Posted on 09/20/2005 7:00:37 AM PDT by doug from upland
(Too bad Lloyd Grove didn't write this about six days later. He could have had more to say about Arianna.) ================================================
SUV-hating agent drives odd bargain
Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel - the model for Jeremy Piven's character in the HBO hit "Entourage" - was a major player in the Detroit Project, the controversial media campaign that equated driving gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles with aiding and abetting terrorists.
Emanuel was joined in the anti-SUV crusade by liberal pundit Arianna Huffington, "Kill Bill" producer Lawrence Bender and environmental activist Laurie - wife of Larry - David.
But that was a couple of years ago, and time has flown, with the pedal to the metal.
Now I'm told that Emanuel, a co-founder of the Endeavor Talent Agency, has negotiated an oil-rich contract for his client Mark Wahlberg to star in the Disney movie "Invincible."
According to a Hollywood insider, the deal specifies that during filming of the movie - the inspiring story of a Philadelphia Eagles fan who wins a spot on the team - Wahlberg is to be chauffered in a threevehicle convoy.
Two of the cars, I hear, are SUVs.
The very vehicle that provoked the hybrid-driving Emanuel to support a television commercial in which an actress playing an SUV fan says: "I helped hijack an airplane. I helped blow up a nightclub. So what if it gets 11 miles to the gallon? I gave the money to a terrorist training camp in a foreign country. It makes me feel safe. ... My life, my SUV."
A case of "Do as I advertise, not as I negotiate"?
Maybe, but I hear Emanuel might have plausible deniability, because he left the grimy details of Wahlberg's deal - which in its final version might specify only a two-car motorcade - to entertainment lawyers.
"We never discuss our clients' contracts," a spokesman for Endeavor told me. Wahlberg's manager was likewise mum - as were Huffington, Bender and David.
Favorite Entourage quote.
That's because you're an idealist. I could use one of those. - Malcolm McDowell
As someone said earlier: "I guess to a liberal the right to chose only applies to abortion."
It would take about 8 trips at 40 mpg with a hybrid to get the 4 kids, dog, suitcases, skiis, snowboardds and snowmobiles up to Vermont for a weekend. The SUV does it in one trip at 17. I win.
To hear it from the media and liberals, SUVs are the only vehicles that get below 20mpg. I hate to alarm them but pretty much every episode of MTV Cribs or MTV Rides has shows the vehicles with the worst gas milage available.
Those Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys, Vipers, Limosines, etc. get far worse gas milage than anyone's Jeep Cherokee. They want the masses to stop driving Suvs but the elite won't give up their gas-guzzlers. In fact, they show them off at every opportunity.
Hmmm . . . and in Rock Star he played a heavy metal fan who wins a contest to become his favorite band's new lead singer. And in Boogie Nights he plays a wannabe porno star who becomes a porno star.
He's really stretching his chops.
I am no particular fan of SUVs, especially when they are driven by soccer moms with cell phones surgically attached to their ears. But, in their defense, they were the only things moving in the gulf after Katrina, and, as a target of liberal wrath, they are a symbol of endangered rugged individualism.
Huffington later stated that this campaign was all a joke, done in humor. Yeah right!
Yes, taking Arianna as an example..... She can jet about the country, maintain probably at least two homes with all the attendant energy consumption to support them, uses an SUV as she deems fit, but wants me to drive a Prius. I pay for the gas so what the hell business is it of theirs what I drive?
My husband and I were discussing what none-SUV vehicle would be best to transport a family of six (2 adults, four kids, two carseats, 1 mutt) from point A to point B. Any suggestions?
Ariana Puffington: "I only fly in private jets because they're going there anyway".
She might say that her SUV is powered by all the hot gas emanating from her screeching orifice..
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