VIDEO: True Blood’s Stephen, Alex and Ryan Are On The Sexiest Men List

True Blood’s Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgard and Ryan Kwanten have been included in this year’s People’s Magazine “100 Sexy Men In 1 Minute Sexiest Man Alive Video.”  The video shows Alex at the 20 second mark, Ryan at the 39 second mark and Stephen at the 1 minute mark.  Good to see our True Blood men represented but they left out a few of our other good looking men from True Blood such as Sam, Nelsan, Todd, Jim and Michael.

VIDEO: True Blood Cast in Paris For Season 2 Premiere

On November 5, 2009 Alexander Skarsgard, Sam Trammell, Michelle Forbes, and Rutina Wesley attended the premiere of Season 2 of True Blood in Paris, France at the Max Linder Cinema.  In the video Alex, Sam, Rutina and Michelle do a Q & A session before the screening of episode 1 and 2. Sam has studied in France before yet he was hesitate to give his answer in French.  Now my French is a little rusty but I believe the announcer is informing the audience that Sam can speak French and then asks Sam to explain the spirit of True Blood to which Sam states in French, “My God, I don’t speak French very well.”

Anna Paquin in Long Island for The Romantics

Anna Paquin (True Blood HBO’s telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse) is in the North Fork area of Long Island filming her new project, the independant film The Romantics, with costars Katie Holmes, Elijah Wood, and Josh Duhamel. Filming in the area will continue into early December, so Anna will be busy right up until True Blood begins filming Season 3.

The production company, Plum Pictures, describes the film as “a zeitgeist love story and generational comedy, taking place over the course of one night at a deluxe seaside wedding” in which “seven close friends — all members of a tight, eclectic college clique — reconvene to watch two of their own tie the knot.”

Anna plays Lila, the bride-to-be, while maid of honor Laura will be played by Katie Holmes.  The film centers on a love triangle between the groom, Tom, played by Josh Duhamel, and Laura and Lia who have both been involved with and fought over him for years.  Director Galt Niederhoffer adapted the screenplay from her novel of the same name.

The Romantics is due for release in 2010.

SOURCES: The Riverhead News Review and IMDB.com

(Photo Credit: Albert. Ortega/PR Photos via iCelebZ.com)

Alexander Skarsgard Talks about True Blood and Straw Dogs

On November 5th Alexander Skarsgard joined his costars Sam Trammell, Michelle Forbes, and Rutina Wesley for the premiere of True Blood in Paris, France at the Max Linder Cinema. Alexander had just flown in from Sweden where he was re-shooting some scenes for his new movie, “Puss”. Prior to this Alexander was in New York where he spoke to JustJared.com. The interviewed started with Alex being asked about his character in another new movie he is starring in, “Straw Dogs”. Alexander had this to say:

“I play a guy named Charlie who’s a guy from Mississippi who was a big star when he was younger — the quarterback of the football team. He was dating Kate Bosworth’s character, who was the cheerleader — the hottest girl in school — and everything was perfect. He had the best life and people were, like, “You’re going to play in the NFL someday!” And then he got injured and nothing really happened for him. The movie starts later [in Charlie's life] and he’s in his late twenties — he’s gotten bitter in a way. And [Kate's character] comes back with her new boyfriend (James Maden), who’s a Hollywood screenwriter. The movie’s about the dynamic between the three of them when they come back, how Charlie reacts to that. He wants her back…”

Alex was then asked what it was like working with the lovely Kate Bosworth to which Alex stated that “she’s amazing” and that she did a great job on the film and she has become a good friend of his.  Alex explained that his favorite part of working on a fim such as “Straw Dogs” was working with such an amazing cast and crew which included James Marsden, Rhys Coiro, Drew Powell, Billy Lush, and director Rod Lurie.

In the interview Alex was asked about a sighting that was made of him and the cast of Straw Dogs at a Britney Spears concert. Alex explained that the cast had been given tickets and it was a Saturday night and there was nothing else going on that night so they did go to the concert. Alex was also asked if he had been able to see any of the musicals on Broadway while he was in New York. Alex admits he is not much of a musical fan and that he actually prefers plays. He did say that he saw “Hair” and really enjoyed the music in it. When asked if he would ever attempt to perform on Broadway, Alex responded:

“I want to do more plays, definitely. That’s what I did when I was in Sweden – I did a lot of stage work. So I like to go back and forth between movies, television and stage. I think that keeps me motivated as an actor and keeps me on my toes, so I definitely want to do more theater. I did plays like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? only they were in Swedish ’cause I was in Stockholm.”

Since this interview was conducted two weeks ago when Alex was in New York City, he was asked how he planned on celebrating Halloween. Alex explained that he would be working on Halloween in Sweden. He laughed about it because he actually thought this was a good thing because if he was in the states everyone would expect him to dress up as Eric the vampire. When asked if he was over the vampire craze yet, Alex said:

“No, I love it. I can’t say that I’m up-to-date on the other shows – I know there are plenty of shows out there, but I’m having a great time on our show and I’m very excited to go back to working with the crew and the cast again. They’re kind of my family now, so I definitely miss them. I’m excited to start again and it’s going to be a fun season.”

Alexander is expected back with his True Blood castmates in December to begin filming season 3 of True Blood.

SOURCE:  JustJared.com

Photo Credit: Photo Credit: Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos via exposay.com

Ryan Kwanten Featured in Celebrity Portrait Book

Ryan Kwanten who plays the sexy Jason Stackhouse on True Blood will be featured along with 100 other celebrities, in the new book, “About Face”. This is a limited edition (1500 copies) book of portraits done by top celebrity photographer, John Russo. The book is scheduled to be released February 2010 by Pixie Press Worldwide. The book consists of 160 pages of black and white photos shot with Type 55 polaroid film. Jordana Woodland Goguen who is the publisher with Pixie Press Worldwide said she was immediately intrigued when she found out Russo was shooting the portraits. “When Russo showed us the first prints, we were struck by their bold simplistic beauty and our About Face collaboration began,” explained Goguen. The mission for Russo was to capture and record the raw beauty, intrigue, and power of the male face. Type 55 film is now extinct, but it will live on through the beautiful images in Russo’s book.

SOURCE:  Yahoo Finance

Photo Credits:  John Russo

Bill And Eric On The List For The Battle Of The Hottest Vampires

In a list that is sure to start some heated arguments, GuidetoBeautySchools.com ranks the hottest male vampires of film and television. Read on to find out where your favorites from True Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, and The Vampire Diaries stand, and then feel free to defend or rearrange them in the comments!

20. Stuart Townsend- Lestat, Queen of the Damned

19. Paul Wesley- Stefan, The Vampire Diaries

18. Ethan Hawke- Edward, Daybreakers

17. Aidan Turner- Mitchell, Being Human

16. Kellan Lutz- Emmett Cullen, Twilight

15. Jason Patric- Michael, The Lost Boys

14. Alex O’Loughlin- Mick St. John, Moonlight

13. Tom Cruise- Lestat de Lioncourt, Interview with the Vampire

12. Ian Somerhalder- Damon Salvatore, The Vampire Diaries

11. Gerard Butler- Dracula, Dracula 2000

10. Stephen Moyer- Bill Compton, True Blood

9. Wesley Snipes- Blade, Blade

8. Jason Dohring- Josef Kostan, Moonlight

7. Brad Pitt- Louis de Pointe du Lac, Interview with the Vampire

6. Kiefer Sutherland- David, The Lost Boys

5. David Boreanaz- Angel, Buffy the Vampre Slayer/Angel

4. Antonio Banderas- Armand, Interview with the Vampire

3. Alexander Skarsgard- Eric Northman, True Blood

2. Robert Pattinson- Edward Cullen, Twilight

1. James Marsters- Spike, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel

Their reasoning behind Bill being relatively low on the list is that, good looks and old-fashioned manners aside, he is not very interesting. And he doesn’t dress well. There are not enough words in the English language to disagree with that as strongly as I would like to. First of all, Bill can never go wrong with a henley and some tight pants. Or with no clothes at all. Also, how is it not interesting to have a vampire who is tortured by what he is?! He was turned against his will simply because he was a good man that Lorena found worthy to be her companion. He almost staked himself to stop from being a monster like his maker wanted him to be. He fell in love with Sookie and has found his way back to his humanity. He’s still a vampire and flawed. So sometimes he slips up and does something wrong, but he has someone who loves him and forgives him because she knows that he would sacrifice himself to protect her. If that’s not layered, I don’t know what is!

Eric earned a higher spot on the list because he is more of a bad boy, but why that automatically makes him hotter is beyond me.

On the one hand we have a whiney, questionable dresser, who plays Wii. On the other hand, we have a powerful, leather-wearing, club owning badass who can tell the other hand what to do.

This is clearly a matter of opinion, and the debate between Bill and Eric among True Blood fans will never be resolved. We’ve all got to agree to disagree on that one. But what we can all agree on is how crazy we are about this show. It has two great guys to fantasize over, both of whom should be higher on a list of hottest vampires than #10 and #3. And this is coming from someone who also watches Buffy and loves Spike and Angel, but seriously- True Blood is by nature sexier. Thoughts?

SOURCE: guidetobeautyschools.com

(Photo credits: HBO Inc.)

Junie Lowry-Johnson Wins 2009 Artios Award for Casting True Blood

Junie Lowry-Johnson, casting director for HBO’s True Blood vampire drama series, won a 2009 Artios Award for Best Casting for a Television Pilot – Drama at The Casting Society of America’s 25th Annual Artios Awards ceremony held at The Times Center, in the newly built New York Times Building.

True Blood’s Carrie Preston (Arlene Fowler) was on hand at the awards ceremony as a presenter, and comedian Janeane Garofalo hosted the event.

The Artios Awards recognizes outstanding achievement in casting based on the criteria of originality, creativity and contribution of casting to the overall quality of a project. The term “Artios” is from the ancient Greek word meaning “perfectly fitted.” Earlier this year, Junie won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for her casting work on True Blood, but since the Artios Awards are presented by her peers in the field, this award is a true testament to her work.

BroadwayWorld.com has a complete list of winners from the event.

Carrie Preston looked lovely in black as she walked the red carpet before the event.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld.com and Backstage.com

(Photo credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd. via broadwayworld.com and Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos)

VIDEO: Sam Trammell Interviewed On HomeTown Radio Station

Our favorite shapeshifter from Alan Ball’s hit HBO TV vampire series True Blood, Sam Trammell (Sam Merlotte) recently returned to his hometown of Charleston, WV, to help support the town’s East End Main Street historic preservation program by participating in the city’s HallowEast fundraising festival and taking part in the “Inside the Main Street Studio” event.  While back home Sam stopped by Electric 102.7 FM’s radio station to chat about his success on True Blood, the nude scenes and dealing with his new found fame.  Below are the two videos from that session which are incredibly fun to watch.  In one of the videos we learn, along with Sam, a new term to refer to fans of Sam’s.  The radio host states in the video there are several female fans waiting to meet him as they all have be “Trammelltized” by him. Sam and everyone in the studio had lots of fun with that new word.  We must agree that if you do meet Sam in person that you too would be “Trammelltized” by him.  Enjoy the video!

SOURCE:  electric102.com

Nelsan Ellis Talks True Blood At The London MCM Expo

In True Blood, the character of Lafayette has taken on new life beyond his book existence, and Nelsan Ellis couldn’t be more pleased. The Julliard-trained actor is very different from the sassy, cross-dressing Merlotte’s fry cook, but that just makes the job all the more fun. At the MCM Expo in London, Nelsan answered audience questions and received lots of cheers from fans excited about the possibility of some Lafayette-Eric dream scenes.

In the beginning, Nelsan thought Lafayette would meet the same fate as his character had in Book 1 of Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Series. He read the books before auditioning, and when he got the part, he signed a one-year contract with the understanding that he would die after 12 episodes. Nelsan says he was “cool with that,” but he was thrilled when he found out that he was surviving:

“[I was] elated! Because I still had a job! Alan Ball told me after we had the table read of the twelfth episode. So, up until that point, I thought I was dead. He went, ‘You know you’re not dying, right?’, and I said, ‘I didn’t, but thanks for telling me!’ “

That turn of events is just a testament to what a fantastic actor Nelsan is and the way that he channels Lafayette. Alan didn’t want to lose him from the show and viewers were overjoyed when they discovered that he was alive in the season two premiere. Nelsan is very flattered when people appreciate his work. I think we can all agree that he deserved to keep his job because he’s so good at it! He really enjoys getting to be bold and crazy as Lafayette:

“Every chance I get to where I could be something that’s not me, I jump at it. Because I’m guarded and I have these rules on how I should behave, but whenever I get to jump out of those rules and go f-ing crazy, I do! Lafayette is a dream role for me.”

His favorite scene to play was the AIDS-burger scene, which he thought was really well written and allowed him to show off his toughness. To create the character, he gathered inspiration from a variety of places:

“It was a collaboration. We all threw in some ideas. The scarf thing is ’cause my momma used to wear a lot of scarves. I think there’s some Prince influence in there. We did research, went to a whole lot of gay clubs, we’d go down on the strip, so we just came up with it. We also threw in some ideas into this stew of his wardrobe.”

The most difficult stuff to portray has been the post-traumatic stress disorder of the second season. That was tough for Nelsan because he was used to Lafayette being fun and then had to shift to being broken down by the disorder. Working on True Blood has allowed Nelsan to bond with his cast and crew and to learn a lot, as well. He has a close relationship with Rutina Wesley who plays Tara, especially because they went to school together, and he has also become good friends with Alexander Skarsgard. Nelsan is making use of all the opportunities he can to learn from Alan Ball:

“He’s a god among men. He really is a genius at what he does. I get to rub elbows with him on a daily basis. He writes some of the episodes, and he directs some of the episodes, so I end up being a sponge, soaking up all his genius. When he directs you – and I’m like, this dude has won Oscars – he knows what he’s doing.”

Nelsan adds so much flavor to True Blood with his portrayal of Lafayette! It will be amazing to see what else happens to him season three and beyond, especially since it will be a surprise even to fans who have read the books.

SOURCE: denofgeek.com

(Photo credit: backstage.com)

Ten Reasons Why We Love Vampires!

Vampires have always been a popular genre, from the days of Nosferatu,  Dracula, Anne Rice’s vampires, and right up to the modern day: from the zeitgeist kick started by Charlaine Harris and Stephanie Meyer, right up to cinema’s latest offering, “The Vampire’s Assistant.”  But what is it that people find so compelling about the subject?  Lets have a look at some of the key programs and characters that have appeared lately…

True Blood has to be top of the list, especially for fans of our website!  Taken by Alan Ball from the hit series of books penned by Charlaine Harris with fans eagerly awaiting the tenth book in the series, this show is now heading into its third season on HBO, which already shows it has massive ratings and critical success in a time where shows have been canceled after two or three episodes.  This is due in large part to the sheer skill and force behind the series – fantastic actors, incredible writing, and extraordinary production values, which all contribute to making this show the massive draw that it is today.

The Vampire Diaries – True Blood for teens, but don’t let that put you off!  Taken from another set of books by L.J Smith, this is the story of a young girl torn between two brother vampires, one good and one evil… but who will win Elena’s heart?

Kristen Stewart – The female breakout star of Twilight; we get to watch her portray the struggle of a human in love with a vampire, with all the Sturm und Drang of their relationship continuing on in the next release of the installment, New Moon, which is released on 20th November…

Lesbian Vampire Killers – Vampirism’s answer to the Zombie hit Shawn of the Dead; it hasn’t reached the same heights of success, but has proven to be an cult comedy hit, helping to ‘feed’ the interest in the vampire genre…

Dead and Lonely – a new web series that has just premiered at ifc.com on the 26th October, revolves around two lonely singles from Los Angeles who meet through DateOrDie.net, a popular dating website.  The twist in this tale is that one of the singletons not only has a lonely heart, they also have an unbeating one!

Stephanie Meyer – the author of the Twilight saga, and arguably one of the main forces for bringing vampires into the forefront of today’s popularity boom, penned her saga after she dreamt the whole story… A magical start to a magical story!

Alexander Skarsgard – This handsome Swede plays Eric, the Sheriff of Area 5 in Louisiana, the bad boy who also attracts – and is attracted to – Sookie and Bill’s competitor.  Mr. Skarsgard’s prescence has helped raise the already steamy temperature in Bon Temps. Many fans of the show look forward to seeing the viking vampire and the possible intrigue he will bring on screen.

Robert Pattinson – The male breakout star of Twilight, the reluctant British sex symbol has become the one to watch, pulling in massive crowds eager to see him play Edward Cullen, Bella’s vampire lover.  Not too shabby for the boy who first became known through a supporting part in the Harry Potter films; its from one set of blockbusters to another for Mr. Pattinson…

Anna Paquin – The embodiment of Sookie Stackhouse, Anna is the heart of True Blood, relatable and a touchstone of reality in the fantastic world of Bon Temps.  Although not without skills and talents of her own (most significantly, telepathy), she brings courage, humanity, and light to a show, which otherwise may become immeasurably dark and foreboding.  When watching a show like True Blood, its nice to have a character who is experiencing the same wonder and discovery as ourselves, the viewers.

Steven Moyer – Like Tom Cruise managed to do in the 90s, this decade Stephen Moyer, the male lead on True Blood, has infused elegance and gentlemanly regal into his role as Bill.  A vampire who has returned to his birthplace of Bon Temps to live a peaceful life with his human lover Sookie. However, Bon Temps seems to be a place of turbulence and Bill’s desire for peace has been disrupted once again, this time with dangerous consequences for himself as he has been kidnapped by unknown forces. Like Sookie, we all are asking “Bill?”

No matter what type of vampire you enjoy watching or reading, there is plenty of new interpretations and adaptations to satisfy any vampire fan!

Source:  huffingtonpost.com

(Photo credit:  HBO Inc.)

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