Jeremy Piven's Illness: That's Why They Call It "Acting"

Today on Good Morning America, Jeremy Piven earnestly explained why he was too ill to stay with his Broadway show, but Diane Sawyer had a medical fact to contradict almost everything he said.

In the clip at left, Piven says that fish has been his only source of protein for 20 years, which is why his case is so very unique in that there is simply “no reference” for what he’s going through. He claims his mercury levels were six times what they should be, which caused him to have problems with balance and memory, and ultimately made him pass out in his apartment. Sawyer then reads a doctor’s statement that people who get ill from mercury, “have levels that are often hundreds or thousands of times the upper limit of normal.” Piven replies that you must understand, “I’m not a doctor, I don’t even play one on TV.”