"Entourage:" Being lucky is better than being good; likewise, getting lucky is better than getting good

In tonight's season-five premiere of "Entourage," Michael Phillips gives a stirring, poignant and resonant performance as a TV-movie critic whose struggles with personal demons is just barely concealed behind a wry façade, a man whose very soul is slowly and mercilessly being chipped away by every piece of cinematic flotsam foisted upon his weary eyes. It's a vital, memorable tour de force, a performance for the ages, and I hope he's remembered come Emmy time.

Well, nah, but Michael's a friend of mine so I thought I'd toss him a blurb for his for-your-consideration ad. Phillips and Richard Roeper appear briefly as themselves on "Ebert & Roeper," tearing Vincent Chase's monumental folly "Medellin" to shreds.

(Incidentally, "Ebert & Roeper's" producers have changed the format and title of the show and given my friend and Roeper the boot, in order to try to appeal to a younger audience. Because, you know, nothing ruins a movie-review show like experience and perspective.)

(A 21-thumb salute to your fine performance, Mr. Phillips.)

Ari (Jeremy Piven) is apoplectic over the pans, naturally, and not even an office full of sympathy ("Michael Phillips is a d!ck," a charge commiserates) can help.

Meanwhile, Vince (Adrian Grenier) is in Mexico, f@%&ing away the humiliation with every beauty in sight. Even though he's box-office poison, a director says he's willing to hire him for a modest genre picture with potential, if Vince'll meet with him pronto.

Ari instructs Eric (Kevin Connolly) to deliver Vince or consider both of their careers dead: "We are living in a post-'Medellin' world."

Meanwhile, Drama (Kevin Dillon) is an @sshole for a weakly motivated reason at a photo shoot. Embattled NBC honcho Ben Silverman appears just long enough to say a bad word.

Next week, Vince wants to do a script that Eric has found, sending Ari into yet another rage: "No indies, E! Think of it like the Holocaust - 'Never Again.'" (Piven gets one, maybe two good lines and several tantrums per episode.)

Meanwhile, Vince bumps into an old girlfriend, Justine (Leighton Meester), who invites him to a video shoot and wrap party that day. (The time frame in this episode is cheated something awful - the party takes place during the day, for one thing, which is pretty unlikely but seems a result of "what-the-hell" plotting, as does the utterly random but serendipitous-for-the-story encounter between Vince and Justine in the first place. But then, Hollywood verisimilitude outside of Piven's character has never really been a strong suit with "Entourage.")

Vince - a couple of days after slutting it up in Mexico - is suddenly thinking long-term relationship with Justine again, only to be deflated to discover she just wanted to introduce him to a friend of hers. And Drama does yet another @sshole thing. He's a wearying one, this Johnny Drama.

Oh, and Michael Phillips didn't appear in the second episode, so I didn't like it as much. "Entourage" has always seemed like a wish-fulfillment show for everyone - the characters live lives viewers envy, and the producers hope that fans think this is what Hollywood's really like.

- "Entourage:" 10 p.m. Sunday, HBO.