Jeremy Piven wins Emmy for 'Entourage'

I was late in coming to Jeremy Piven, who seemed to exist on the fringe of so much of what I liked on television and movies. He was a studio factotum in The Player, in a role that culd have been played by a thousand others. He was the George Constanza character in the "Jerry" show within "Seinfeld," a brilliant take, only he had maybe six lines. He was the star of the movie PCU, something that didn't work because 1) pushing thirty, with his hair already receding, he came off as less a college student than any of the late-twentysomething guys in "Animal House," and 2) the script sucked. He was great for a season on "The Larry Sanders Show," and then was jettisoned, whether by his choice or someone else's, I don't know.

Funny thing is, I used to really wonder about him. Not classically handsome, going bald in his twenties, bouncing to and from projects that were either unworthy of him or that he never stayed at very long, I would wonder: who is this guy? And will we ever see him in something that demands our prolonged attention?

It is a wonderful thing when a performer meets his moment. I keep thinking of Paul Lynde, a credible comic actor, Uncle Arthur on "Bewitched" and the father on Bye. Bye, Birdie, who nevertheless found immortality as the middle square on "Hollywood Squares." Lynde's comic timing was so masterful that record albums were released featuring his byplay with Peter Marshall; I've never been much for game shows (outside of watching that collection of alcoholics slur their way through an episode of "Match Game 75," or whatever the year happened to be), but Lynde was something else.

So it has been these past few years with Piven, who has finally found his voice as Ari. Ari is something of an ongoing car crash, in that you can't look away; he's also someone whose forces of resolve you have to admire. He is, let's face it, the reason we lan our Sunday nights around a certain half-hour. When he won the Emmy tonight, I was stunned; I simply assumed this to be his second or third, not his first. The man and the role have met.

Much the same takes place with Keifer Sutherland and "24." But let that go for now.

It was enough for me that Geena Davis didn't win for "Commander in Chief." Small miracles.