Ari Gold (Entourage)

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Ari Gold
Entourage character
AriGold.jpg
Portrayed by Jeremy Piven
Information
Occupation Sr. Partner, co-CEO & Co-founder of MGA (Miller/Gold Talent Agency) and Owner of TMA (Terrence McQuewick Agency)
Significant other(s) Married to Mrs. Ari Gold; previously dated Dana Gordon in the very early 1990s
Relatives Mrs. Ari Gold (wife)
Sarah Gold (daughter)
Jonah Gold (son)

Ariel "Ari" Gold is a fictional character on the comedy-drama television series Entourage. He is played by Jeremy Piven.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Ari Gold is Vincent Chase's neurotic movie agent. He is a product of the public school system. He was an undergrad at Harvard University before earning his J.D./M.B.A. at the University of Michigan. Ari is Jewish and has one brother, Howard, and despite making multiple exaggerations of "a sister" of his that he has referred to as both crazy and a whore, Ari has stated that he has no sister. He was born in 1967, as stated in the episode "Tree Trippers".

Despite his position as one of the most powerful agents in Hollywood, Ari acquiesces to his wife at home (who has a large inheritance from her father), who is able to keep him in check. Despite frequent sexual innuendos, Ari has never cheated on his wife since they were married and "loves a liar, hates a cheater." However in the pilot episode, Ari tells Eric during a power lunch that he is having sex with a swim suit model.

Towards the end of Season 2, Ari gets into a rivalry with Terrence 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 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 comments that it sounds like the name of a beer company.

Ari and Eric Murphy are the primary influences in Vincent's life. Due to their lifelong friendship, Vince 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 story of legendary punk rock group The Ramones.

In the following episode, Ari had a friendly lunch with Vince and Eric, informing them that his dream project, Medellin (the story of Colombian 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 financier 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 5, after Alan Gray - the studio head of Warner Bros. - suffers a fatal heart attack, Ari is offered the chance to succeed him by the studio's chairman John Ellis for $10 million. Ari is not sure what to do: if he takes the job, he could give Vince any role he wanted with the studio but it would also mean that he couldn't be Vince's agent, which could also end their friendship. He decides to turn the job down, but then he learns that Amanda Daniels - who still holds a grudge against Vince and Ari - is next in line. Ari attempts to make peace with her, offering to put his full support behind her for the job as long as she agrees to add Vince as the second lead in Smoke Jumpers. Saying that Vince isn't good enough, she refuses the deal, adding that " Ari can kiss his relationship with the studio goodbye." Wanting to save his friend's career, Ari declares that he's taking the job to spite her, but instead convinces John Ellis to give the position to Dana Gordon. Not only does this guarantee Vince in Smoke Jumpers, but it also repairs his relationship with Dana.

After that was resolved, Ari meets with Andrew Klein, an old mentor and friend during Ari's day as an assistant to agents at Terrance and Jim Oliver's agency. Ari was ready to give up being an agent and go back to Chicago to become a lawyer, but it was his friend Andrew who convinced Ari to stay in Hollywood. When the partnership at the agency between Terrance and Oliver broke up, Ari went with Terrance but Andrew went with Oliver, who wound up ripping off his clients and employees. As a result Klein's status as a rising star was halted. Eventually, Ari convinces Klein to sell his profitable literary agency to Ari in return for Klein getting more responsibilities, more money, and a second chance at life as a big time agent like Ari. Unfortunately, Ari's partner, "Babs," disagrees with Ari's buyout plan, so Ari embarrasses Babs at a luncheon honoring her and powerful female agents. Ari proposes that the agency be split down the middle. Babs finally agrees to the purchase of Andrew Klein's agency, but tells Ari that any losses from the purchase will go on Ari's end of the books. However, Klein proves to be a profitable entity as he starts signing major writer/producer clients.

In Season 2 we found out that Ari was involved with Dana Gordon at some point before his marriage. In Season 5 Dana and Ari's relationship is confirmed to have occurred before he was dating his wife in the year 1990.

During season 6, Lloyd leaves Ari for a job as an agent at TMA. Terrance later on gives Ari an offer to buy his agency. After a great deal of arguing, Terrance and Ari make peace and the deal goes through. After completing the deal, Ari gets revenge on many of his enemies as he storms through TMA, paintballing all of the agents he's firing, even shooting at Adam Davies who had already resigned. After getting yelled at by Lloyd for taking advantage of him, Ari gives Lloyd an apology and offers him a job as an agent.

During season 7, Ari takes on his new company after acquiring TMA. He looks to acquire an NFL team, with the help of Lizzie Grant. After his wife discovers she is helping him, she gets Ari to fire her for what she did to Ari's former employee Andrew Klein. Lizzie then teams to take down Ari after she is hired by Amanda Daniels, who hates Ari's existence. News is leaked to the press how Ari treats his employees, so he tries to patch them up with everyone, to no avail. His wife leaves him in the final episode, after he tries to throw her a surprise birthday party.

[edit] Inspiration

Ari's character is based on the real-life Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel[1], 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. Likewise, both Emanuel and Gold represent series producer, Mark Wahlberg, upon whose experiences in Hollywood the series is loosely based. Ari Emanuel also once represented Jeremy Piven himself, and in an interview on the special features of the Season 3 Part 2 DVD, Entourage creator Doug Ellin says that the real life Ari Emanuel demanded the "Ari Gold" part be cast to Piven and wouldn't accept anyone else to play him. Ari Gold, in the Episode 'Playin with Fire' says director Peter Berg was his room mate in college. Peter Berg was Ari Emanuel's room mate in college in real life.

Ari Emanuel is brother to Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff for President Barack H. Obama and former candidate for mayor of Chicago.

[edit] Personality

Ari Gold can best be described as a man with strong principles but low morals. Throughout the series Ari shows himself to be a manipulative and crafty individual. Although he has been known to be ruthless at his job, above all else Ari has proven that he is a devoted family man and true friend. In Season 6 Ari is there for a fellow agent caught in a scandal. Additionally Ari is there to protect Lloyd from a screenwriter who attempted to seduce him.

[edit] Clients and associates

List of Ari Gold's associates at MGA, the "Miller/Gold Agency" (officially opened in season 3, episode 8):

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

List of Ari Gold's clients that are fictional celebrities:

Former clients of Ari Gold, both real and fictional celebrities:

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Showrunner added to Wahlberg's 'Entourage'" by Michael Fleming, Variety August 21, 2003 retrieved August 23, 2006.

[edit] External links

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