This is what Adrian said to The Guardian after they asked him what he thought of the portrayal of women on Entourage:
"I’m a feminist, so if there was anything that was untrue I would be on it. But you should see some of the girls out in LA. Entourage is remarkably honest. I don’t think it pulls its punches, let’s say. There are a wide range of different types of women characters. It’s not just the superficial bimbo, although we do have a couple of them: that’s part of what the LA experience is. But then you have strong characters like Carla Gugino, who plays Amanda – she’s smart, and strong, and a great actress – those are the women that stand out to me, the rest are superficial backdrop … I probably wouldn’t hang out with those girls as much. I hang out with the ones who are smart and interesting."
Adrian received a lot of criticism for this statement, especially from fans. Upon visiting another blog that discussed this quote I found the following points of view from the comment board:
"Hey, a no disparagement contract is a no disparagement contract. I'm just focusing on the good, I guess, instead of the bad. Good = high profile male identifying as feminist." -blogger
"Not that I have any reason to doubt he's being genuine, or anything, but this quote sounds a lot like the kind of thing people decide you should say when your highly dude-ish program is criticized as highly dude-ish and found to be insufficiently attracting the young-women demographic" -blogger
"Come on, y'all, give the man a break. How many Hollywood stars even want to be considered feminist? Props for that, and ... you can't really judge him by the show. Otherwise other feminist actresses would have to be judged by the work they take, and then we'd be screwed." -blogger
Judging by the number of young women who refuse to be labeled "feminist," I'm not sure that's the most effective strategy. And since when does TV portraying women as bimbos have a hard time attracting that demographic, anyway? The Hills? Simple Life? The OC? Etc." -blogger
So the question is, was this a good career move for Adrian?
As reflected by the quotes mentioned earlier from bloggers, his willingness to be recognized as a feminist can either be looked at as a positive attribute or just a superficial means of defending his show.
While this past season does have several strong female characters, there is still a representation that the women's main role is as sex objects on the show. Therefore, it seems that Adrian's feminist statement is hypocritical. While, I find it interesting that a man in this industry would identify himself as a feminist, I feel that Adrian contradicts himself. He refers to the majority of the women on the show as being "superficial backdrop," not exactly something you would expect a "feminist" to say. The majority of his statement following, "I'm a feminist," was misogynistic. I think he made this statement because of all the criticism the show has received for depicting women so negatively. He wanted to preserve his self image and defend the show to get a wider audience from women. His attempt sounds insincere.
