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Page Six understandably may not be quite on their game lately, but something in today's item about another one of those Entourage episodes shot at a real! live! Lakers game has made us wonder if their editors' sanity has begun to crack under the payola-spotlight pressure:

JEREMY Piven may not be "hugging it out" on "Entourage" for much longer. We hear that Piven's lovably odious agent character, Ari Gold, could be getting canned by Adrien Grenier's movie-star alter ego, Vincent Chase, in the upcoming season. HBO bought floor seats at last Tuesday's Laker-Warrior game at the Staples Center...The primo seats will be featured in a scene in which Grenier, Jerry "Turtle" Ferrara, Kevin "Drama" Dillon and Kevin "E" Connolly are wooed by a rival agent, played by sexy Carla Gugino - who had a memorable nude scene in "Sin City" and who, we're told, just signed a six-episode deal to appear on "Entourage." Across the court, Piven, who is shown hobnobbing with mega-producer Joel Silver, goes bananas when he sees Grenier being wooed by Gugino. The episode debuts in June. An HBO rep told us, "We don't comment on plot lines."

What with the fictional and factual lines blurred so seamlessly in the Entourage world, we suppose the Sixers just momentarily confused being fired in a script with being fired in real life. We highly doubt, however, the hit series would sacrifice its breakout star, auto show electric boogaloo contortionist Jeremy Piven, without whom the show is nothing more than the story of four young gay guys in a polyamorous relationship on the loose in Hollywood, who occasionally celebrate their meal-ticket's success with hearty high-fives.