Piven Faces The Fishy Music

Hollywood blogs are a buzz this morning as actor Jeremy Piven has his quasi day in court-also known as a hearing before the Actors' Equity committee. You'll remember producers filed a grievance against Piven saying they didn't believe his outrageous and scientifically flawed claims that he came down with mercury poisoning from eating fish and therefore couldn't finishing out his contract in a play titled Speed the Plow.

Word is he was out partying every night and got bored with the production so he and his infomercial doctor came up with ye ‘ole mercury poising routine to get out of it. If it were a jury of regular folks I don't think this would turn out well for Piven, here's a sample of some of the (more appropriate) comments already posting in the Hollywood blogosphere:

• "Sometimes in life, ya just gotta suck it up and finish the job."
•  "I never even thought of this going so far into serious-problem-land! I've always loved Jeremy Piven but this all seems really shady on his end, especially because of all the partying pictures you've posted here. I hope he has some hard cash saved up from Entourage in order to pay his lawyer fees!!"
• "For too many years actors and publicists have been able to get away with the stupidest lies, I'm glad somebody is finally getting busted for it."
• "Hopefully, he'll get the book thrown at him..."
• "He's talented, and he's funny as hell as Ari, but, in real life, the guy is the biggest, self-absorbed, hateful JERK."

Reports say if Piven is found guilty by the committee, his membership with the Actor's Equity will be terminated and Speed the Plow producers would be on solid ground to haul Piven into civil court.

Rest assured NFI will continue to police Piven and the press on this issue to insure that if he spouts his medically wacky claims again we'll serve up a heaping side of independent scientific facts to go with them.

To quote from an earlier blog in this space, I'll remind Piven of what Sir Walter Scott wrote, "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

Mind your mercury Mr. Piven... we're watching.