TODAY HE IS A MAN BAR MITZVAH SAGA PUTS JEREMY PIVEN IN TOUCH WITH HIS INNER DAD.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

After years of solid acting work on stage, screen and television, Jeremy Piven is suddenly one of the coolest dudes in Hollywood.

How many other 40-year-olds can claim cover boy status for both Los Angeles Magazine's nightlife issue and the journal of everything Jewish and hip, Heeb? Or have cut a sweet deal for cable-channel cameras to follow them on a journey to India? Or seen their most famous character's name referenced on benches, shelters and billboards in all the most happening parts of town?

That name would be Ari Gold, the shrewd, obnoxious agent Piven plays on HBO's hilarious, sort-of-real-life series ``Entourage,'' which begins its third season in June. And it's Gold, who guides the career of an up-and-coming young actor loosely based on executive producer Mark Wahlberg, who has turned Piven from that reliable guy on ``Ellen,'' ``The Larry Sanders Show'' and a bunch of his childhood friend John Cusack's movies into something of a show-biz legend.

Maybe not the most attractive show-biz legend, though, as Ari represents just about everything crude and vulgar people imagine an agent to be. A sensitive and thoughtful artist himself, Piven may well have created the anti-Ari in his new movie, ``Keeping Up With the Steins.''

In the satire of over-the-top bar mitzvah celebrations, Piven plays, yes, another agent, Adam Fiedler. Although driven and tough, he's a much more vulnerable, affectionate and -- dare we say it? -- likable person than capital-A personality Ari.

``They're very different kinds of guys,'' Piven says. ``Ari has a very specific way of dealing with things. He has a severe attention deficit disorder, he likes to shock and is a wrecking ball. Adam Fiedler is not Type A. Although his father makes him crazy, he is a lot more outwardly sensitive and is much more an everyman, an inherently loyal family man. He also has the capability of humor and all of these other things, but you can tell that his energy is completely different than Ari Gold's.''

So is Piven's, according to ``Steins'' director Scott Marshall.

Well, maybe not entirely.

But that's a good thing.

``We didn't know what `Entourage' was,'' says Marshall, who made his film while the first season of the cable comedy was being shot. ``I knew Jeremy was a great actor, but he's gotten much bigger now because of that, which is great for us. But he was my first choice because I knew he could do funny. But the script, if we weren't careful, could be a little too sentimental.

``I knew Jeremy would keep it edgy,'' Marshall continues. ``He would keep it away from being too soft, because he's just kind of an edgy guy. Now, the question was, could he do the softer, emotional stuff at the end? It was great to see him do that flip side, which he never does on `Entourage,' where you only see him go crazy and yell at people and be funny.''

Some of the natural bad boy in Piven comes out when you ask him about his own bar mitzvah, back in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Ill.

``My bar mitzvah was perfect, it really was,'' the actor says. ``I was the worst bar mitzvah student in the history of bar mitzvahs. I mean, it was a miracle that I made it through, a complete miracle. I played football from an early age while acting at the same time, and at the time we had a team that would win. I was one of the only white boys on the team, and so all of the brothers came to my bar mitzvah. They didn't know what to do with the yarmulkes. They were using them as pocket squares, thought it was some kind of a new, light Frisbee. ... It was, like, mayhem as I looked out from the bimah into the audience.''

Wonder what the rabbi thought. But there definitely is that soft side the director mentioned. It comes out when Piven is asked how Scott Marshall got along with his own father, Garry, the ultra-successful TV producer (``Happy Days'') and film director (``Pretty Woman,'' ``Princess Diaries''), who plays Adam's errant father in ``Steins.''

``It was kind of beautiful to watch a father and son work together on that level,'' Piven says. ``My father has passed away, but he was always my acting teacher and director since I was 8 years old. So to watch this felt very serendipitous. Garry was very respectful of Scott; he was there as an actor and let Scott do his thing.''

The actor's parents, Byrne and Joyce Hiller Piven, ran a theater workshop in Illinois. It's where Piven learned his craft and met the similarly inclined Cusack family. It's also where he had the most fun of his youth when he wasn't on the gridiron.

``People always say, `Wasn't it weird growing up in an acting family?' Weird isn't the operative word,'' Piven explains. ``I think any other experience would've been weird. My reference is that, wow, my parents are really wonderful, passionate, artistic people who love to put on plays. They get so turned on by talent and energy and effort, and it was so much fun. I just assumed that everyone had a theater that they could go to, where they could improvise, do short stories, Chekhov, Salinger. You do that for a whole evening from the time you're in junior high, and everyone has a great time. I really thought everyone had that; apparently I was wrong.''

Piven also waxes a little sentimental when asked to compare the bar scenes in the two great partying towns he calls home.

``They're both so interesting,'' he points out. ``Chicago is a very authentic, hard-working city. In winter, if you make it through that snow to a pub, you guys are all in it together. You can talk to anyone you want, it doesn't matter who it is, if you can hold a conversation, you can talk to anyone. If Michael Jordan's in the corner and you can make him laugh, game on. If there's a regular that's in his early 80s who's been cradling that Miller Lite for the past 40 minutes, that guy's cool.

``It's different in L.A. Here, if you approach people and try to talk to them, they assume sometimes that you want something from them. So they're very different in that way.''

That said, Piven thinks the club scene here is great. Just don't ask him to get too specific about it.

``My problem is that if I tell you my favorite spot, then I won't be able to get into it anymore,'' he says with a laugh. ``I did that one time, and the jig was up. But there are a lot of places that do a nice job.''

Sounds like an ``Entourage'' situation. Which, as long as we're talking Hollywood problems, reminds us to ask: Do Piven's agents even speak to him these days?

``I think that they know that it exists and they get a kick out of it,'' he says of the Ari image. ``My particular agents are not of that energy at all. They're very level-headed people. I mean, everyone has ADD in a certain respect, but not at the same rate of an Ari Gold.''

Next up for Piven: a leading role in the Vegas crime thriller ``Smokin' Aces.'' And yes, it is nice to be moving up the alphabet list for the best acting jobs. But it's always been good, according to the actor. Unlike the often cutthroat scene of ``Entourage,'' or the competitiveness displayed in ``Steins,'' Piven can't help but view show business in the warmest, most familial terms.

``One of the greatest lessons that I learned from my parents -- and it wasn't that it was taught to me, I just witnessed it and I know it in my bones -- is that another man's success will never take away from your own. I've always been so proud and happy for my friends. It has brought me such peace and joy, and I think when other people can embrace that, they'll find it'll open up a lot of happiness.''

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

Oy vey his way

He was raised in the Valley. All of his friends went to temple.

His dad and aunt were entertainment industry bigwigs with thick Bronx accents.

But despite all evidence to the contrary, Scott Marshall wasn't Jewish. So when the opportunity arose for him to direct his first feature film -- the can-you-top-this? bar mitzvah comedy ``Keeping Up With the Steins'' -- Marshall jumped at the chance to make two lifelong dreams come true.

``I grew up with all Jewish kids in my junior high school, went to Oakwood in North Hollywood,'' Marshall explains. ``Every weekend, there was another bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah. It was great, and I always wanted one. So this is kind of a way of having my own bar mitzvah, finally.''

Dream No. 2 was calling the shots, after learning the craft directing second unit on many of his father Garry's features, such as ``Runaway Bride'' and ``Princess Diaries 2.'' The elder Marshall wound up working for his son in ``Steins,'' after other actors of a certain age (including Aunt Penny's former father-in-law, Carl Reiner) declined to play the movie's hippie grandpa.

It was the nudity that spooked the other old guys.

"None of them wanted to do the skinny-dipping scene, and they all kept saying, `Garry, why don't you do it?''' Scott explains.

And Dad was a good employee, except ``having to direct your father naked isn't the most exciting thing. That was not my favorite day.''

Well, we all have our rites of passage. Speaking of which, Marshall, whose heritage is Italian, points out that he made every effort to keep ``Steins''' humor targeted at outlandishly expensive bar and bat mitzvah parties while respecting the ceremony and Judaism itself.

How'd he do it?

``The writer was Jewish, both producers were Jewish, and the executive producer was orthodox Jewish, and she was very concerned with everything being correct and not making too much fun,'' says Marshall.

Plus, he had to go home every night to his own Jewish wife and their two small children.

The Marshalls have a while to decide what to do when their kids come of age. Meanwhile, the film's outlandish ``Titanic''- and Dodger Stadium-themed parties were nice to think about. But Scott's dream bar mitzvah remains elusive.

``I think the theme of mine would've been `Star Wars,''' he says with a sigh.

``But it was too expensive for us to shoot; I don't think we could've paid for the rights.''

-- B.S.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) IN THE LEAD

After years of supporting roles, Jeremy Piven finds himself out front in `Keeping Up With the Steins'

(2) Jami Gertz and Jeremy Piven are the proud parents of bar mitzvah boy Daryl Sabara.

(3) Jeremy Piven, pictured in his role as obnoxious agent Ari Gold in `Entourage'

(4) Director Scott Marshall

Box:

Oy vey his way (see text)