny with gratitude. But even in the post-MeToo era, the sausage party rages on as fewer women are creating TV shows than a decade ago. To quote the Entourage theme, “Oh, yeah!”
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