On Monday, call in sick from too much sushi. It works.

An arbitrator has let Jeremy Piven off the hook for his infamous sushi defense. Last winter, he bailed on the Broadway production of "Speed-the-Plow" in the middle of the run, claiming that his heavy sushi habit had led to mercury poisoning.

The ruling came partly because there was no reason to assume Piven's doctors, who provided the sushi-O.D. diagnosis, were incorrect. The show's producers weren't helped by the fact that they didn't examine Piven themselves, even when he was reportedly in the hospital for three days fighting off tuna-related toxins.

Piven had tried to get out of his contract earlier, but it was the sushi malady that finally did the trick.