Wednesday, January 13, 2010

'True Blood,' Lady Gaga and ABC among GLAAD nominees


Designer Tom Ford's dramatic feature film, "A Single Man," HBO's vampire series, "True Blood" and singer/songwriter Lady Gaga were among those nominated for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's annual media awards on Wednesday.

GLAAD nominated 152 television shows, movies, musicians, journalists and artists for their awards, which will be given out in three ceremonies starting in New York on March 13.

CNN

Sookie and Trends, triumphs of the 2009 book year

Book sales rise from these graves

We have Stephenie Meyer's Twilight vampires to thank, in part, for the fact that at least 17% of all book sales tracked in 2009 were related to vampires (and assorted other undead creatures, including zombies) or the paranormal (including paranormal romances). That was up from 14% in 2008, which in turn was way up from 2% in 2007. Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, which are the inspiration for HBO's True Blood, had nine titles in the top 100 sellers of the year, and P.C. and Kristin Cast, the mother/daughter team who write the House of Night series, had six. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith is No. 48 on the list. Expect that trend to continue in 2010, again thanks in part to Meyer. She may not have a new book coming out (that we know of so far), but Eclipse, the movie based on the third book in the Twilight series, swoops into theaters in June, and the paperback reissue of her 2008 adult hardcover The Host is out April 13.

From USA Today

The new Seth Grahme-Smith book is of particular interest to us:
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Pre order today - it will be released March 2nd



'Diaries' "under pressure" from 'True Blood

maybe they should read the books ;-)

The executive producer of The Vampire Diaries has admitted that he feels "under pressure" from True Blood.

Speaking to SFX, Kevin Williamson said that he is not worried about the show being compared to Buffy, but to Twilight and Alan Ball's Blood.

"The pressure doesn't come from Buffy, it comes from being caught between Twilight and True Blood," he said.

"They're the ones that are telling the same stories because there's certain tales that come with being a vampire. And we do try to pay attention to what True Blood is doing.

from Digital spy

http://www.digitalspy.com/ustv/news/a196112/diaries-under-pressure-from-true-blood.html

"For instance, the obvious storyline that's going to come up between a human and a vampire is what's going to happen when I grow old and he doesn't. True Blood's touched upon that, so we're going to try to hold off on that for a while."

He concluded by saying that he is "more concerned" about his characters - Damon, Elena and Stefan - than Twilight's Edward and Bella because the show has "carved out our own little corner".

Vampire Diaries returns Thursday, January 21 on The CW.

HBO Forum closed until January 21st


Our friend and intrepid presence on the HBO True Blood Forum, Marlene ( marlenem on the HBO forum) emailed tonight to let us know that the HBO forums will be down until the 21st of January!

We love the forum fans and I know the communities of the TB wiki and TB IMdb would welcome you guys while your site is down !

http://truebloodwiki.hbo.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844441/
The official announcement reads:
We're sorry but the HBO.com bulletin boards are currently unavailable.

We will be launching a completely new HBO.com next week and invite you to come back on January 21st to be the first to spark conversation and create threads in the new community.

If you are one of the first 100 members to elevate your status by participating in and creating engaging conversations, you could win more than just the respect of your fellow members.

We are extremely excited about the new site and think you will be too. We look forward to seeing you again next week!

Thank you,
HBO.com

P.S. If you can't wait until next week, you can always join the discussions at www.facebook.com/hbo

Alcide ( Joe Manganiello) on CSI tonight

Joe stars in tonight's CSI:NY, episode 12, entitled “Criminal Justice.”

This episode of CSI:NY will air Wednesday, January 3rd @ 10:00 Eastern on CBS.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/csi_ny/

Rutina Wesley says True Blood could run for six seasons!

True Blood has recently been renewed for it’s third season, but actress Rutina Wesley has suggested that the vampireseries may run for ’six seasons or more’.

The actress, who stars as Tara in the show, told SciFiNow that fans will be “dying to watch for a long time”.“I think it will run for as long as… I mean there are nine books out there, and [Charlaine Harris] is going to do three more, but I don’t know if we will [run] that long.

“People seem to think that True Blood is going to be one of those shows that will run for five or six seasons if not more.”

She added: “It’s going to depend on audience ratings and stuff like that, but I can’t imagine it not running for a long time because the books are just so juicy and Alan Ball has also made everything so vibrant, colourful and imaginative, and so I think it’s going to be a show that people are going to be dying to watch for a long time.”

read

The ABCs of What It Takes to be a Vampire Leading Man on TV

Tall, check. Mysterious, check. Broody, check. Tortured, check. What does it take to be a male leading vampire in a television series? The commonality between all of them seems to scream an anguished creature bent on using their supernatural powers for good as they struggle with their animalistic natures. I’ve seen a good number of these tortured souls trying to atone for their sins of feasting on human blood.

Who are some of television’s past and present vampire leading men? Probably the most well known would be Angel of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Created by Joss Whedon and played by David Boreanaz, the character fits all the categories. He’s tall, mysterious, broody, and tortured. He also opens his own detective agency to investigate supernatural cases. Whedon’s vampires are soulless creatures who are bloodthirsty and lacking of a moral compass. Angel becomes cursed and receives his soul back and thus regains his human emotions to feel remorse for his actions.

read on

Alexander Skarsgard "Beyond the Pole" review

from Variety

A Shooting Pictures production, in association with Polite Storm. (International sales: HanWay Films, London.) Produced by David L. Williams, Andrew J. Curtis. Executive producer, Helen Baxendale. Co-producer, Dean O'Toole. Directed by David L. Williams. Screenplay, Neil Warhurst, Williams, based on a radio series by Paul Barnhill, Warhurst.
Calling itself "the world's first global-warming comedy," cheeky low-budgeter "Beyond the Pole" brings a breath of satirical fresh air to a topic that's rapidly approaching media suffocation. Mockumentary about two fumbling Brit amateurs who want to save the planet by walking to the North Pole plays like a cross between "The Office" and a "Touching the Void" parody set in the Arctic. Sending up earnest documentary cliches as well as eco-warriors, this modest but good-looking item goes out digitally in Blighty in February (following offshore fest screenings last year) and will play equally well on the smallscreen.

read on

Mark Blankenship still writing about HBO!

from our friend Mark Blankenship!

During the "True Blood" hiatus, I'm recapping "Big Love," my other favorite HBO show, for HuffPo and The Critical Condition. Thought some of your readers/listeners might be interested to join in on the fun.

My "Big Love" recaps are called Wife Watch!, since I rank the most powerful wives on the show every week. Here's a link to the first one:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-blankenship/ibig-lovei-wife-watch-sea_b_419924.html

True Blood Music Video of the Day:Thriller by Michael Jackson



Thriller by Michael Jackson

thanks, davyncalypso4eva