With the help of a hip little series called Entourage, Jeremy Piven’s acting career has rocketed to new heights–and so has his ability to bring in crowds and cash. The Emmy-nominated star proved his cache last weekend in Chicago at the Annual Piven Theatre Workshop Benefit, raising $125,000–double last year’s total–for his family’s acting school.
“Hosting events like this is the way to keep the workshop–and the work–going,” said Piven, who plays agent Ari Gold on the hit show, at the July 17 fundraiser. “What’s so great now is that I can draw this attention [from Entourage] to the workshop. Sometimes you get silly attention drawn to you, but it’s an honor to get attention for this.”
Also in attendance was fellow Piven Theatre Workshop alumna Kate Walsh, who plays Dr. Addison Sheppard on Grey’s Anatomy–perhaps the only show hotter than Entourage at the moment.
“It’s crazy how both of our careers sort of cycled to get so much attention now,” Walsh says of herself and Piven, who played husband and wife in 2000’s The Family Man. “We’ve both been working for so long, but this is a big time for both of us.”
A Piven Theatre alumna from 1991-96, the Grey’s Anatomy star credits the Chicago-area program with her success. “It had a key that unlocked everything that is great in my work,” she says. “The Pivens are my second family.”
Piven’s parents, Joyce and Byrne Piven, were both actors in their own right. They opened the workshop in Evanston more than 30 years ago. “All of the people who’ve gone through it are slowly popping out, and now this year, many of them are receiving a lot of attention,” said Joyce Piven. She rattled off names of famous alumni, listing “Jeremy Piven” with a nonchalance that barely alluded to the fact she was the proud mother.
Piven alumni John Cusack and Aidan Quinn have attended past benefits, and Cusack’s mother attended this year, spending part of the event nestled in a booth at the hip Chicago venue with Piven’s mother.
Longtime Piven friend and Chicago club owner Billy Dec co-hosted the event at his Rockit Bar and Grill. Dec, who gained national notoriety when he dated Bachelorette Jen Sheft, said he and Piven met almost a decade ago and stayed in touch as both of their careers blossomed. Does Dec enjoy watching his friend’s hit show? “I’m a fan of anything with Chicagoans in it,” he says. “Chicagoans are loyal in general.”
In the past, Dec has offered up his other club, Le Passage, for the event, and this year marks the second annual benefit at Rockit. Dec is a big theatre supporter, also serving on the board of Chicago’s Looking Glass Theatre, for which he and David Schwimmer are hosting a benefit in September.
Saturday’s crowd of about 300 was a mix of Chicago’s who’s who–Piven alumni and the young It crowd Dec is famous for bringing in.
One of those guests, Allison Formicola, won a walk-on role on Entourage. That prize brought in $10,000 by selling 200 $50 glow-in-the-dark necklaces, which entered participants in a chance to win the coveted spot. At the end of the evening, Piven and Dec lead a heads-or-tails game, asking necklace owners to put their hands on the heads for heads and on their bums for tails while the hosts flipped a coin, eliminating those whose hands were caught in the wrong spot. After many flips, the contest still had 10 finalists—because people had bought multiple necklaces—and the exasperated hosts asked them to pick a number one through 10. After Formicola won, another finalist angrily threw his necklace at the stage, barely missing Piven’s mother. Her son had an Ari moment.
The day after the party, Piven threw the first pitch at the Cubs game. When he returns to his hometown–which he does “as I often as I can”–he enjoys long bikes and runs (not walks) along Lake Michigan. “Chicago has the most beautiful skyline, and most people don’t realize it’s right on the beach. I can’t wait to shoot a movie documenting how great Chicago is,” he said.
Piven is a testimony to his family’s workshop, which he is committed to continue helping. “We had to drag him into acting, but once we got him there, he was brilliant,” Joyce Piven laughs. “He wanted to be a football player.”
