The ‘Entourage’ Guilt/Pleasure Index: Deus Ex Kanye!

This week’s episode, “No Cannes Do,� features a real, old-fashioned capital-D Dilemma — well, at least until it’s neatly swept under the carpet in the last three minutes of the show. Also: Deus ex Kanye! No wonder this is the one show we can’t stop watching–slash–can’t stop hating ourselves for watching!

Pleasure: Entourage’s writers actually trick us into thinking that this season’s shaggy plotlines have been, you know, moving toward something, when they introduce this pickle: E reps (and wants to sleep with) Anna Faris. Billy meets (and wants to sleep with) Anna Faris, and tells E to set up a meeting because he wants to cast her in Silo. E hates Billy and is torn between his role as Anna’s manager–potential paramour and his role as Vince’s manager AND a producer on Silo. Also, he hates Billy. Did we mention that already?

What’s this? A plot complication? Conflict? On Entourage? Even Vince, Mr. “There’s no problem I can’t solve with a batting of my silky lashes,� seems downright miffed at E’s reticence to pressure Anna into doing the film. Oh, and meanwhile, there’s a terrorist alert, and all the flights to Cannes have been canceled. Which is interesting only in so far as it facilitates a cameo by Sydney Pollack who, every minute he’s onscreen, makes us kind of wish we were watching Tootsie instead of this. Because…

Guilt: How does the “Sydney Pollack can’t fit us all on his private jet to Cannes� plotline resolve itself? Kanye West shows up with an even bigger private jet!

Even worse, how does the E–vs.–Vince–vs.–Billy–vs.–Anna Faris imbroglio resolve itself? E shows up to catch the private plane and informs them that Anna fired him. Say what? Apparently she fired him because… well, it’s not entirely clear. It’s because he initially told her kind of sort of to do Silo, then told her kind of sort of that she shouldn’t do it. So she canned him. Or something.

Of course, the real reason is that (a) no conflict on this show can last longer than 29 minutes, (b) no female love interest on this show can last longer than three episodes, and (c) Anna Faris is ten times cuter and twenty times more interesting than Adrian Grenier and thus had to be jettisoned.

Which leaves us perfectly positioned for next week’s nail-biter of a season finale, in which the boys travel to Cannes and try to find someone to buy Medellin. Do ya think they’ll be successful? Our money is on Kanye West’s showing up with an even bigger private jet.

The Guilt/Pleasure Index: 7