'Sick' Jeremy Piven Defends Fishy Excuse

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(Jan. 12) - After weeks of being a favorite punching bag of the New York press following his abrupt exit in the Broadway play 'Speed the Plow,' Jeremy Piven has spoken out to defend his oft-mocked reason for quitting.

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The given excuse, mercury poisoning, has not gone over well in the Broadway community; even David Mamet, the show's playwright, got into the act, quipping that Piven "wants to be a thermometer." After last night's Golden Globes, where he failed to win a statue, the 'Entourage' star spoke to Fox News' Roger Friedman about the fallout:

"I was so sick for most of the run of the show. Some days I would sleep right until the time I had to go to the theater. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I was exhausted."

"Finally, I went to a doctor at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut just so it wouldn't turn into a circus. He said, 'you've got to stop working.' My heart rate was 47. My mercury level was off the charts. I hadn't had a real break in 20 years of acting."

Piven said he has no hard feelings toward former co-stars in the show that have been hard on him since leaving, namely Raul Esparza, who addressed the audience at the end of the first post-Piven performance, saying, "I'm sure you've read the headlines about the silliness in our show. Today was the first time I really enjoyed playing this show. I hope you weren't expecting a big TV star."

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And at last night's HBO party, the actor got to speak with ex-castmate Elizabeth Moss for the first time. "We?re okay," Piven said. "She said she understood. She knew how much I put into the play."

Piven said years of eating only fish and vegetables caused the poisoning, and that he expects to get back on stage eventually. "My life has always been in the theater. I was raised in the theater."

'Speed-the-Plow,' directed by Neil Pepe, opened Oct. 23 to enthusiastic notices and has done respectable business, grossing upward of $500,000 a week. The $2.26 million production was on the verge of recouping its costs before Piven left.

He was replaced by Norbert Leo Butz and William H. Macy.

2009-01-12 09:52:41

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