Secondly, there’s a reason: Rob Weiss is a writer on the show. Rob Weiss, director of “Amongst Friends” (anyone remember “Amongst Friends”?), was profiled in John Pierson’s book “Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes” in a chapter entitled “Amongst Jerks”. Obviously, Pierson didn’t have a great time working with the guy. I was involved in the book, inasmuch as I did convo interlude with John that preceded each chapter. One of these convos was about Weiss. While I did say that I found “Amongst Friends” to be watchable, I did tell tales out of school about his relationship with Shannon Doherty, and how disruptive Weiss was while we were shooting “Mallrats” – which was surprising, considering he never visited either the set or Minnesota.

Weiss would call Shannon before takes and tell her he was going out clubbing, and if she didn’t spend time with him on the phone, he’d then add that he was probably going to get laid while clubbing. Naturally, this upset Shannon – which, when you’re shooting a comedy, isn’t a good thing. I talked about this in the book. When the book came out, the dude wasn’t happy with it.

That was ten years ago. For ten years, that enmity waited for an outlet. When Weiss joined the writing staff of “Entourage”, he found his outlet. He’s credited with the writing of the Sundance episode, in which the first crack was made. I don’t know if he wrote tonight’s episode (I haven’t watched it yet), but I imagine he’s the source.

It’s cool. I sort of had it coming. And if this makes Vanilla Weiss feel better about the stuff (all true, mind you) that I said in Pierson’s book, then it all evens out.