True Blood Finale Shows Bill Compton’s True Colors

Always pay attention to your instincts. That’s what Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) learned on the season finale of True Blood Sunday.

Earlier in the season, Sookie wondered if she could really trust her on-again, off-again vampire beau Bill Compton, played by Paquin’s real-life husband Stephen Moyer.

After Sunday, it seems like the answer is no — or is it?

SPOILER ALERT!

In an episode filled with spectacular bloodshed and surprising deaths, Bill unceremoniously tries to kill Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) by covering him with cement.

Bill later tells Sookie what he’s done, claiming it was only to protect her -– because she is part fairy and in great demand among vampires who crave her blood.

Just as Bill seems to be winning Sookie over, Eric comes back from his concrete tomb and reveals Bill’s original intention behind courting Sookie: He was sent by the Queen of Louisiana (Evan Rachel Wood). Eric also points out that during their initial meeting, Bill allowed Sookie to get nearly beaten to death so that he could swoop in to save her by giving her his blood, which helped her heal and would give the two a bond.

Devastated to learn of Bill’s deception, Sookie screams and throws him out, though he weeps bloody tears and swears he still loves her.

So can Bill be trusted? One of True Blood‘s many cliffhangers includes an apparent battle to death between Bill and the Queen who wants Sookie — and her blood — for herself.

Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer Get Married

From True Blood to true love – Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer have tied the knot.

"Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin were married on Saturday evening in Malibu surrounded by their family and friends," the couple's reps said.

Paquin – wearing a white halterneck gown and Neil Lane jewelry with her hair in an updo – and Moyer, clad in a dark suit, exchanged vows at sunset under a white tent at a beachside villa.

"It was a beautiful evening to get married and the sunset was gorgeous. Anna and Stephen seemed very excited to celebrate their wedding day," a source stated.

Celebrity guests included True Blood creator Alan Ball, costars Ryan Kwanten, Sam Trammell, Rutina Wesley and Carrie Preston as well as actor Elijah Wood.

The good news comes after a year-long engagement for the stars of the hit HBO series. Moyer, 40, proposed with a vintage-style ring on the beach last August.

"It’s great to have the freedom to enjoy your work and not feel like you're leaving your other life behind," Paquin, 28, says of the couple's relationship. "It’s a pretty sweet setup."

Stephen Moyer: There's 'Nothing Exciting' About Filming Sex Scenes

Stephen Moyer says filming sex scenes for his hit show True Blood isn't as thrilling as it might seem. He says he's often just thinking about what he's going to eat for lunch while all the steaminess goes down behind the cameras.

He said: “The naked aspect is part and parcel of the show. And honestly, when I'm doing a sex scene, all I think about is the food I'm going to eat after the scene is finished. Everybody has to starve themselves so if they put the sex scene after lunch, it's a f***ing nightmare. Believe me, there's nothing exciting about doing those scenes."

Stephen, who plays vampire Bill Compton opposite his real life fiancee Anna Paquin, 28, also claims he wasn’t worried about meeting Anna’s mother, Mary, even though she had seen his and Anna’s naked sex scenes. He said: “Was it weird that Anna's mum had obviously seen a lot of me before we met? Well, I don't know. I didn't ask Mary that.”

The 40-year-old actor was quick to praise his future mother-in-law calling her “evolved”. He added to the New Zealand Herald newspaper: "But you need to realize that she's a very spunky, very modern, evolved woman. She's very aware of what it is that we do and what it is that Anna does. Remember, she was with Anna was she was 14 or 15 and doing all those provocative movies like Hurly Burly and 25th Hour.”

The Joy of Vampire Sex: 'True Blood' on Rolling Stone's Latest Cover

The following is an excerpt of an article from the September 2, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone. This issue is available today on newsstands, and Friday, August 20th online via Rolling Stone's premium subscription plan.

The idea of celibate vampires is ridiculous, True Blood creator Alan Ball says. "To me, vampires are sex," he says. "I don't get a vampire story about abstinence. I'm 53. I don't care about high school students. I find them irritating and uninformed."

On his show, every available orifice is used for intercourse: gay, straight, between humans and supernatural beings, and supernatural being on supernatural being, whether he be werewolf, dog or an enormous Minotaur-looking being called a maenad. None of the sex is quite as good as vampire sex, though, which can happen at the astonishing rhythm of 120 bpm while simultaneously devouring one's neck and making your eyes roll back into your head.

Says Stephen Moyer — who plays Bill Compton, the undead Southern Civil War Veteran — "If we go from a base level, vampires create a hole in the neck where there wasn't one before. It's a de-virginization — breaking the hymen, creating blood and then drinking the virginal blood. And there's something sharp, the fang, which is probing and penetrating and moving into it. So that's pretty sexy. I think that makes vampires attractive." He laughs a little. "Plus, Robert Pattinson is just hot, right?"

To read Vanessa Grigoriadis' story in full and read about why sex is the centerpiece of the show, Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer’s on-set romance and how Alexander Skarsgard channels his inner evil, you must be a subscriber to All Access.

Already a subscriber? Starting Friday, August 20th, continue on to The Archives. Not a member and want to learn more? Go to our All Access benefits page.

“True Blood” Star Stephen Moyer Talks About Co-Star and Fiance Anna Paquin’s Being Bisexual

Actor Stephen Moyer, who has starred as vampire Bill Compton in the HBO series True Blood since 2008, knew almost from the very beginning that his co-star and fiancee Anna Paquin is bisexual – something she made public fairly recently.

“I’ve never been in a relationship before in which, literally within the first three days, all the cards were laid out,” he says in a new interview with Playboy. “It wasn’t something that was kept from me. I condone what she has done 100 percent, and it’s her business to talk about it, not mine. It doesn’t change anything. I’m proud of who she is.”

Sounds like a great guy.

The couple will not be lacking for work. True Blood has just been renewed for a fourth season.

Stephen Moyer Digs Being Naked on 'True Blood'

True Blood stars Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer can get carried away during their sex scenes in the vampire drama.

Stephen, 40, admits his real-life relationship with 27-year-old Anna means there are no boundaries on set.

Speaking about their chemistry on set, he joked: "I think that one great bonus is we don't need a fluffer."

A fluffer is a person who helps male performers maintain their erections in adult movies.

Bisexual Anna also admits she and the rest of the show's cast are comfortable being naked around each other on set. She told Entertainment Weekly: "It doesn't really bother me. I'm really close with all of our cast, and we've all seen each other in various compromising and odd situations."

Anna and Stephen have been together since 2007, and play lovers Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton on the show, which is based on the The Southern Vampire Mysteries novels by Charlaine Harris.

Also joining the popular program is Joe Manganiello, who plays werewolf Alcide in the new series, and he has wasted no time in getting his clothes off for the role.

He said: "Having been a fan of the show, you know you're going to be naked at some point. I will say that I was welcomed into the brotherhood of the

Paparazzi!: Blood Ties

Anna Paquin and her on and off-screen fiancé Stephen Moyer stay close Tuesday at the Hollywood premiere of the third season of their HBO series, True Blood.

New Release Tuesday!

Here's a list of what's new on DVD, Blu-ray and CD today including the release of True Blood's second season on DVD starring Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell and Ryan Kwanten.

MOVIES
Dear John
Mystery Team
The Road
Tell Tale

MUSIC
Marc Anthony - Iconos
Sex And The City 2 - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Smashing Pumpkins - Teargarden By Kaleidyscope Vol. 1: Songs For A Sailor
Stopne Temple Pilots - Stone Temple Pilots
True Blood - Music From The HBO Original Series, Volume 2
Will Young - Leave Right Now

TV SHOWS
Flashpoint - 2nd Season
The Real Housewives of New York City - 1st & 2nd Seasons
Royal Pains - 1st Season
Top Chef Masters - 1st Season
True Blood - 2nd Season
The Virginians - 1st Season

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.

Brother Approves of Anna Paquin's Engagement to True Blood co-Star Stephen Moyer

Sibling revelry: Now that Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer are altar-bound, Anna's older brother has given his blessing to his sister's True Blood costar joining the family.

"I absolutely approve! Steve will be an amazing husband to Anna and a great brother-in-law," Andrew Paquin said at Saturday's Tribeca Film Festival premiere of his directorial debut movie, Open House, which also happens to star Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer.

Assuming the role of the protective older brother, Andrew, 33, has no problem with the 40-year-old English actor marrying his 27-year-old sister. In fact, Andrew and Moyer have become close buddies themselves.

"She's in very good hands," says Andrew. "Steve's a lovely man and a really great guy. He's become a very good friend. Everything is great and I'm really happy for them."

A psychological thriller, Open House was filmed in Andrew's own home – before his sister and Moyer became engaged. Still, the director says he saw something special brewing between them.

"They have amazing chemistry together on and off the screen. There's something special going on, and they understand and respect each other."

Now with their plans to tie the knot, "They are certainly in love and very good to each other and very kind to each other," says Andrew. "That's important."

And while, like all siblings, they fought while growing up, when it came to directing his Academy Award-winning sister, "It was fantastic … but I was nervous because she's such a good actress," he says.

"We only had two days together and it was my first time directing and I wanted to do a good job. But she made my life pretty easy as a director. She knows her lines perfectly and she understands her character."

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."

Detail Magazine: The Men of True Blood

The recipe for TV's hottest show is simple: one part sex, two parts blood, and three parts played by actors Stephen Moyer, Ryan Kwanten, and Alexander Skarsgård.

Below is the article by Meghan Daum from Details Magazine on these three hot stars.

ALEXANDER SKARSGÅRD

Three weeks before Alexander Skarsgård was scheduled to leave his native Stockholm, Sweden, for acting school in New York, he met a girl and fell in love. He went overseas anyway, promising to sustain the relationship from 4,000 miles away. This was back in 1997, before Skype and ubiquitous e-mail, and Skarsgård was broke. He couldn't afford to talk to his girlfriend for more than a few minutes at a time, much less bring her over for a visit, and he was too proud to ask his dad—who just happens to be the film star Stellan Skarsgård—for money. He loved his acting program at Marymount Manhattan College, but he found the city lonely and exhausting. He lived in a student-housing building with a permanently broken elevator, which forced him to walk nine flights up to his room. When he couldn't take that anymore, he moved into a "tiny closet" in Times Square that he calls "the worst possible location to live in New York City." In the meantime, the girlfriend across the Atlantic started making noises about going back to her old boyfriend.

"So I was like, 'Fuck it—I'm going back to Sweden,'" Skarsgård, now 33, recounts. "I quit school and went back, and it was like I had created her in my mind. We hung out for two weeks and we didn't get along at all."

Skarsgård is both self-deprecating and unapologetic as he tells the story. Sure, the girl was still in high school and living at home. Sure, it would be another seven years before he'd manage to move back to the States. Sure, he should have known better than to derail his American acting career before it began. But even Eric Northman, the 1,000-year-old Viking vampire Skarsgård plays on True Blood, was young once. And Skarsgård, imposing and statuesque at six feet four, is far more human than his appearance—and certainly his onscreen persona—suggests.

That's not to say he's not participating fully in the Hollywood mélange. Previously romantically linked to his second-season True Blood costar Evan Rachel Wood, he is reportedly dating Kate Bosworth, with whom he appears in the upcoming remake of the Peckinpah classic Straw Dogs. And there he is playing Lady Gaga's paramour—with smoldering, chiaroscuric mystery (he wears an eye patch)—in the music video for "Paparazzi." Then, of course, there's the fact that he's the son of a movie star; the elder Skarsgård has starred in art-house classics like Breaking the Waves and blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean and Mama Mia!

But let's put that in perspective. Until the younger Skarsgård was in his late teens, his dad was famous only in Sweden. "Being a star in Sweden is like being a star in Omaha," he says, adding that there are no paparazzi or big paychecks there (though there's enough of a media machine to have gotten Alexander voted Sweden's Sexiest Man five times). And while it's true Stellan's son was a child star in Sweden in the 1980s, he hated being a preteen heartthrob.

"He didn't like it at all," Stellan recalls. "At the age of 12, he had girls standing outside the house. They would ask his younger brother Gustaf to let them in, and sometimes it worked."

Alexander wanted to be a regular kid who hung out and played soccer. "My father was totally supportive of my quitting acting," he says. "He said, 'If you feel like there's any other option for you, I recommend that option.'"

That turned out to be studying English at Leeds Metropolitan University in England, followed by a 15-month stint in the Swedish marines. "Sweden is probably one of the three countries least likely to get in a war, so the military's pretty safe," he concedes. The flip side of that is that many missions were downright stultifying. Imagine conducting round-the-clock surveillance of a radio antenna for four days.

"You couldn't talk or move," Skarsgård recalls. "You had to piss in a bottle. It gave me a lot of time to think about things. I realized I missed being onstage and on a set."

Eventually, after his aborted attempt at acting school, he began finding his way into Swedish films and the occasional Hollywood movie, such as Zoolander, in which he had a small role as one of Ben Stiller's male-model roommates. But Skarsgård's real break came with the acclaimed 2008 HBO miniseries Generation Kill, in which he played Sergeant Brad "Iceman" Colbert. Just before leaving for Africa to shoot that project, he heard the network was developing True Blood.

"I thought, 'Oh, vampires—I don't know,'" he admits. "But then they said Alan Ball was behind it, and I was a huge fan of Six Feet Under and American Beauty. I auditioned on tape from my hotel room in Mozambique."

The audition was actually for the part of Bill Compton, which went to Stephen Moyer. "Alex wasn't quite right for Bill," recalls Ball, "but I remember that he was giant and also beautiful. So when it came time to cast Eric, I thought of him. He's got the most amazing eyes. Because of their color—they're an amazing greenish blue—he's able to do this thing with them where he loses focus but remains totally focused."

It's a technique Skarsgård picked up from assiduously studying Bela Lugosi's Dracula and Murnau's and Herzog's versions of Nosferatu and even The Lost Boys. But that look—and the inscrutability and coiled tension he gives Eric—is also something he learned from hours spent watching nature documentaries.

"It's, like, you see this big male lion, and he's chilling in the sun, and he sits up and he looks at something, and you don't know if he's going to pounce or if he's just going to go back to sleep," Skarsgård says, his steely gaze unwavering, looking like he could easily break into a yawn. "You never know if he's bored or he's frustrated or what."

RYAN KWANTEN

Believe it or not, Ryan Kwanten is not a dumbass. Of course, you'd never guess that: His True Blood character, Jason Stackhouse, is a good old boy writ large, a studly simpleton who thinks with his little head because his big head seems permanently encased in granite. The only one of the show's leading men who's not a vampire or other supernatural being, Jason is a stand-in not just for the average guy but also for his masculinity crisis. He's a red-blooded mortal in a world suddenly colonized by phantasmagoric sophisticates, an affable if dim Everyman whose horndog exterior and prodigious sexploits mask a deep human need for connection.

Kwanten, on the other hand, is an aspiring highbrow. The 33-year-old Australian, who grew up in what he calls a "beach shack" in Sydney, likes to read philosophy, doesn't own a television, and has been writing a novel for the past 19 years—it currently fills 290 pages of a notebook he's been carrying around since he was 13. Kwanten has the rippling physique of a comic-book superhero but insists he's more of a yogi than a gym rat. Moreover, he doesn't like to talk about his body or how often it's on display on True Blood.

"We have amazing computer-generated effects," Kwanten says, his Aussie accent revealing no trace of Jason's aw-shucks-isms. "It's my head on someone else's body."

Still, the fact is Kwanten, who like costars Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin lives in Venice, Calfornia, is sitting at one of his favorite cafés not far from Muscle Beach, ordering one of the "bodybuilder specials" for lunch. He chooses an egg-white-and-buffalo-meat scramble —"In the mornings I get pancakes and egg whites," he explains—and tries his best to steer the conversation away from anything to do with working out or acting. Wearing heavy black glasses and a newsboy cap, he's virtually unrecognizable as Jason or any of the other likable lugs he has played. Though he's close with his castmates, he doesn't hang out with them and he certainly won't be found in Hollywood clubs or, as he puts it, "anywhere a paparazzo in his right mind would go."

Kwanten became famous in Australia in his early twenties, thanks to a prime-time soap called Home and Away, on which he played a lifeguard. He's quick to add that for part of his time on the show he was also working a public-relations job ("You need to cover your bases," he says). He went on to star in an American film called Junction Boys, coming to L.A. for a few days of vacation around its premiere and deciding to stay. He spent the next three months in a converted storage closet in a grungy Venice hotel, sleeping on his yoga mat and riding his bicycle and the city bus to auditions. Finally, after a few small TV roles, he was cast as an Australian surfer in the TV series Summerland and then landed a part in the 2006 girl-and-her-horse movie Flicka, in which he caught the eye of Alan Ball, who was casting True Blood.

"He played the lead character's hot, sweet, dimwit older brother," Ball recalls. "So when I was casting for Jason, I thought of him. He has almost zero vanity as an actor. He's not afraid to play stupid—a lot of actors that play dumb characters have to do subtle things to show they're not stupid. But Ryan doesn't have that hang-up. And he is so unlike his character that it's almost shocking."

As for Kwanten's physical attributes, Ball insists he didn't see him shirtless until they were shooting the pilot. "He came on to the set and I thought, 'What the hell is that?'" Ball says. "But it was a total asset. Part of what makes the whole Jason package attractive is that he's so comfortable in his own skin."

Good thing, since no one on True Blood, a show in which over-the-top carnal activity is the norm, has more onscreen sex than Jason. "I'm very comfortable with my body. Most of the time the girl is going to be more scared of the scene than me," he says. "So I make a pact with them like, 'Let's be in this together. I've got your back and you have mine.'" Though Jason is often described as a sex addict, Kwanten's deep character analysis has yielded a more forgiving interpretation. "He lost his parents at a very early age," he says. "So there are a whole host of things he's making up for, whether it be a mother figure or someone to hold."

This may sound like pop psychology, but Kwanten's been in that mode lately. He's busy writing a new book—this one a self-help book of sorts. "It's a satire of self-help books," he says, chewing his buffalo meat. "It's called The G Strategy. I am 'The G.' There are steps. The first is 'Ask yourself the question.' The second is 'Give yourself a G name.'"

Kwanten doesn't specify what "the question" is, but "the G name," he clarifies, needn't start with a g. It simply refers to a new name we can assign ourselves if our given name comes with excessive emotional baggage. "Say there's the name Ryan," he continues. "That name might have a stigma attached to it due to the years of abuse I've suffered as a child. But as, say, Ace, I can do anything. I can associate myself with a mythological creature or a made-up word. And through the invention of that word, it makes you want to break into a smile."

Kwanten's earnest tone and poker face make one wonder whether he might be engaged in an elaborate send-up not just of books like The Secret but also of popular culture, of the whole rather embarrassing enterprise of an actor sitting down to pontificate, and most of all of himself. When he trots out platitudinous nuggets like "I like playing ordinary characters and seeing what makes them extraordinary," you have to hope he really is putting you on. But then there are times when his humor is so laceratingly dry that all is forgiven.

"There are 11 steps," he says, returning to the tao of The G Strategy. "Normally there are 10, but I added one. I'm not going to tell you all of them. But one is that one and one doesn't equal two."

He holds his two index fingers close together and, eyes wide with faux mysticism, adds, "It equals 11."

STEPHEN MOYER

Stephen Moyer, at 40 years old, refers to himself as an "older bloke." Though he's often facetious, this characterization doesn't carry a trace of irony. Maybe it's that his two kids, Lilac and Billy, are now 7 and 10, respectively. Maybe it's that his fiancée—costar Anna Paquin—is just 27. Or maybe it's that the British actor has grown accustomed to playing the 173-year-old vampire Bill Compton. Granted, as vampires go, Bill's a mere lad compared with his 1,000-year-old nemesis, Eric Northman (played by Alexander Skarsgård). But whereas the tracksuited, club-owning Eric is youthful beyond his centuries, Bill is the epitome of a throwback. A laconic farmer turned Confederate soldier who was returning home to his wife and children when a female vampire "turned" him (don't you hate when that happens?), he has led a life mired in tragedy that's mapped itself across his face. And even though Moyer declares his life to be "fantastic," he somehow exudes a kind of personal ballast—a seasoned quality that suggests he's seen enough to know a thing or two.

Moyer grew up in the working-class county of Essex, about an hour outside London, where his father sold glass for a living. "He's 69 and still doing it," Moyer says. "No pension—it's the kind of job you just keep doing until you drop." When Moyer was 11 he played Tom Sawyer in a school play and knew he wanted to be an actor.

"I didn't want to do film or commercials or television," he says of his early days, first as a student at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and then as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. "That was cheap. That was selling out. I was the classic liberal, left-wing, 'Theater is going to change the world' kind of person. You know, very, very boring."

He was serious, mind you, for quite a while. But then he was offered a commercial ("It was for coffee—fucking cheesy shit"), which he agreed to do because it would run exclusively in Scandinavia and no one he knew would see it (though Skarsgård grew up watching it in Sweden and likes to tease him about it). Moyer was well compensated for his trouble ("1,000 quid, which was shitloads back then") and used the money to buy a boat moored on the canals of London's Little Venice, where he lived for seven years. Today he and Paquin live on the canals of Venice, California—albeit in a house on terra firma.

"I have to live in places that are called Venice," he says. "I'm a Venice-zuelan."

Moyer takes a sip of the water he's ordered at an airy café—art gallery not far from his home. He compulsively taps out the rhythm to the Dave Brubeck tune playing over the stereo—"I'm really enjoying this musical selection," he says—stopping only to wave through the window at a friend passing by. Unlike Bill, whom he plays as a composed, almost motionless figure ("He doesn't have a pulse, so he wouldn't twitch or make unnecessary movement," he explains), Moyer is animated and charmingly revved-up, perhaps even a tiny bit hyper. He likes to swear, though his English accent makes this sound salty rather than crass (he also likes to call women "luv" and use words like chuffed, which is British for stoked). And he's talkative. Despite endless tabloid scrutiny, he has no qualms about discussing his relationship with Paquin, which he entered into with great caution. "To get a pilot that runs to a series, it's big shit to people," Moyer says. "And so to come along and go, 'Oh, let's have a quick fuck,' 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."

Which is the opposite of how things worked out. Moyer, whose children are from two different relationships, has never been married, but he and Paquin publicly announced their engagement in August 2009 (just don't ask him if they've set a date; he's taken to saying it'll be in 2020). "It's HBO's fault," Moyer says of their hookup. "They put us in the same hotel." Not the same room—at least "not to begin with," he snickers. "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."

"When it got back to me that they were an item, I admit I thought, Oh boy," says Alan Ball, True Blood's creator. "But I trusted them to be adult about it, and they have been. And when they got engaged, Anna said to me, 'I've never been so happy in my life.' So how can you not be happy about that?"

If Moyer's relationship with Paquin seems both organic and infused with courtly devotion, the relationship between their characters is no different—despite the fact that Moyers gorges himself on her blood (it's a sugarcane mixture that tastes, he says, like "strawberry-flavored corn syrup").

"He's in many ways an old-fashioned romantic, like Mr. Rochester or Heathcliff," Ball says of Moyer. "A lot of people auditioning thought playing a vampire meant acting insane. I was looking for someone who brought a dignity and gravitas to the role."

And yet, like all the vampires on the show, Moyer delivers a primordial charisma. If Skarsgård plays it to ethereal, almost sylph-like effect, Moyer conveys a brand of sex appeal that's brooding, clenched, and so earthy you can almost feel its scabrous texture. And then, of course, there's that voice—husky and clipped and heavy on the consonants, particularly when he utters the name of Paquin's character, Sookie. For reasons that baffle Moyer, his pronunciation has become a subject of public fascination.

"We were given that pronunciation very early on by Charlaine Harris herself," says Moyer, referring to the author of the True Blood books, as we get up to leave. "Sookie rhymes with cookie. It doesn't rhyme with kooky."

I ask him if he calls Paquin that at home.

"All the time," Moyer deadpans. "When she's chained up."

True Blood VILF: Which Vampire Does Sookie Want?

The latest "True Blood" Season 3 teaser poster is simple, suggestive and hilarious. Simply one acronym written in bold caps, "VILF" really says it all, doesn't it?

Since we are not HBO, we really can't spell that out for you, but if you're a red-blooded adult, chances are you know what this stands for. Just a hint: the "V" stands for "vampire."

Ah, but this begs the question: Which vampire does Sookie (Anna Paquin), uh, want to face?

Is it Bill (Stephen Moyer), who went missing at the end of Season 2? Or possibly Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), whose blood she drank out of necessity?

In this first-look photo printed in the recent TV Guide, we see that there's definitely something there between Sookie and Eric ... and it's not halitosis.

Producer Alan Ball hints: "Sookie is sexually drawn to him because she's had his blood. But there is another reason he is drawn to her, one that will be revealed this season."

If you have read the books (which I have not), then you already know why Eric is so attracted ... but there may be a twist in TV version of "True Blood".

"True Blood" is back on June 13th. Waiting truly sucks.

Anna Paquin Comes Out as Bisexual

No one saw this coming! Anna Paquin, who plays a telepathic vampire lover on HBO's True Blood, has come out as bisexual.

Paquin, who's engaged to her True Blood costar Stephen Moyer, makes the announcement in a PSA video promoting the Give a Damn campaign, which features celebritiess speaking out for equality.

"I'm Anna Paquin. I'm bisexual and I give a damn," Paquin, 27, says on-camera during a private taping on Jan. 30 in Los Angeles. Sources said they were unaware beforehand that Paquin would make the announcement.

Others who were present at the taping included comedian Margaret Cho and singers Mya and Jason Mraz.

Paquin's PSA comes on behalf of the True Colors Fund, an organization dedicated to earning equal rights for people who are gay, straight, bisexual or transgendered. The organization's "Give a Damn" campaign launches Thursday, with Paquin's spot as the first of several to be unveiled on-line in coming months.

Other major names in the campaign include Kim Kardashian, Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg, Cynthia Nixon, Sharon and Kelly Osbourne, Judith Light, Clay Aiken and Wanda Sykes.

Paparazzi!: Vamp It Up!

True Blood's Stephen Moyer and New Moon's Kellan Lutz join (sexy) forces Monday for Cosmopolitan's annual Fun Fearless Males bash at New York's Mandarin Oriental Hotel, where the stars were honored for their style.

Stephen Moyer Misses Scenes with Anna Paquin

When it comes to fiancée Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer can’t get enough of a good thing.

“We haven’t been working together that much this year and I kind of miss that,” said Moyer, whose True Blood character Bill Compton has been separated from Paquin’s Sookie Stackhouse. “We met during the show, we met on camera, we met doing something that we love and that’s what we do. And I really miss her when Bill’s been taken [away].”

And it’s not just his significant other he misses – it’s the crew dynamic as well, he told reporters at Cosmopolitan’s Fun Fearless Male Awards in New York Monday night. “It’s quite fun too, when [the camera’s] not rolling,” he said. “I think the thing is because the crew and everybody grew up watching us, they’ve seen every move I’ve ever made on her.”

But the couple, who kept their relationship secret as long as possible, knew the pitfalls of pursuing an on-set romance. “I can imagine why it would be [risky] and certainly to begin with when we got together, we were really concerned because it’s ridiculous to get into a relationship when there’s a possible seven years of working together. But it’s been nothing but lovely so I hope it carries on.”

As for Paquin’s reaction to his latest title, Fun Fearless Male, said Moyer with a chuckle, “She knows a little bit about my past, so she wasn’t that surprised.”

Paparazzi!: Bloody Date Night

After cuddling up at the SAG Awards this weekend, True Blood lovebirds Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer get in line Sunday for Radiohead's Haiti benefit concert at Hollywood's Henry Fonda Theatre.

Paparazzi!: Bloody Love

No fangs tonight! Stephen Moyer plants a tender kiss of approval on Anna Paquin's plunging, printed Alexander McQueen dress as the on- and off-screen couple make their way down the red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Stephen Moyer on VMan

True Blood star Stephen Moyer sizzles in Issue #16 of VMan magazine.

The 40-year-old British actor spoke about what he did on vacation, escapism, what he’d love to do next with fiancee and co-star Anna Paquin…

On his vacation: “I’ve been out at the beach surfing, skateboarding, running around with the dog. I got out of Bill’s vibe.”

On escapism: “True Blood is the apex of a pop-culture crazy for vampires. It’s people having no money and choosing to spend it on things that are truly escapist. There’s nothing more escapist than our show.”

On what he’d love to do with Anna in the future: “I love working with her and I’ve wanted to direct her for ages.”

VMan #16 is now available at newsstands.

Song Sparked Stephen Moyer's Marriage Proposal to Anna Paquin

When Stephen Moyer proposed marriage to his True Blood costar Anna Paquin, he looked to his onscreen vampire character, Bill Compton, for a little inspiration.

"There's a song Bill listens to in the car about a white sandy beach," Moyer tells British Glamour magazine in its November issue. "So we decided to go away for a break – to a white sandy beach – and that's where it happened."

Moyer, 39, and Paquin, 27, managed to keep their off-screen romance a secret on the set until an awkward love scene forced the actor to do the honorable thing and 'fess up.

"One of the cast had to do an intimate scene with Anna," says the Brit actor. "I felt it would be so wrong for him to do it, then find out down the line that we were together."

Like many of the couple's fellow costars on the hit HBO series, the cast member's reaction was one of utter shock. "So after 10 months, we had to tell him," said Moyer. "He couldn't believe it!"