When you’re Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David, doing things out of spite comes as effortlessly as it does naturally. But after opening his own coffee shop as a “spite store” to get revenge on another business owner, it quickly becomes the new cause célèbre with some Hollywood elite. Latte Larry’s was a competitive coffee shop opened in a strip mall next door to Mocha Joe’s. David had become exasperated by Joe’s wobbly tables, lukewarm coffee and terrible scones in the HBO Season 10 opener. After Joe had banned Larry for life after his endless complaints, he bitterly vowed to open his own coffee shop next door to Joe’s, just to spite him.
David’s coffee shop was a success, despite being catered to his own wants and needs over those of his customers -- something that would come back to burn him. Latte Larry's boasted no public flush toilets, tables bolted to the floors – and dry scones. As word about Latte Larry’s' spiteful success swirled around Tinseltown, it fueled other stars' villainous ambitions to embark on spiteful business ventures of their own, while seemingly putting stardom on the back-burner.
Sean's Exotic Birds
A dispute over a talking bird, or its apparent lack of vocabulary, was all it took for Sean Penn to get his feathers in a tizzy. After Ray’s Exotic Birds refused his refund for the apparently “mute” bird he purchased, he took spiteful inspiration and direct ire at his new nemesis -- Ray.
Penn set up shop next door with Sean’s Exotic Birds, selling a wild array of colorful avian offerings. The famously mercurial Penn, while openly committed to putting Ray “right out of business,” also proclaims to have found a new level of Zen that the movie business just couldn’t provide. Just ask the birds he’s seen yelling at.
Jonah's Deli
There was no splitting hairs for Jonah Hill over what to do after he found a grey one in his sandwich from Irv’s Deli. Irv insisted the hair was Hill’s, leaving Jonah flummoxed and rendered sleepless, except for mouthfuls of Ambien. It was then he turned to David’s spiteful solution to take down his deli-Goliath.
Jonah’s Deli, much like Penn’s spite store, was soon the successful passion project he didn’t know he wanted. Hill even seems willing to shun the glamorous Hollywood life that envelops him, finding real fulfillment with every former Irv’s customer that enters Jonah’s Deli, saying it's like a “little, tiny human Oscar walking right in.” For Hill, that’s what real success tastes like.
M.K. Jewelers
Mila Kunis wasted no time going after K.L. Jewelers, who sold her a watch that kept her running five minutes late. Seeking a spiteful solution, like David, she opened M.K. Jewelers next door and promptly put them out of business. But for David, the timing couldn’t have been worse.
David was hoping K.L. Jewelers could fix a friend's busted watch. But after finding only M.K. Jewelers next door, and K.L. Jewelers out of business, he tried to get Kunis' shop to fix it, instead. But when the business plan is focused on spite, not service, Kunis proudly declares she can’t fix it. “I’m just here for spite.” The inability to repair the watch, an ironic result of his own spite-filled saga, was just the start of David’s own spiraling series of unfortunate events.