Ben Kingsley?

Ben Kingsley was a major star in the mid-2000s, he still is, of course.

His appearance on "Luxury Lounge" doesn't make a lot of sense. It feels out of place. Ben Kingsley doesn't add anything to the episode, he's just playing a Hollywood douchebag, but it doesn't do anything for the plot or characters. It's supposed to set up the luxury lounge, which is where the episode gets its name. But the whole luxury lounge thing isn't that interesting, like yeah, Chris wants to steal these luxury goods, that's what he is doing all the time in the show. Why is Chris so amazed by luxury goods? Doesn't he jack truckloads of this kind of stuff?

And then Chris robs that actress Lauren Bacall in public, right outside a hotel, with several witnesses and security guards around? Did no one note down the license plates? And that too for some luxury goods that we see him get from other places anyway (like that pile of Louboutins he gifts Adriana). That's going to spark media coverage! It's a high-profile investigation waiting to happen! And no one looks into that? It's never brought up again?

I like Artie's plotline in that episode, but the whole Carmine and Chris go to LA to to cast Sir Ben is pointless filler.

That plotline was weak, it was out of control, and it was an embarrassment to itself and to this thing of ours.

I've said my piece.