Jake Paul-backed gambling operator Betr has rejected HBO's demand to remove an advertising campaign featuring Entourage actors Jeremy Piven and Adrian Grenier. Variety reported that HBO had issued the company with a cease-and-desist letter.
HBO issued a cease-and-desist letter over the three-minute advert, arguing that its setting, performances, dialogue and other elements evoke or duplicate Entourage and were used commercially without permission.
The commercial follows Piven through a celebrity-filled mansion party before he finds Grenier on a yacht and pitches him a film. Neither actor is explicitly presented as his Entourage character, although HBO and series creator Doug Ellin have argued that their performances closely resemble Ari Gold and Vincent Chase.
Betr has refused to take down the campaign. The operator maintains that the advert does not use the Entourage name, character names, footage, dialogue or music, arguing that audiences recognising the actors' shared history does not amount to reproducing the programme.
The company has also pointed to arguments HBO previously made while defending copyright lawsuits involving Ballers and Six Feet Under. Betr said HBO had successfully maintained that elements including lavish lifestyles, parties, boats and fast-talking characters were not independently protectable expression.
Betr has now asked HBO to specify which protected elements of Entourage it believes were reproduced and provide evidence that viewers were confused about whether HBO produced or sponsored the campaign.
Ellin has publicly criticised the commercial and said he was not involved in writing it. Betr argues those comments, alongside wider media coverage of the dispute, further distinguish the advert from an official Entourage production.
The operator has maintained that HBO's ownership of Entourage does not prevent it from hiring Piven and Grenier to appear together in advertising.
Piven and Grenier played Ari Gold and Vincent Chase respectively in Entourage
