I admit, I have a tough time separating Adrian Grenier from the personality-free husk of a douchebag he plays on Entourage, which is probably partially his fault, but still a little unfair.  Adrian Grenier is more than Vinny Chase, probably.  He even directed a documentary, Teenage Paparazzo, about a 13-year-old celebrity photographer Grenier met and befriended.  It premieres on HBO later this month, and to promote it, Grenier has been making viral-ish videos like this one, starring Kristin Cavallari, Kim Kardashian, Bob Saget, Mario Lopez and Vince from Shamwow, among others, promoting a fictional “S’leb Suit”, to protect celebrities from the paparazzi.  Get it?  It’s like a one of those radiation suits.  Pretty funny, right?  Well, okay, maybe not, but sort of wacky.  And definitely satirical.  Ish.  Hmm, well it’s campy, anyway.  …Christ, is there really two more minutes of this left?  Maybe it gets funny at the end.  I guess we’ll never know.

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It’s fairly well known that Jeremy Piven’s Entourage character, Ari Gold, is based on Entourage exec producer Mark Wahlberg’s real-life agent, Ari Emanuel. In a move many are calling “totally meta”, Emanuel’s agency just signed Adrian Grenier, the actor who plays Vince on the show and whose character is based on Wahlberg.

Reached for comment, Brett Ratner said “Got Milf?  Let’s hug it out, bitch!” and laughed like an idiot.

[DHD]

Adrien Grenier of Entourage is currently filming a documentary called Teenage Paparazzi, for which he has enlisted Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg, Eva Longoria, Rosie O’Donnell and others.

Grenier’s film, which surfaced on gossip sites when the actor was seen around Los Angeles with interview subject Paris Hilton, explores his relationship with a 14-year-old paparazzo who took his photo. The docu will feature Grenier interviewing actors and commentators — including Martin Landau, Noam Chomsky and "Daily Show" comedian Lewis Black — about the culture of fame.

[Producer Matthew] Cooke, who is functioning as a "sounding board" for the director, said "Paparazzi" will interweave the relationship portrait with philosophical interviews in the style of Richard Linklater’s "Waking Life [clip after the jump so you understand what we're dealing with]." It is being shopped to distributors and might be unveiled as a feature or miniseries. [THR]

Ooh, I can’t wait.  I’ve always wanted to see a movie that recreates the experience of catching your junior-high-droput pot dealer in a moment of introspection.  Fascinating thought, Entourage guy! Tell me about quantum mechanics!"

The Sundance Film Festival is going on in Utah right now, but being that I actually have to work for a living, I’m not there. Plus, Mormons fear me, because I exude what scientists refer to as “raw sex appeal”.

Anyway, some of the stories we’ve been following:

Paris Hilton and so forth doesn’t have anything to do with anything," he [Sundance founder Robert Redford] said. [Canadian Press]

Perhaps, but she was there promoting The Hottie and the Nottie (perhaps the worst idea since Meet the Spartans or Major Movie Star) and generally embarrassing anyone who cares about movies by being a trashy stupid whore.  And speaking of trashy stupid whores, Kim Kardashian was there with boyfriend Reggie Bush – more support for the thesis I’m working on: Black Guys Like Chicks with Huge Asses. 

In other douchebag news, Adrian Grenier was in town to promote Adventures of Power, a movie about air drumming, and play drums for his band the Honey Brothers at the after party.

At 3:15 a.m. they were finally ready to play, but Mr. Grenier could not find — I am not making this up — his drumsticks. [NYT]

See folks? I’d love to report the Entourage guys aren’t as stupid as they seem, but… God doesn’t want me to.  You know you’re stupid when a New York Times reporter has to promise that he’s actually telling the truth before he reports something you did.

Industry News: No one’s buying anything.

There has been no big bolt of theatrical lightning this year, no “Little Miss Sunshine” or “Once.” There are movies that will find both audience and distribution one way or another — “Sunshine Cleaning,” starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, seems perfectly confected — but others that rode in on a wave of hype have been just sitting there. After the premiere of “What Just Happened?,” directed by Barry Levinson and starring Bruce Willis and Robert De Niro, people said nice things. But the answer to the question posed by the film? Not so much.

“There was this huge run-up with all of this talk, partly because there is so much new money producing films, but when you got here, there was really not much to buy,” said one film executive who did not want to be seen as soiling Sundance’s reputation for commercial and artistic excellence. “There are a lot of bad movies here, movies that should not have been made. And the few ones that could be turned into something in the market are going to have to head into the sweat lodge and wait it out. No one is throwing the kind of money around they were last year.” [NYT]

There you have it, folks.  It’s tough times out there for everyone.  Ps, a bunch of Hollywood people in a sweat lodge?  I’m gonna go out on a limb and say nothing super gay happens. 

UPDATE: Looks like Fox Searchlight bought Choke for $5 million. That’s actually good news.  I’m speechless.