LOS ANGELES, April 20 — When Doug Ellin was considering whom to cast in the role of Vince's new agent on the HBO hit “Entourage,” he realized that he had several tall orders to fill.

The actor would have to portray a strong woman, one who could have a sharp business edge yet who, with her sexy demeanor, could still turn the adolescent-at-heart Vince and his hangers-on childhood buddies into so many wet noodles.

The actor would also have to be able to hold her own against Jeremy Piven, who won an Emmy last year for his scenery-shredding portrayal of Ari Gold, the talent agent whose hubris both lifts Vincent Chase to stardom and causes Ari to fumble away his best client.

And though Mr. Ellin plays down the consideration, he must have known that the presence of a powerful new female character would highlight the relative lack of strong female roles on the show, which has five male leads.

“We didn't know who that was when we were writing the script,” he added, but it has quickly become clear that Carla Gugino is all those things, and more.

Ms. Gugino, whose turn as Amanda, the new agent to Adrian Grenier 's Vince, continues tomorrow, is not an actress whose experience would seem to have pointed toward her current role.

Ms. Gugino was aware of the dangers of trying to compete with Mr. Piven, whose theatrics as Ari can sometimes threaten to crowd out everyone else on screen.

Ms. Gugino is careful to state that she believes that there are plenty of strong female actors on the show, including Beverly D'Angelo, who plays Ari's business partner, and Debi Mazar, Vince's publicist, who has been absent from the show recently but will return later this year. And, she noted, even the show's plentiful eye candy, the women who pop in and have affairs with the boys, are often played by funny and respected actors as well.

As will become evident beginning on tomorrow's show, Amanda is not afraid of addressing the sexual tension that hangs over her relationship with Vince. When we last saw her on screen, Amanda was being pushed around: Vince would not commit to a new movie, and his manager, Eric, would not return her phone calls.

When Mr. Ellin and his writing staff decided how to address that heat, he said, there was considerable anxiety at how everyone would respond — Ms. Gugino, HBO and the audience, particularly the female members.

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