They bought it! At a closed-door hearing yesterday in front of a committee comprised of union actors and producers' reps, Jeremy Piven was able to convince his fellow thespians that he had no choice but to quit Speed-the-Plow last December because of dangerously high mercury levels. The five actors on the panel all sided with the Runaway Jury star, while the five members of the Broadway league agreed with the show's producers, who say Piven faked mercury poisoning because he was bored and wanted to get back to sunny L.A.
The split decision means no fines can be immediately leveled against Piven, but producers may still go after him through arbitration. After the hearing, Piven broke down in tears twice in twenty minutes during an interview at the New York Times offices. He "looked exhausted and often meandered," as he explained his health issues to reporter Patrick Healy:
The biggest misconception was that this all came out of the blue in December and that I came down with this"sushi-gate" stuff. It's not sushi, it's from eating fish for 20 years and not understanding the mercury threat... At times I was incapable of getting enough oxygen to get my lines out on stage, and sometimes I'd forget where I was in the play. This misconception that I was out partying was wrong. My problem was that as soon as I woke up, I wanted to figure out a way to get back into bed.
Piven also gave President Obama a verbal fist-bump for taking steps to address mercury poisoning, and found time for a shout out to Martin Luther King, Jr. for his aphorism, "no lie can last forever." And in case you're worried the endlessly amusing Piven train-wreck has finally ground to a halt, the Scooby Doo Where's My Mummy? star vows to return to Broadway one day to clear his name: "This is the holy grail for any actor. I just have a lot of faith. I kind of can't wait to do it again. And I hope to."
