I don't know quite how or when the controversy first arose, but a couple of friends & I have long been uncertain about the correct pronunciation of Jeremy Piven's last name. We knew him mostly as the sidekick in a bunch of John Cusack movies, and somehow we had only ever seen his name in print, but hadn't heard it pronounced authoritatively. The two candidates were:

1) "PIE-vin" - long "i", follows the general pattern of long vowel sound before consonant-"e"

2) "PIV-in" - short "i", rhymes with "driven", which shares the same combination of letters

Either one seemed reasonable & logical, but for whatever reason, I found myself favoring (and defending) option #1.

Well, last night Jeremy was on The Tonight Show, and they pretty well laid the issue to rest. The announcer, host Jay Leno, and Jeremy himself all said his name quite clearly as "PIV-in" (option #2). And I managed to capture it all on Tivo.

But don't take my word for it. Here's the video.