Jeremy Piven is out talkin’ mercury poisoning again and, as usual, with shovel in hand he’s diggin’. This time Piven goes into his ignorant song and dance about only eating fish for 23 years and how he became ill bla bla bla -the same dribble that earned him ridicule in the Hollywood press and a heaping pile of lawsuit to go with it.

But then he drops this little nugget. Piven tells the reporter he was “diagnosed within the first week of rehearsal with Epstein-Barr (virus.)” That is of course before abandoning the play.

Among the symptoms he claims he had when he was laid waste by his dangerous fish diet were things like “fatigue.” Hmmm, a quick look at the symptoms associated with Epstein-Barr include “fatigue.” Why not blame that for his sudden departure from the play? Perhaps not exotic enough? Perhaps.