Actor's Mercury Toxicity Claim Questioned

The producers of "Speed-the-Plow" last week filed a grievance with the Actors' Equity Association against Jeremy Piven for leaving the Broadway show last month. The actor claimed he had methylmercury toxicity resulting from years of regular sushi consumption.

The producers asked the stage actors' union to independently evaluate the medical evidence that led to Piven's abrupt departure, according to the New York Times.

No date for the grievance proceedings has been announced.

Piven's publicist, Samantha Mast, called the producers' claims "absurd and outrageous."

"He withdrew from the play due to medical necessity on the advice of his doctors, after he was hospitalized and warned by his physicians that enforced rest was necessary in order to avoid serious medical problems, including a heart attack," says Mast.

Piven said on ABC's "Good Morning America" last week that the methylmercury in his system was six times the normal limit.