Inner circle

Tulane University alumnus Doug Ellin, center, hits the red carpet at the Golden Globes in his Tulane attire on Sunday (Jan. 11), with NBC"s Maria Menounos and Matt Lauer. Ellin posted on Instagram: “Not sure why everyone hated my green #tulaneuniversity tux.” (Photo from Instagram)

“I don"t know how I wrote "Entourage" for eight years,” Ellin said in a previous Tulane magazine interview. “It"s a tortured business. I"m a social, outgoing guy. But writing is a solitary thing, in a room all by yourself.”

Ellin had a sizable Tulane entourage within his “Entourage.” The television show"s executive producer, Steve Levinson, a 1987 graduate of the A. B. Freeman School of Business, approached him to write the show in 2000, and Levinson is co-producing the Entourage movie.

Tulane University students get a behind-the-scenes look at the contemporary film industry through a five-week Tulane-to-Hollywood program that was offered for the first time last summer.

It was designed “to give students a realistic experience of what they can expect if they choose a career in Hollywood,” said communication professor Mary Blue.

Administered by the School of Liberal Arts, a week in Hollywood during the summer of 2014 was sandwiched between classes taught on the Tulane uptown campus: two weeks on the contemporary film industry and a final two weeks on the purpose and practice of the movie business.

The week in Hollywood is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students of film that is made possible because of Tulane connections in Hollywood — a growing network that encompasses every profession, from writers to directors, to producers to studio executives and studio heads.

For more about Doug Ellin, see the story, “Inner Circle,” in the Summer 2012 issue of Tulane magazine. For more about the Tulane Hollywood program, see the story, “Hollywood Connection,” in the September 2014 issue of Tulane magazine.