Ari Gold (Entourage)

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Entourage character
Ariel[1] "Ari" A.[2] Gold[3]
Hometown:
Age: 41-43
Known Relatives: Mrs. Ari (wife)
Sara Gold (daughter)
Jonah Gold (son)
and one more unnamed child
Profession: Owner/Partner Miller/Gold Talent Agency

Vincent Chase's agent
Significant Other: Married to Mrs. Ari
Played by: Jeremy Piven
Key Episode: {{{episode}}}

Ariel A. "Ari" Gold is a character on the comedy-drama television series Entourage. He is played by Jeremy Piven. He is often considered the fan favorite among the other characters.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Ari Gold is Vince's agent and one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. It is purported in Season 3 that Ari was a brother of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity in college (though ZBT does not have a Harvard chapter). But despite being a powerful presence at the agency (Ari singlehandedly set out to destroy a former assistant turned rival agent for trying to steal Vincent), Ari acquiesces to his wife at home (whom we are led to believe has a large inheritance from her father), who is able to keep Ari in check. During Season 2, it is revealed at his daughter's Bat Mitzvah that Ari has one brother and no sisters, which conflicts with a later statement made by Ari dealing with twin sibling rivalry (Season 4), in which he states he has "two brothers and a whore of a sister." In addition, in one episode Ari tells Eric that he has a sister who lives in Tenafly, NJ.

Towards the end of Season 2, Ari gets into a rivalry with Terrance McQuewick, his boss and the majority owner of the agency. Ari had been running the agency in Terrance's absence and had been confrontational with him over his desire to replace Ari as Vince's agent. When Ari attempted to break away from the agency along with eight other agents, he was ratted out by Adam Davies and was then terminated from the company. Later in the episode, he appears to have a brief mental breakdown but recovers after Lloyd lectures him and encourages Ari to continue his attempt to open his own agency. In Season 3 Part 1, Ari sets up a small boutique with five other agents working for him, until Terrance and Ari settle on $11 million dollars in return for Ari not suing Terrance for wrongful termination. Later on, Ari intends to use the money to start up a much larger agency, but he is found out. Terrance makes it clear he will spend all of his money to ensure Ari never sees a dime of their agreed settlement. In the end Ari's former mentor and former boss before Terrance, Barbara "Babs" Miller makes a deal to partner with him to start a new agency. It ends up being called Miller Gold Talent Agency.

Ari and Eric Murphy are the primary influences in Vincent's life. But it is clear that Vincent trusts and follows Eric's advice much more than he does Ari's. This makes for a tense relationship between Eric and Ari. While neither one particularly likes the other, they realize that they are in a marriage of necessity and grow to become close comrades. Their personal and professional relationship shatters at the end of the Season 3 Part 1 finale when Eric and Vince fire Ari due to his risky business move that ends up costing Vince the role of Joey Ramone in a biographical film documenting The Ramones' rise and fall.

In the following episode, Ari had a friendly lunch with Vince and Eric, informing them that his dream project, Medellin (the story of Columbian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar), is now available, but Vince's new agent Amanda informs him that this is not the case. Later that night at Vince's birthday party, Ari and Amanda square off, but Ari backs off, knowing that he planted the seed of doubt in Vince's mind. Vince decides not to accept any new projects until he is certain that Medellin is off the table.

During the 17th episode of Season 3, "Return of the King," Ari informs Vince that Medellin has officially become available, and Ari tries his best to get the lead role for Vince, but because it is Yom Kippur, Ari has difficulty in doing so and the project is shut down. Vince, believing that Ari would've never let it happen, feels that Amanda let the deal fall through because of their relationship and that filming Medellin would keep him busy for six months. Either way, Amanda dropped Vince in every sense of the word. In the next episode The Resurrection, Vincent and Eric rehire Ari as their agent, since Ari got them the full rights to Medellin as they will be producing the project thus reviving the film.

During Season 4, Ari tries hard to get Vincent a job, but struggles to do so as everyone won't give him a job without validating Medellin first. Eventually, the trailer for Medellin is leaked, inducing a flood of offers. The film they decide upon comes from an adaptation of a book Eric gave to Ari some time ago. It is seen as a potential blockbuster for Vincent; Ari goes to Dana Gordon to acquire the role. However, the role is already filled, so Ari and Lloyd begin a game of sabotage to get Vincent the role, successfully after getting Heath Ledger to drop out. However, the intended director drops out as well. Ari, in a last-minute desperation, sells Dana Gordon the Dream Team: actor Vincent Chase, producer Eric Murphy, and director Billy Walsh. Billy gets commissioned to write the script, but deviates from the source material entirely. Ari then struggles to get the studio interested in the new Project "SILO" which, according to Vince, is a gold mine.

In the Season 4 season finale, Ari tries to sell Medellin before the screening, getting large offers, eventually the decision is made by the financer Nick Rubenstein, who has accepted an offer from Yair Marx (2nd of 3 people who wanted to finance the film - he did not finance it of course) to buy the film for $75 Million. After the screening the crowd at Cannes boos it, Marx drops his offer right then and there. Eventually Harvey Weingard, comes and buys the film for $1. Ari is confident that Harvey can fix the film.

In Season 2 we found out that Ari was involved with Dana Gordon at some point before his marriage. The extent of this relationship is unclear as Ari's many statements about their past escapades sometimes appear to be in jest and even contradictory.

[edit] Inspiration

Ari's character is reportedly based on the real-life Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel[4], who broke away from mega-agency ICM to form the Endeavor Talent Agency, which represents such stars as Vin Diesel and Larry David, both of whom are represented on the show by the fictional Ari Gold. Ari Emanuel also once represented Jeremy Piven himself. Real-life "Ari Gold" produced the CD of one of Adrian Grenier's (actor who portrays Vincent Chase) bands, The Honey Brothers, in 2003[5].

[edit] Clients

List of Ari Gold's clients who are real celebrities, as told in the series:

It is also revealed that one of his clients starred in Ocean's Eleven.

Clients that are fictional celebrities:

Clients trying to sign:

Former Clients of Ari Gold Both Real and Fictional Celebrities:

[edit] References

  1. ^ "One Day in the Valley".
  2. ^ "Aquamansion".
  3. ^ His name is initially listed as "Ari Jacobs" in season 1 on the placard outside his building.
  4. ^ "Showrunner added to Wahlberg's 'Entourage'" by Michael Fleming, Variety August 21, 2003 retrieved August 23, 2006.
  5. ^ Honey 4 U: The Honey Brothers at Amazon.com.

[edit] External links

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