Entourage

I don't know about you, but I enjoy watching the HBO show "Entourage." For those of you who have never seen it, the show basically follows the adventures of a young hot actor in Hollywood named Vincent Chase and his "entourage," made up of two childhood friends and his older brother, a D-list actor. I find the show entertaining because I enjoy the interaction between the main characters. That said, an episode I watched this past weekend provoked some thought.

The plot of said episode centered around a bet made between Vince and his brother Johnny. The brothers bet $5000 about which of the other two members of their group (Eric and Turtle) will succeed in having "unemotional" sex by the end of the day. Vince backs Eric and Johnny is in Turtle's corner. The bet came about as the result of a discussion about how Eric isn't a "real man" because he wasn't interested in a waitress that had been giving him a look of interest. Eric says he doesn't care if she's into him because he doesn't date waitresses because their schedules are a nightmare to deal with (I can definitely understand that...I've known people who work in the food service industry and their schedules really DO suck). Turtle and Johnny go on to really razz Eric because he's looking for a relationship instead of empty sex, Johnny going so far as to call Eric "a pussy" because he has a "nesting tendency." The guys just don't value relationships in any way outside of the physical nature and would never allow themselves to be tied down to one woman.

Now, admittedly, this show is talking about today's Hollywood. And God knows, people in Hollywood tend to live very much in the moment, which is why you see actors who made millions ten years ago being broke today.

At the same time...is this attitude commonplace? I'll admit to a certain level of naivete in this regard. Those of you who know me know that I'm a large man for whom casual sex (particularly with strangers) wouldn't really be an option. I'm not the kind of guy some random woman would just agree to have sex with. But I would never want that in the first place. Forget all the dangers involved with having sex with someone you don't really even know (STDs, etc.). It's exactly what I referred to it as earlier in this post: empty. Sure...you have a brief period of fun. But it's over. And, without the emotional depth that comes from a relationship, what's the point? It strikes me as not being too different from partaking of drugs. You get your momentary high and then you come back down.

I guess I just hope that my reaction isn't overly unusual. I suspect, unfortunately, that a fairly large number of people would view me as "old-fashioned" or even "out of date" in my views. Well, so be it. I spend my life in pursuits that I find meaningful rather than in search of "fun" or just "feeling good." For the developed intellect, fun can be found in so many forms. And behaving in the way that the Entourage crew does...it's so destructive. To oneself as well as to the people you're around.

Eric said it best in the episode when Johnny was giving him crap, "I'm looking for a relationship so I don't end up like YOU, Johnny. Alone in my old age." Unfortunately, due to events in the episode, Eric abandons his viewpoint and ends up having sex with a girl he met that day. Kind of sad, in the whole scheme of things.