HBO to Air Lady Gaga Concert

HBO will host quite the little monsters mash when five-time Grammy winner Lady Gaga headlines her first solo concert special on Saturday, May 7th.

Lady Gaga aka Stefani Germanotta “is the single most exciting music talent on the scene today,” HBO Entertainment president Sue Naegle said in announcing the event. “We’re especially thrilled that she’ll be creating unique new elements for the special that will make the show an even more memorable experience for our viewers.”

Gaga’s concert special will tape February 21st and 22nd, when Madison Square Garden sets the stage for her “Monster Ball Tour.”

Lady Gaga’s next album, Born This Way, is set for release May 23rd. Her debut disc, The Fame, earned two Grammy Awards and spawned five No. 1 hits, while the follow-up, The Fame Monster, netted three Grammys this past weekend.

HBO Launching True Blood Blog

HBO is about to unveil a new way for fans to keep up with True Blood.

The network will announce on today a production blog called “Inside True Blood” that will give fans behind-the-scenes details of production on season four. The idea was prompted by the success of the network’s production blog on Game of Thrones.

The blog will have real-time contributions from Gianna Sobol, assistant to series creator Alan Ball, straight from the set.

The first post goes live today at 9:00 am (ET) at http://inside-true-blood-blog.com and all I know is it contains this sentence: “Today’s call sheet includes the words ‘hostage,’ ‘bites,’ ‘dinner’ and ‘Eric.’”

HBO Orders Third Season of Hung

HBO announced Wednesday that it has ordered a third season of Hung, the half-hour show starring Thomas Jane as Ray Drecker, a failed pro athlete and bored high school coach who takes advantage of his, um, endowments. The second season runs through September 12th, and the third season of 10 episodes will likely bow next summer.

The show also stars Jane Adams (Tanya Skagle), Anne Heche (Jessica Haxon), Eddie Jemison (Dr. Ronnie Haxon), and Rebecca Creskoff (Lenore Bernard). The series comes from creators Colette Burson and Dmitry Lipkin.

True Blood: Season 3 Sneak Preview

Watch this sneak preview of the long awaited 3rd season of True Blood, coming to HBO in June:

Sneak Peek: True Blood Season 3 Trailer

Spoiler alert! Continuing their onslaught of fan goodies, HBO aired the first official trailer for the next season of "True Blood" during "The Vampire Diaries" finale.

In it, Sookie is ready to fight and love. When it comes to Eric, she might be doing both. New and old faces show their fangs - vampires and werewolves. Jessica is showing some conscience. Maybe Bill's baby vamp learned a thing or two? Oh, and of course, there's screaming. Lots-o-screaming.

"True Blood" Season 3 premieres Sunday, June 13 at 9:00 pm (ET) on HBO.

New True Blood Cast Photo

With just six weeks to go until the racy vampire drama True Blood returns to airwaves, HBO has released the first official cast photo from season 3, putting the love triangle between Bill (Stephen Moyer), Sookie (Anna Paquin) and Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) front and center.

But could the shot — which also features Kristin Bauer as Pam, Nelsan Ellis as Lafayette (who’s getting a love interest this season), Ryan Kwanten as Jason and Deborah Ann Wall as new vamp Jessica — foretell romance between former flames Sam (Sam Trammell) and Tara (Rutina Wesley), huddled together in back?

Only time will tell. True Blood‘s third season premieres June 13th on HBO.

True Blood's Stephen Moyer Says Bosses Helped Spark Romance with Anna Paquin

There are social networks for meeting people, and then there are TV networks – and Stephen Moyer credits the latter with hooking him up with his fiancée, True Blood costar Anna Paquin.

"It's HBO's fault," the British actor, 40, tells Details in its May issue. "They put us in the same hotel" – though in not the same room, at least "not to begin with," he adds.

"No, I'm joking. They put us in these hotel suites, and we hung out for a while and got to know each other. The attraction was there, so it was a matter of whether we acted on it or not."

And, obviously, act they did. While they announced their engagement last August, the closest date Moyer will forecast for an actual wedding is 2020 – not that he sounds serious.

He is open about discussing his relationship with Paquin, 27, and admits he was cautious when it first started. "To get a pilot that runs to a series, it's big s--- to people," he says. "And so to come along and go, 'Oh, let's have a quick f---,' and then risk arguing and being a nightmare when you're playing the two people who are together the whole time – that would be immature."

A Link to Venice

Having lived for seven years on a houseboat in London's waterside canal area called Little Venice, Moyer now resides with Paquin in a house on the canals of Venice, Calif. "I have to live in places that are called Venice," he jokes. "I'm a Venice-zuelan."

He's also the father of two children, Lilac, 7, and Billy, 10, from two separate past relationships.

As for his distinctive way of pronouncing "Sookie" (Paquin's character on the vampire series), Moyer is equally candid. "'Sookie' rhymes with 'cookie,' " he says. "It doesn't rhyme with 'kooky.' "

Asked if he calls her that at home, the leading man replies with a straight face, "All the time. When she's chained up."

More True Blood Coming Soon!

HBO has just announced the return of True Blood. The third season commences on June 13th. I can't wait to watch what's in store for Bill, Sookie, and the rest of the clan.

Matt Ross Talks About the Debut of His Gay Love Interest on HBO’s “Big Love”

Last night the fourth season premiere of HBO’s Big Love was televised and the character of Alby Grant, whose struggle with his sexuality has just been glimpsed at in past years, got a boyfriend!

Matt Ross, who plays Alby, talked to Brandon Voss of The Advocate about what is happening with his character. Here is a portion of the interview:

When you found out that Alby would have a love interest this season, did you as a straight actor see that as a challenge?
No, because love is love. The challenge for me was just making the emotional adjustment to being more emotionally present. He has many wives and he has children, but he’s obviously not heterosexual, so he’s clearly suffering a great deal. I always thought of Alby as this sort of junkyard dog who’s been kicked and beaten for his whole life by his father, so I had this idea of him as this emotionally disturbed, soul-deadened individual until I learned that he was living this secret life. To open that up and actually feel love was difficult for me to navigate.

The gay community appreciates representation on TV, but not so much when the gay character’s a ruthless villain like Alby. Will having a love interest make Alby a more sympathetic character?
That’s an excellent point, and I hope so. I’m clearly built as an antagonist on the show, so when his homosexuality began to be sketched in, I worried about that too, because you don’t want to portray a community’s negative characteristics. But then I also thought, Well, we’re not a public service announcement; we’re a narrative drama and people are complex. I applaud what we’re doing because it’s more truthful not to worry so much about creating a positive image of a gay man, but instead try to create a complex image of a man who happens to be gay. That’s at the heart of what we’re doing here. Alby’s not defined by his homosexuality, and I think that’s a very mature, evolved way to write drama.

Tell me about working with Ben Koldyke, who plays Dale. Was it easy to be intimate with him on camera?
Well, we didn’t know each other before, but I was very fortunate to have Ben, because you never know who you’re going to get. Ben is just a very open, present, serious actor who’s really game for anything, which is what the role required. Frankly, intimate scenes are no less awkward if it’s with a man or woman, but it can be awkward when you view the other person as a close friend, so I was happy I didn’t know him. You just sort of show up, do the work, and let go. It was very comfortable. We both just wanted to do justice to the relationship and make it real.

You mentioned the truck stop restroom scene in season 3, but that wasn’t the first time in your career that you’d played a closeted gay man getting attacked from behind in a bathroom.
Oh, in American Psycho? I think I was attacking Christian Bale! [Laughs] No, you’re right. He came in the bathroom to kill me and I turned around and kissed him. So it was sort of the same, only last time I was singing Les Misérables.

Gay Story Line Comes to Big Love

Golden Globe-nominated Big Love plans to explore a gay story line when the HBO series about a Mormon polygamous family living in Utah returns in January for its fourth season.

ABC News reports that the gay storyline will begin when the first episode airs on January 10th.

“The first episode of the new season involves Alby (played by Matt Ross), a son of the leader of a fictional polygamist group, in a ‘close encounter’ with a male trustee,” according to ABC News, based on a story from Reuters. “Both have been struggling with their sexuality.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which officially banned polygamy in 1890, seeks to distance itself from Big Love and any resemblance between the fictional fundamentalist sect it portrays and real Mormons.

"True Blood" Casts Hunky Vampire & Werewolf

HBO series "True Blood" is adding two more hunks to the fold for next season.

Up-and-coming actor Theo Alexander and "Ugly Betty" heartthrob Grant Bowler have landed recurring roles on Alan Ball's vampire drama.

Alexander will play Talbot, an "intensely beautiful" vampire, the boyfriend of Russell Edgington (Denis O'Hare), the vampire king of Mississippi. Talbot has an acerbic sense of humor and loves to cook despite vampires' inherent lack of cooking talent.

Bowler will play werewolf Coot, the menacing ringleader of a biker gang.

Greece-born Alexander has several guest shots on his resume, appearances on "Chuck," "CSI: NY" and "Pushing Daisies" and recently booked a role in the feature "Losing Control."

New Zealander Bowler has had a recurring role on ABC's "Ugly Betty" as fugitive Connor Owens, the scheming squeeze of Wilhelmina (Vanessa Williams).

Alexander and Bowler join "Prison Break" alum Marshall Allman, who was recently cast as a regular, playing Sam's (Sam Trammell) long-lost younger brother.

Production on the "Blood's" third season started Wednesday in Los Angeles. New episodes of True Blood will be telecast in 2010.

Stephen Moyer: Working with Anna Paquin is a ‘Glorious Luxury’

Playing a vampire on a hit show at a time when vampires are taking over pop culture is a “pretty sweet feeling,” according to True Blood’s Stephen Moyer. But working with his fiancée Anna Paquin is a real “glorious luxury.”

“We are very relaxed together on set, off set and that can only help with some of the things that we get asked to do,” Moyer says of their job, which often includes blood-sucking sex scenes.

Now happily engaged, the costars previously kept their relationship a secret on the set of HBO’s supernatural hit.

“We were very, very cagey,” says Moyer, 39. “We kept tabs on our own relationship, let alone telling anybody because we were very concerned about how it would play out given that anybody who signed up to do one of these series signs for seven years. So, you don’t take a decision like that lightly.”

As the couple, who play Civil War veteran vampire Bill Compton and sweet clairvoyant waitress Sookie Stackhouse, realized there was something serious going, they decided to bring their relationship into the light of day.

“If there is an inevitability to something and there is absolutely no way that that thing can be halted, then you have to go along with it,” Moyer says. “When we realized it wasn’t just some fickle infatuation or chemistry or whatever, we were able to, months later, tell everybody that we were working with.”

There’s reason they’re called actors, apparently. “Everybody was shocked,” he said of sharing their news with the cast and crew, “so I think we’d done a good job of hiding it.”

As for True Blood’s season 2 finale, which airs tonight (Sunday) at 9:00 pm (ET) on HBO, Moyer says there will be blood — and cliffhangers and resolutions.

“It’s everything that you would want from a season finale,” he says. “But I don’t even want to make a hint at something because it’s so f–ing crazy. I could tell you something that’s going to happen, but you just won’t believe me, so it’s almost pointless.”

True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten on Playing Jason Stackhouse

From battling addiction to vampire blood to getting mixed up with a fanatical religious group and then sleeping with the preacher’s wife, Ryan Kwanten’s True Blood character, Jason Stackhouse, is always getting into trouble on HBO’s hit show. Luckily for the 32-year-old Australian actor, who has lived in Los Angeles for seven years, he’s nothing like his rural Louisianan alter ego.

“We look the same to a certain degree,” he jokes. “But my jeans aren’t as tight.” Before True Blood’s finale on September 13th, which Kwanten calls “the amalgamation of pretty much the entire season,” the actor spoke with People about his character, Louisiana cooking and how he stays so darn ripped

Congrats on the success of True Blood. How does it feel?
It’s is not something that you set out expecting [because of] the amount of factors that have to fall into place for a show to even be picked up … True Blood was already a pretty tasty cake before and then now it’s just a nice little cherry on top.

Do you notice a difference between when the first season aired and now?
I’ve really noticed a difference in how people are aware of the show and of me. It’s certainly a new thing to me.

Were you familiar with the Sookie Stackhouse books before you started playing her brother Jason?
It was only after I got the role that I started reading the books to catch up with it, but even then [creator] Alan Ball made us aware that it wouldn’t be following word-for-word, story-for story with the books.

How far into the books have you read?
Two-and-half books. To be perfectly honest, I don’t think I’m particularly the demographic. It’s just not my thing.

What do you like about Jason Stackhouse?
He’s taught me not to think so much and not over analyze because he’s the type of guy who just sort of jumps into things without really thinking about them and obviously that gets him into trouble.

How did you get the accent down?
I wish I could say it was a long process of learning and arduous kind of hours. I obviously do my research of where it’s shooting and the various types of accents within Louisiana and in discussions with the director and with Alan you hang on something. They seemed to like what I had in the beginning so I stuck with that and refined it if need be.

Most of the show is shot around Los Angeles but you do get down to Louisiana, right?
[We go there to] slide in a couple scenes or even shots here and there to make it look like it was all there, to add to the Louisiana. Hopefully, we can get the audience sweating while they watch it.

Do you like going there?
I actually have a soft spot for people from the South or even just from Louisiana just because they tend to tell it like it is and I think quite often in L.A., people are a little scared to do that … Also, I found it quite extraordinarily beautiful. People complain about the heat but I don’t mind the heat at all.

What about the food?
You just have to be prepared for a lot of fried food and the seafood’s really good. The crawfish are amazing.

We see a lot of Jason Stackhouse in this show. What do you do to stay in such great shape?
I don’t have trainers or anything like that. Whether it’s running on the beach or swimming in the ocean, yoga, tennis — I could go through a whole list of things — I just pretty much keep myself on my toes and try not to get bored. I probably do an hour every day.

Do you watch what you eat?
I’m never going to be one of those people at a restaurant looking at someone else’s meal and wishing they were eating it. I love my food too much to be doing that.

What do you hope for Jason next season? Would you like to see him in a relationship?
I don’t care what they do. I really just love receiving the script and seeing what happens. I don’t care if he’s in a relationship or not because either way he’s just fun to play and dive into his skin.

Speaking of relationships, are you in one?
I’m single. I’m not really looking right now. Unfortunately, I just can’t devote enormous amount of time to women right now. I’m concentrated right now on working but I like a woman who’s not afraid to be herself.

Are Australian audiences and American audiences different in how they receive a show like True Blood with all its sex and gore?
Australians are a little more open-minded when it comes to things like sex and body. But Americans, I feel, are probably more used to the violence and even the supernatural elements, so the great thing about this show is it doesn’t limit itself to one particular genre. It can go from comedy to supernatural to thriller to drama all in the space of an episode. Catering to not just different demographics but different cultures too.

“Hung” Star Thomas Jane on Size

I've become a HUGE fan of Thomas Jane ever since I started watching his new hit show: HBO’s Hung about a high school coach who moonlights as a male prostitute. He, the character anyway, has a very large penis.

Thomas, who is married to the beautiful Patricia Arquette, has done a fun Q&A with http://www.uinterview.com/ and I wanted to share a bit of it:

Q: Why do think the show has resonated with people so much?
A: Yeah, they are a little insecure about their penises. We are born to be insecure about [our] penises. I was actually quite happy with mine until I did Hung. Now I don’t know what to think of it, maybe I’m not big enough. I was basically really happy with mine, now I’ve got all these iss

ues and I have to go see a shrink. [laughs] It’s a unique scenario playing a man with a large penis. I didn’t know my penis was going to be famous along with me! If I had known he was going to be famous, I would have treated him better in my younger years – I wouldn’t have rubbed him on the carpet so much and gotten that horrible rug burn. I would have treated him a lot better.

Q: What are some of the challenges working on set with all of the sex scenes?
A: I feel very comfortable naked. I just feel comfortable when I’m nude. So I shoot in the nude, which becomes a problem during the teaching scenes – you have to add in the clothes digitally later. Those computer guys like a challenge.

Q: Do you get lots strange reactions from your fans?
A: I know now what it’s like to be a woman because I now have to say during a conversation, ‘Hey my eyes are up here!’ They don’t even know that they are doing this. They look at me like they would someone on TV – ‘No actually I can see you too, this reality thing goes both ways.’

Read the entire interview at www.UInterview.com.

Anna Paquin & Stephen Moyer are Engaged!

It's true love for True Blood couple Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer. The two are engaged to be married, reps for both actors on the HBO vampire series confirmed.

No further details were available.

Paquin, who plays telepathic Sookie Stackhouse on True Blood, is originally from New Zealand and won a 1994 Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as the precocious child in The Piano.

Moyer, from Essex, England, plays bloodsucking Bill Compton on the series. He also has two children from previous relationships: a son, Billy, born in 2000, and a daughter, Lilac, born in 2002.

Last month, Paquin, 27, said of her nude love scenes with Moyer, 39: "Obviously, if you're already with that person then you're not having to sort of get over the 'Wow, I'm naked with someone that I don't even know the middle name of!'"

For his part, Moyer has said of his lady love, "My girl is hardcore."

HBO Renews "Hung," "True Blood," "Entourage"

HBO announced the renewal of its entire summer lineup of original programing, ordering another round of freshman comedy "Hung," veteran comedy "Entourage" and hit vampire drama "True Blood."

Network executives addressing the critics at the Television Critics Association's semiannual press tour said "Hung" will get a second season, "True Blood" a third and "Entourage" a seventh. The new seasons will debut in 2010, with "Blood" planned for summer.

The freshly formed Sunday-night lineup has given HBO two consecutive hours of hit programing for the first time in years. "True Blood" in particular has managed to increase its audience with nearly every episode, giving the network its most-watched show since "The Sopranos."

"True Blood" has averaged 3.8 million viewers (11.2 when you add repeats, DVR and On Demand viewing), "Hung" has averaged 3.1 million (10.2 million total) and "Entourage" brings in about 3.0 million (7.4 million total).

Programing head Michael Lombardo and co-president Richard Plepler also dropped hints about the fates and air dates of other HBO programing during the network's executive session.

Next year HBO intends to air "Big Love" in January and roll out its highly anticipated World War II miniseries "The Pacific" in March. The war epic eventually will serve as lead-in for "Treme," the New Orleans drama from "The Wire" creator David Simon.

Emmy-nominated "Flight of the Conchords" also likely will return; executives made the prospect of a third season sound probable.

"When they're ready, we're ready," Plepler said of the show's musical comedy duo, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. "They have the added challenge of writing an album ... we're waiting for them to tell us they're ready."

Though HBO's full development pipeline is expected to present the network with some tough choices in the coming months, one project that looks almost certain to make the air is Martin Scorsese's period drama "Boardwalk Empire," starring Steve Buscemi.

"By everything we've seen, it's fantastic," Lombardo said. "It's big; it's everything we hoped it would be."

Executives were less certain about critical favorite "In Treatment" and "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency," the latter program having lost executive producer Anthony Minghella, who died last year. But they didn't rule out the idea of either show returning.

"We're trying to put it together," Lombardo said of "Treatment." "It's adapted from a series (for) which there were only two seasons ... we're trying to see if it's possible."

Diane Keaton to Star in HBO Comedy Series

Diane Keaton is venturing into series television with a half-hour comedy at HBO.

Written by Marti Noxon, the untitled project stars the Oscar winner as a feminist icon who attempts to reignite the movement by starting a sexually explicit magazine for women.

The comedy hails from Grady Twins Prods., a production company recently launched by Noxon and Dawn Parouse. Noxon, Parouse and Keaton are executive producing.

"We've came a long way since the Kinsey report; women are more sexual now," said Noxon, referring to Alfred Kinsey's controversial 1953 report "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female."

Added Parouse: "There seems to be a new evolution of what women are sexually. Women are acting more like men sexually."

Noxon had carried the kernel of the idea for a show that touches upon feminism as long as she can remember.

She was 12 when her mother came out as a radical feminist and a lesbian and recalls juggling her mom's beliefs -- which included the dismissal of leg shaving as "giving into patriarchalism" -- with her own interests.

"I wanted to be a gal, I was very interested in men, and I wanted to shave my legs," Noxon said.

She and Parouse bounced around the idea of a young feminist working at a porn magazine. The moment they decided to make the central character an older, Gloria Steinem-type feminist icon, it all fell into place.

They said Keaton was the first actress they thought of.

"There are a lot of similarities between Diane and Gloria Steinem," Parouse said. "They both grew up in the '50s, a period marked by women finding their relevance sexually, and Diane has been attracted to roles about women exploring their sexuality in films like 'Something's Gotta Give.' "

Keaton has played feminist icons: She portrayed journalist Louise Bryant in 1981 film "Reds" and aviator Amelia Earhart in the 1994 telefilm "Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight."

Noxon and Parouse met on the 2003 Fox drama "Still Life," which they executive produced. They also worked on the network's 2005 series "Point Pleasant" before parting ways to pursue other jobs: Parouse executive produced "Prison Break" and Noxon worked on "Grey's Anatomy," "Brothers & Sisters" and "Private Practice."

Last year the decided to launch a company, and named it Grady Twins after characters from "The Shining." "We made a pinkie promise to do projects we love and see where it takes us," Parouse said.

"Hung" Starts Big for HBO

The premiere of HBO's newest comedy, "Hung," was seen by 2.8 million viewers, making it the network's most-watched series debut in two years.

"Hung," about a well-endowed man (Thomas Jane) who becomes a hustler, was the strongest premiere for the network since "John From Cincinnati," which aired after the series finale of "The Sopranos" in June 2007.

Lead-in "True Blood," meanwhile, hit yet another series high, drawing 3.7 million viewers. "Hung" held 76 percent of the vampire drama's audience.

If you throw in encore presentations of both shows, the audience for "Hung" grows to 3.7 million viewers and for "Blood" to 5.1 million.

"'Hung" a Big Step for HBO

Life for basketball coach and teacher Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane) is in the crapper.

His team can't win a game, his wife (Anne Heche) left him, his twins are annoying adolescents, his neighbor is harassing him, and his home has just burned down. And all of this is happening in Detroit, where, as Drecker puts it, is "the headwaters of a river of failure."

But when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When an HBO show gives you this setup, go for your big guns.

For those living in caves, "Hung" - premiering Saturday at 10:00 pm ET - is not the heartwarming adventures of an Asian family. It's a description of Drecker's sole useful asset. So when he meets un-cute with former one-night stand Tanya (Jane Adams as a self-righteous temp whose previous moneymaking idea was to put poems inside bread), they both get excited over the concept of pimping him out. Because, you know, he's hung.

That's a lot of setup, and it's easy to be of two minds about it. The basic concept - that these two entrepreneurs can make a bundle pimping Drecker out because he's a big man down below - is ludicrous beyond sitcom and scientific standards. Dirk Diggler was a porn star; "Boogie Nights" never indicated that he was the greatest lover in the world.

But try to be more Ray than Tanya on this: The show is pretty darned funny, especially once you get past the 45-minute pilot and into the half-hour regular episodes. The leads are a classic screwball couple, washed out and made hangdog by the system but fighting back in their own uniquely American fashion. Co-creator Dmitry Lipkin ("The Riches") again raises his unique periscope to peer into the darker corners of suburbia, crafting characters worth following even at their most repulsive.

Of course, this can't end well, and one of the pleasures of "Hung" is watching ambitious but not-too-bright people dig their own graves. Let's just say the ride is worth it.

HBO Renews Vows with Big Love

HBO has given a fourth-season pickup to the polygamy-themed drama series "Big Love."

"Love" got off to a sluggish start in the ratings this season, but each episode has added viewers. Sunday's outing drew 1.5 million viewers, up 29 percent from its January season premiere despite competition from the Super Bowl. Combined with encore episodes, the series averages about 5 million viewers.

Critics have been effusive about this season's shows. Such praise is a key factor for a subscription service like HBO, which relies on the public perception of exclusive, high-quality programing.