Ian Somerhalder Spends Birthday 'Naked with a Beautiful Girl'

How did Ian Somerhalder spend his birthday?

"I was naked with a beautiful girl all day," the star of The Vampire Diaries, who turned 32 on December 8th, stated. "I had a shower scene that led into another scene were I was kind of half-naked and wet."

Though Somerhalder does confirm he was on the set of his hit CW show, he wouldn't say whether his character, the scumbag vampire Damon, finally scored with Elena, who is played by Nina Dobrev and definitely qualifies as a beautiful girl.

"Damon has a long way to go," he says of conquering Elena. "He tried to kill her brother."

So who was in the shower with the birthday guy? "It wasn't Stefan," he says of costar Paul Wesley's character. "I promise."

Though performing a steamy shower scene may be enough of a birthday present for most guys, Somerhalder is asking for more. On his big day, he also launched the IS Foundation, a non-profit that will "focus on biodiversity, reforestation, sustainable farming and green industries," the actor says.

For more information about the organization – and to help make Somerhalder's birthday wish come true! – fans can visit its Web site at http://www.isfoundation.com/.

New Release Tuesday!

Here's a list of this weeks new releases on Blu-Ray, CD and DVD including the first season of The Vampire Diaries starring: Nina Dobrey, Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley.

MOVIES
Harry Brown (B)
Marmaduke (2010) (B)
Red Riding Trilogy (B)
Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too? (B)

MUSIC
Goo Goo Dolls - Somehting for the Rest of Us
Heart - Red Velvet Car

TV SHOWS
Brothers & Sisters - 4th Season
FlashForward - Complete Series
House - 6th Season (B)
Lonesome Dove: The Series - 1st Season
The Middle - 1st Season
NCIS: Los Angeles - 1st Season (B)
Parenthood - 1st Season
Sons of Anarchy - 2nd Season (B)
Thriller - Complete Series
The Vampire Diaries - 1st Season (B)

(B) - Available on Blu-Ray

Damon Salvatore is the Sexiest Beast in New Poll

Former Lost star Ian Somerhalder's vampire character in The Vampire Diaries has beaten Twilight's Edward Cullen to be crowned America's Sexiest Beast.

The actor's Damon Salvatore finished just ahead of Robert Pattinson's movie bloodsucker in Entertainment Weekly magazine's new poll of favorite TV movie monsters.

Cullen beat Cameron from The Sarah Connor Chronicles, played by Summer Glau, and Salvatore beat Hugh Jackman's Wolverine to make it to the final vote.

Morena Baccarin's V character Anna, Taylor Lautner's Jacob Black, Halle Berry's Storm and Alexander Skarsgard's True Blood character Eric Northman all made the quarterfinals.

Paparazzi!: Peep Show

Look out below! Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev – stars of The Vampire Diaries – greet fans from their London hotel window Thursday.

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.

The CW has Stake in 'The Vampire Diaries'

The CW has given early pickups for the 2010-11 season to its frosh hotshot "The Vampire Diaries" and four other signature skeins.

Pickup of Warner Bros. TV's "Vampire Diaries" is a no-brainer for the C-Dub given the show's solid ratings perf and buzz factor. Also renewed for the coming season are "America's Next Top Model" and Warner Bros. dramas "Gossip Girl," "Supernatural" and "90210."

Not on the list is CW mainstay "Smallville," also from Warner Bros. TV. There was speculation that this season would be the last for the 9-year-old drama, but all signs suggest the show will keep going for a 10th season in 2010-11. Another CW longtimer, "One Tree Hill," also has a better-than-50/50 shot at returning for an eighth season.

A question mark on the CW's current sked is "Melrose Place," the Tuesday companion to "90210" that struggled in its run earlier in the season. The show has been off the air since early December and is set to return March 9, when it will face tough competish on Tuesday from "American Idol."

The jury is also still out on midseason entry "Life Unexpected," which has drawn kind words from crix but sluggish ratings to date in the Monday 9 p.m. berth behind "One Tree Hill."

"Vampire Diaries" has been the clear standout for CW this season. The skein that gives CW a piece of the undead zeitgeist stirred up by the "Twilight" pics and HBO's "True Blood" ranks as the net's top show in its target demo of adults 18-34 (2.5 rating/8 share). It's averaged a strong 4.6 million viewers in the competitive Thursday 8 p.m. berth.

‘Vampire Diaries’ Covers Nylon Magazine February 2010 Issue

Paul Wesley, Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder suck the life out of the February 2010 cover of Nylon. Check out some interview snippets from the Vampire Diaries stars:

Paul on the success of his show: “Do I think the show would be successful as it is, if it weren’t for Twilight? No.”

Ian on working on independent movies after Lost: “I fell off the face of the f—ing planet. I thought I was being cool and edgy, and it seemed like something Johnny Depp would have done 15 years ago. Wrong. Biggest Mistake.”

Ian on his Vampire Diaries character Damon: “This is gonna be the coolest character on television. There was no doubt about it. It reminded me of Sawyer, Josh Holloway’s character on Lost. He was always the character I secretly wished I could play.”

For the whole interview, check out the Vampire Diaries cover shoot at http://www.nylonmag.com/.

Vampire Diaries Hunk Gets Ripped for New Role

Looks like Sean Faris will be wielding more than just acting skills when he joins the delicious cast of Vampire Diaries!

The hunky actor, who'll be playing Mystic Grill bartender Ben in the new year, said in the new issue of Men's Health that he packed on 15 lbs. for the CW's fangtastic hit.

"Cooking at home is key to being in shape," the 27-year-old star said. "You can order a salad in a restaurant, but not know what you’re getting."

And the secret to achieving his six-pack? It's all about taking it slow.

"I see so many people in the gym just slinging weights around," he said. "You can accomplish more if you squeeze the reps out in perfect form, instead of going big and trying to kill it every time."

7 Things You Don’t Know About Ian Somerhalder

Vampire Diaries and Lost hunk Ian Somerhalder talks “7 Things” with Newsweek.

The 30-year-old actor shared, “I auditioned for [Jason Stackhouse on] True Blood and couldn’t rock it to convince [creator] Alan Ball that that was my role. I didn’t get it and I was very bummed. I couldn’t watch True Blood until now because now I have my own role. But before that, I was convinced I couldn’t play a vampire because I blew the audition.”

Check out the other six things Ian shares below:

Vampire Diaries Scores Full Season Pick-Up

The CW has picked up The Vampire Diaries for a full season!

The show boasted the network’s best premiere ratings since the network’s inception and had 3.8 million viewers in its latest episode. There’s an order in for nine more episodes of the show!

Variety reports that Melrose Place also got a pick-up, but for five episodes - the hope is that Heather Locklear’s upcoming appearances will help the show win more viewers for the rest of the season.

Congratulations to both casts on the pick-ups!

CW Gives Full-Season Order to 'Tree'

The CW has given a full-season order to veteran drama "One Tree Hill," and has also ordered additional scripts for frosh entries "The Vampire Diaries" and "Melrose Place."

The netlet had ordered just 13 episodes of "One Tree Hill" this season, but the early pickup now secures the show a full seventh season.

As for "Diaries," the CW has picked up nine more scripts - a good sign that a full-season order is in the cards. And it's no surprise: Show holds the record as the CW's most-watched premiere ever (4.9 million viewers).

Then there's "Melrose," which has so far been a disappointment for the Dub. But net execs are still holding out hope for a turnaround - especially once Heather Locklear shows up in November. The CW believes the show is creatively on track enough to earn an order for six additional scripts.

CW execs were waiting Wednesday night to see how the second episode of its other new drama, "The Beautiful Life: TBL," performs. That show struggled in its opening and now faces even tougher competition vs. the launch of ABC's highly touted 9 p.m. comedies.

Struggling NBC Takes the Leno Leap

So far, so impressive. After only a handful of fall premieres, broadcasters already have two reasons to celebrate: Fox's "Glee" and the CW's "The Vampire Diaries" debuted to strong numbers last week, suggesting that perhaps the coming weeks won't be a repeat of last fall's disappointing returns.

Wednesday night's conceptually risky "Glee" (7.5 million viewers) was the network's highest-rated scripted fall series premiere in three years, and Thursday's "Vampire Diaries" (4.9 million) was the CW's most-watched series premiere.

Both scored well in the networks' internal "intent to view" tracking polls leading up to their premieres, which should give other shows that rank higher on that list some hope. Fox's animated spinoff "The Cleveland Show" is currently at the top, followed by CBS' crime-drama spinoff "NCIS: Los Angeles," NBC's comedy "Community," ABC's sci-fi drama "V" and ABC's mystery series "FlashForward."

All of NBC's new shows are on among the top 10 in the poll, which bodes well for the network's mission to climb from fourth place this fall. But fans said there were more likely to watch NBC's new dramas and comedy than the network's most crucial gamble, "The Jay Leno Show," which premieres Monday night.

How many viewers will watch Leno is the biggest guessing game in town. Most agree the talk-show host's premiere will draw a crowd (after all, Conan O'Brien taking over "The Tonight Show" attracted plenty of curiosity in May). The question is where Leno will settle during the coming weeks.

NBC has defined success as Leno doing as well or better than he performed as host of "Tonight," which would mean averaging 5.2 million viewers. But if NBC winds up with significantly lower average ratings at 10 p.m. with "Leno" and 11:35 p.m. with "Tonight" under O'Brien, will anybody outside of NBC consider the maneuvering a success?

What would be ironic is if NBC rebounded this fall thanks to its new scripted programing, while its heavily promoted, drama-replacing weeknight talk show struggled.

Fall TV Premieres: Vampire Diaries & Supernatural

The CW continues it's efforts to be the first to premiere it's new Fall TV shows before the rest of the networks.

Tonight we can finally catch the premiere of "The Vampire Diaries," their answer to HBO's "True Blood" and the Twilight movie series. In addition, the third season of "Supernatural" premieres tonight.



Here's what The CW has posted on their website about "The Vampire Diaries":

Four months after the tragic car accident that killed their parents, 17-year-old Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev, "DeGrassi: The Next Generation") and her 15-year-old brother, Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen, "Everwood"), are still adjusting to their new reality. Elena has always been the star student; beautiful, popular and involved with school and friends, but now she finds herself struggling to hide her grief from the world. Elena and Jeremy are now living with their cool-but-overwhelmed Aunt Jenna (Sara Canning, "Smallville"), who is doing her best to be a surrogate parent.

Elena manages to find some comfort with her familiar social circle – best friend Bonnie (Katerina Graham, "17 Again"), frenemy Caroline (Candice Accola, "Juno"), and former boyfriend Matt (Zach Roerig, "Friday Night Lights"), but Jeremy is on a more dangerous path, hanging out with the stoners and using drugs to hide his pain. Jeremy is also trying to figure out why Matt's sister, Vicki (Kayla Ewell, "The Bold and The Beautiful"), is suddenly rejecting him and hanging out with Jeremy's rival, Tyler (Michael Trevino, "Cane").

As the school year begins at Mystic Falls High, Elena and her friends are fascinated by a handsome and mysterious new student, Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley, "Fallen"). Stefan and Elena are immediately drawn to one another, although Elena is puzzled by Stefan's increasingly bizarre behavior when he appears suddenly at the cemetery where her parents are buried. What she doesn't realize is that Stefan is hiding a dark, deadly secret of his own – the fact that he's a vampire. At a bonfire party the next night, Elena and Stefan are just getting to know each other when chaos erupts after Vicki is attacked and left bleeding from a savage bite to the neck.

Fearing that he knows who is responsible for the attack, Stefan returns home and finds his older brother, Damon (Ian Somerhalder, "Lost"), whom he hasn't seen for 15 years. Damon is also a vampire, and the two brothers have a long and bitter history. Damon ridicules Stefan for rejecting their legacy of violence and brutality, but he understands his brother's obsession with Elena, since she looks exactly like a woman Stefan loved more than a century ago; a woman that Damon tried to make his own. Now these two vampire brothers – one good, one evil – are at war for Elena's soul and for the souls of her friends, family and all the residents of Mystic Falls, Virginia.

Based on the series of books by L. J. Smith, The Vampire Diaries is from Alloy Entertainment and Bonanza Productions Inc in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios with executive producers Kevin Williamson ("Scream," "Dawson's Creek"), Julie Plec ("Kyle XY," "Wasteland"), Leslie Morgenstein ("Gossip Girl," "Private") and Bob Levy ("Gossip Girl," "Privileged"). Marcos Siega ("Dexter") directed the pilot.

I've been sucked right in to watching this show tonight. I hope it turns out to be a hit!

Ian Somerhalder to Cut His Fangs inCW's 'Vampire Diaries'

Move over Twilight twink, the CW is bringing us the hottest vampire to date, Lost's Ian Somehalder as a charming immortal Damon in "Vampire Diaries".

The show is based on the book series, which centers on the love triangle of a mortal woman and two vampire brothers, one evil and one good.

Blue-eyed Somerhalder, who played 'Boone' on ABC's Lost and 'Paul Denton' on the big screen in The Rules of Attraction will play the good brother, who struggles with his intrinsic evil tendencies as an immortal.

Premiering in the fall, the series will be exec produced by Kevin Williamson (Dawson's Creek, Scream).

Casting of the evil brother, Stefan, is yet to be announced.