Before we had the Entourage we had the Pussy Posse: Lukas Haas, Tobey Maguire, Harmony Korine, David Blaine, Jay Ferguson, Josh Miller, Ethan Suplee, Kevin Connolly, Scott Bloom, Justin Herwick, and occasionally Sara Gilbert.

On Sunday night, Lukas Haas, Tobey Maguire, and Vincent Laresca celebrated their homey Leonardo DiCaprio on his win of the Academy Award for Best Actor. And their version of “the crowd going wild” was howling the whole evening and chanting “Wolf Pack, Wolf Pack, Wolf Pack” – the toned down version of their original moniker.

But they never referred to themselves as The Pussy Posse. Rather, a profile done by journalist Nancy Jo Sales on Leo during his Titanic success described the boys and their lifestyle and coined the phrase that would stick. Connolly told The Daily Beast:

I have read it. The truth of the matter is [Sales] coined that phrase, and it stuck. Hand on the Bible as we sit here, never did myself or any of our friends refer to ourselves as ‘The Pussy Posse.’ She wrote it in an article, and it stuck. There was this idea that we were rolling around referring to ourselves as that, and that’s just not true. It would be absolutely ridiculous. But she said it, and it stuck. We were young and if we did say that in passing it would be something we’d have to live with, but we never said that. But it was a good time.

Although the crew hailed from L.A., they ravaged New York for a time where they wrecked havoc and hung out with each other 24/7:

At one point, DiCaprio tells a crying girl to “Stop looking at me like that—I’ll fucking throw a bottle at your face, you goddamn whore.” Leonardo DiCaprio is now a nationally beloved Academy Award winner, and David Stuntman is an ex-member of The Pussy Posse.

But what was really the appealing aspect of The Pussy Posse? Here:

The Pussy Posse was more about pissing contests than pussy, as a tight-knit group of young, handsome competitors raced one another to the forefront of the Hollywood scene. In fact, The Posse might be one of the finest examples of “frenemy” culture in the modern era.

Before we had Kim Kardashian passive-aggressively cleaning Paris Hilton’s closet, we had Lukas Haas losing two potentially star-making roles to DiCaprio in the ’90s, before snarkily telling Texas Monthly, “We’re both very lucky. Why should I want to be him?”

While Leo’s rising star was the engine that kept his posse sharp, jealous, and mean, he was also the emotional glue that kept them together. Much like a young Regina George, DiCaprio groomed his group of hotties.

He told Esquire, “When I want someone to be my friend, I just make them my friend.” When a 12-year-old DiCaprio spotted Maguire on set, “I literally jumped out of the car. I was like, ‘Tobey! Tobey! Hey! Hey! And he was like, ‘Oh, yeah—I know you. You’re… that guy.’ But I just made him my pal.”

Although members of the squad have settled down with their wives, children and periodic accomplishments, there is still hope yet that they will reunite properly when the midlife crisis hits them. For now though, it’s leaving a party early after a show of face, a few vapes and a bottle of champagne, leaving an eerie echo of “Wolf Pack” in the air.

[source: thedailybeast]