Hugging, Chugging, and Banging It Out at the Emmys

If you’re an Entourage fan, you’ve seen Jeremy’s Piven’s character “hug it out” many times during the HBO show’s run.  At the Emmy Awards this past Sunday, some friends and I witnessed a supremely celebratory Piven chug it out with Möet & Chandon rosé, which was the official bubbly of the annual HBO post-Emmys bash, held at Los Angeles’ massive, tented Pacific Design Center.
emmys
Celebrating his much-deserved Emmy as Best Supporting Actor, the stubbly, sweaty, ascoted Piven held court at a table in front of the venue – pink bubbly flowing like faucet – as industry honcos and starlets buzzed around him like electrons around an atom.  With the volcanic energy we expect from his HBO alter-ego Ari Gold, Piven later jumped up on a platform near the dance floor to join the live percussionists who were playing along to Madonna and Michael Jackson, banging it out on a set of steel drums with the possessed look of a man set aflame by Möet and victory.

Grape nuts should know that post-telecast the Governors Ball — traditionally the first-stop on the Emmys party circuit — saw three wines being poured.  The bubbly was Laurent-Perrier L-P Brut NV, a rich swig with faint apple aromas and lemony lift, while the white was 2004 Beaulieu Vineyard Napa Chardonnay, a classic New World smoothie with pineapple and apple scents and a kiss of cedar wood.  Most compelling was the red: the 2002 Beaulieu George de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet – a ballsy blackberry bomb infused with licorice, earth, and muscular tannins, the kind of hug-it-out bruiser that Ari would pop celebrating the close of Aquaman III.