Jeremy Piven, who - since to his latest efforts - will probably only be known as the one constantly entertaining guy in Entourage, was cast in a David Mamet play on Broadway called Speed The Plow. Then, he dropped out because of illness, later revealed to be mercury toxicity.

Which all would have been well-and-good, even though it simply made him look bad. Blogs latched on to the story as a bullshit excuse, because, really, who gets poisoned by mercury? Didn’t that usually happen when hapless ‘49ers used mercury to clean their cookware?

Real news outlets started to turn on Piven when the cause of mercury toxicity was revealed…

From WebMD, who covered the story:

What caused Piven’s mercury levels to soar?

Colker attributes Piven’s high mercury level to fish in his diet.

“He was eating sushi twice a day for years … and this is the problem,” says [Piven’s doc Carlon] Colker. The most common way that people are exposed to mercury is through fish and seafood, according to the FDA.

Yes, the guy poisoned himself from eating too much sushi. Or, he’s just an asshole and didn’t want to do 8 shows a week. It really was a toss-up there for awhile, but an actor who is well-known for his odd behavior quitting a Broadway run of a David Mamet play because he had too much sushi was just too good not to latch on to.

Now, we’re hearing that mercury poisoning wasn’t even Piven’s first excuse, because the producers of the show are leaking stories to gossip blogs in a back-door wrist-slap on the internets:

Before Jeremy Piven ditched his Broadway show due to sushi-related mercury poisoning, producers say the actor was worried he was suffering from mononucleosis — the dreaded kissing disease.

The show’s producer tells TMZ Piven had complained of illnesses from the beginning of the show’s run in October. First, says the producer, Piven reported “low-level mono.” After that, Piven told producers he was worried he might have Epstein-Barr virus. The final diagnosis, as his doctor stated publicly, was mercury poisoning from a two-a-day raw fish habit.

This story can’t spin worse for Jeremy Piven, since right now he looks like a self-centered Hollywood jackass who spends his large paychecks poisoning himself.