Last week on Entourage, Crash writer-director Paul Haggis, apparently not content to let Hector Elizondo play him in Surprisingly Delicious Haggis: The Paul Haggis Story, took the path all Hollywood personalities take, sooner or later: He played himself.This is nothing new. Celebrities of various wattages have been playing themselves since… um… since… well, William Holden was on I Love Lucy, that’s all I know. (Does anybody know the first time a star played him or herself in a movie/TV show? And don’t say it was the notorious Irving Thalberg “honeymoon movie” — that doesn’t count. And all the good stuff’s on Reel Five, anyhow.)

But here’s what’s sorta-kinda new: Oscar aside, very few people outside the 310 know who Haggis is. So this is, for all intents and purposes, their introduction to the guy. What do they see? A man who’s reputed to be “intense.” (I dunno, is he? I interviewed him once and found him rather mild.) A man who throws his weight around, barks strategic profanities and seems accustomed to getting his way. Haggis seems to be doing an impression of an in-demand “prestige” director. (And doing it well, I might add.) But do viewers know it’s an impression? And… well… is it?

I call it the Larry David Effect: The willingness to carve up a cartoon version of your persona, ostensibly to shed light on Hollywood’s wealth-enabled bad behavior. Apart from being a gift to those who preach fear and loathing of the so-called “cultural elite,” has the goof of “playing oneself” evolved into a sort of cleansing scourge stars use to absolve themselves of their own absurd existences? Would Ted Danson really squabble with Larry David over whose name should grace a deli sandwich? And will Michael Bay please, please, please appear on Entourage to answer the insult of being named James Cameron’s second-stringer?