This week’s True Blood, the season four finale, was chock full of plot. More than that it had plenty of clever one liners that provided some excellent comic relief for the more serious moments. I kind of felt like most of the plot was rehashed from past seasons, and that the Marnie witch character was too similar to the Maenid nonsense we saw in season two. It was basically a “when will this bitch die?” plotline, with Marnie’s ghost hanging on way too long to wreak havoc. I’m going to do a half-assed recap here. Instead of going over every detail, I’ll just focus on the awesome lines that cracked me up and added the campiness of this show. I love it, basically, but I see it for what it is, and I feel like producers are letting us know that’s ok, and that they’ll continue to deliver it for us. They did that with some of the best lines this season. Here are some of my favorites from the finale:

The best lines from the True Blood finale (SPOILERS)

Hoyt to Jason on his admission that he slept with Jessica, “How?”
Jason to Hoyt “If you really want to know, missionary then doggy then her on top. It was nothing too kinky.”

Arlene to Sookie on her Halloween costume: “Zombies are the new vampires.”

Jesus to Lafayette possessed with Marnie’s ghost. “I agree with you. Vampires suck!… You can’t trade magic like f*ckin Pokemon cards!” He then proceeds to do just that, and give up his evil demon self to the Marnie ghost, dying in the process.

Arlene to her kids on Halloween. “You better start behaving yourselves right now or you’re going to be Trick or Treating down at the trailer park again. Now do you want a bag of empty coors cans and food stamps or do you want candy?”

Scott Foley is introduced as a new character, an old war buddy of Terry’s. Terry says to him “I heard you were dead.” He answers, “I heard you were crazy.”

“Well yeah that’s still true.”

Sookie asks Holly if she’s ever cast a serious spell like the one she’s going to attempt to save the vampires from Marnie’s ghost. “Goddess no, usually I just light a candle and ask the spirits to make sure my boys don’t end up in jail or knock somebody up, but so far that’s worked out ok.”

Bill to Eric when they’re strung up silvered on the stake by Marnie. “I liked you better when you were brain damaged.”

Lafayette as Marnie in a muumuu, “What goes around comes around, bitches.”

Eric to the group after Marnie is sent to the spirit world and Tara is tending to Lafayette. “Excuse me, we’re feeling a little crispy up here.”

Jessica to Jason. “I don’t want to be your girlfriend… I just got out of a serious relationship… I’m not ready to commit to you.”

“I kind of wish you would have told me that, before I took an ass kicking.”

Pam on losing Eric to Sookie: “I’m so over Sookie and her precious fairy vagina and her unbelievably stupid name. F*ck Sookie.”

“I’ve been with Eric for over 100 years. I’ve watched him seduce supermodels and princesses and spit on their bones when he’s finished. How can someone named Sookie take him away from me?”

Sookie breaks up with Eric and Bill: “There’s only one way I see this ending, and it’s me walking away with neither of you.”

Jesus’ ghost to Lafayette: “Dude I’m dead, you’re a medium. I’ll always be with you.”

Jessica to Jason on the sex they just had. “I liked it, I liked it a lot. Maybe next time we could try oral? Hoyt was kind of shy about that, because of my fangs.”

Jason understands why Jessica is reluctant to drink his blood. “You know, it’s kind of like a hooker with kissing…

“You’re like no other woman I’ve been with, and I’ve been with a lot of women. ”

Eric to Nan Flanagan and her posse “Hi Nan, and gay stormtroopers.”

Nan Flanagan on being fired from the American Vampire League. “I’ve been alive for 816 years. I refuse to be retired like a fat first wife.”

Eric, after he and Bill kill Nan. “What a bitch.”

The stuff where Eric and Bill offed Nan reminded me of when Bill killed the Vampire Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne. Also, there weren’t any quotable lines at the end when Sookie accidentally killed what’s-her-face, Debbie, and that’s probably for the best. The episode ended with Sookie holding a gravely injured Tara and screaming out. “somebody please help us, somebody!” In the parallel scene in the books, it’s just Sookie and Debbie, with Tara having nothing to do with it and Sookie cleaning up the evidence and secretly burying Debbie. (With Eric’s help, if I remember right.) It makes you wonder if they’re going to kill off Tara’s character, which I wouldn’t mind, honestly, or if one of the vamps is going to whisk in and save Tara. I think Eric gave Tara his blood in the books in some other incident, but I don’t remember it too clearly. I’m pretty sure she’s still alive in the last book.

Also, there were some nice scenes and lines in this episode about trusting your heart. Alcide made a really lame plea for Sookie’s love by saying he wanted to go with his head instead of his heart. He said “People always say follow your heart… What if our hearts can’t be trusted? What if it’s our brains we should be listening to?” Then when all the spirits in the cemetery got resurrected by Holly’s spell, Sookie’s grandmother came back temporarily from the other world and told her that “[The] answers where it always is, your heart. Being alone ain’t nothing to be afraid of, my Sookie. We’re all alone at the end.” Maybe that’s why they’re killing off her best friend, so we can see Sookie truly alone for once, but we’ll have to wait for next season to see. True Blood has been renewed for a fifth season, so there’s sure to be more obnoxious one-liners and campy plots for us to enjoy.

This week’s issue of Star ups the ante on the tabloid’s previous “entitled diva” reports concerning Stephen Moyer’s behavior on the set of “True Blood.” However, the latest rumors are getting far too personal because they concern Moyer’s jealousy of the obscenely steamy sex scenes between his real-life wife, Anna Paquin, and co-star Alexander Skarsgard. Of course, this story could be entirely made-up because it ties in so nicely with the fact that Alex recently split with girlfriend Kate Bosworth. Regardless, Star maintains that the tensions are affecting the hit HBO show (which has just been renewed for a fifth season) to such a degree that Paquin has been forced to run interference:

The steamy nude love scenes between True Blood‘s Anna Paquin and Alexander Skarsgard during the show’s fouth season have set pulses racing. But the couple’s chemistry had Stephen Moyer, their costar — and Anna’s real-life spouse — boiling! He flipped out several times, an insider tells Star, because he felt Anna was way too enthusiastic about fooling around with Alex, who is fresh off a split form Kate Bosworth.

“Anna is very secure in her sexuality,” the insider explains. “She threw herself into her love scenes with Alex, and they’re really hot. He was clearly turned on — and Stephen was not amused, to put it mildly.” Things became so tense between the show’s male leads, adds the insider, that creator Alan Ball even jokingly threatened to make them “hug it out”!

Anna, 29, was truly surprised by Stephen’s reaction, the insider says. “I think everyone was caught off guard. There has been nothing but friendship between the three of them until now, and there’s always been lots of sex on the show.”

To soothe her husband of one year, Anna began doing double duty on set. “Between scenes, she seemed to make a point of walking over to him to whisper something in his ear or grab a quick kiss,” says the insider.

Fortunately, Stephen, 41, and Alex, 34, have been able to move past the awkwardness — for the most part. “Anna is hugely relieved,” says the insider. “She says that a large part of True Blood‘s appeal to viewers is, well, the hot sex. If Stephen kept taking her scenes with Alex personally, his jealousy could take down the entire show.”

[From Star, print edition, August 22, 2010]

I wonder if this is true or not; but if so, Moyer’s just going to have to learn to deal with watching Skarsgard sex up his wife because, you know, it’s part of the job. Besides, it’s not like Paquin doesn’t have to deal with Moyer’s love scenes with other women on the same set as well, right? Granted, “True Blood” sex scenes are much more intense than the average television sex scene; but still, suck it up, dude.

Meanwhile, Alex was snapped looking all lanky and sultry in New York City this week. Honestly, a man should need a permit to stand like this:

And just yesterday, here Alex is on the set of his new film, What Maisie Knew, in NYC as well. Lucky Manhattan.

UPDATE: Denials from both men have already arrived! Moyer, who apparenly is not a jealous man, has already proclaimed, “Ha, ha. I have also had hot love scenes with others so it is something we have to deal with. It is part of the job so it is ok. I am actually happy that it is with Alex since I like him so much.” Alex has also chimed in with “I know he doesn’t see me as a potential threat, and it’s really not uncomfortable at all.” So yeah, this is merely more fabricated drama from Star.

Photos courtesy of WENN, PCN, and Fame

A nude photo, purportedly of Ryan Kwanten, has emerged. I’m not going to link directly to the site where it is, because it’s questionable for us to link directly to full frontal. If you go to DListed they link to it. Unlike the “fake” iPhone self portraits of Blake Lively, there’s only one picture here and while it looks real at first glance, some close uh examination shows that it probably isn’t.

The face does look like Ryan, but if you look under his left arm (the one on the right side of the photo) the torso looks blurry and like someone tried to blend it with the bottom. On the right arm hanging down there’s a weird blotch just to the left of the watermark like someone matched the hand to the arm and got a little lazy with the clone tool. What’s more is that the tile background behind the top of the body does not match the tile behind the bottom. It’s a decent photoshop job, but it’s not convincing. Well it’s fake, Ryan’s rep has declared, and I believe it:

A “nude photo” leaked online Monday of Ryan Kwanten is fake, his rep tells Us Weekly. The low-resolution shot shows the 34-year-old actor with his pants pulled down — leaving nothing to the imagination — but there’s nothing real about the photo.

Although this scandalous shot isn’t the real deal, fans of Kwanten see plenty of his flawless physique in True Blood’s numerous shirtless scenes

[From US Weekly]

Just the way the site owner reacted on HuffPo convinces me that he cooked this thing up for publicity. In the original article he even wrote “There is the high likelihood that it may not be authentic.” The good news is that everyone loves Kwanten enough that we want the pic to be real, despite the strange curve to that other dude’s peen.

In terms of True Blood so far, I’m still watching it. I’m not as into it as I was last season, though. I won’t reveal any spoilers for those of you who might still watch the past episodes. That could be pure laziness on my part along with the fact that I’m not as invested in the show as I once was. I will say that I like Eric like he is though. He’s sweet and I’d love to see him get his old personality back but maintain more of this gentle humanity. The witches are grating on my last nerve. That plot seems so Twilight.

Oh and I think we can judge from this underwear pic from True Blood if that other photo was real or not. That’s a totally different shape there. A nice one too.

Photos via Glenny

Anna Paquin worked a very tight, very short v-neck red dress with zippers up the side at the Comic-Con panel for True Blood on Friday. She looked great and I wish she would get it right like this on the red carpet. Maybe she should have thought twice before crouching down though.

The True Blood Comic-Con panel was large and featured nine of the lead actors including creator Alan Ball, Kristin Bauer (Pam), Alexander Skarsgard (Eric), Kevin Alejandro (Jesus), Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette), Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica), Ryan Kwanten (Jason), Rutina Wesley (Tara), Stephen Moyer (Bill) and Anna Paquin (Sookie.) You can watch the Comic-Con True Blood session in five parts on YouTube and here are some of the better excerpts, with more at the source.

Potential Spoilers

How do you feel about Sookie losing her innocence?
Anne Paquin: There is part of here that is sweet and innocent, and another part that has very dirty vampire sex with possibly multiple vampires.

Since the memory erasing incident, we’ve seen a lighter Eric. Do you like playing him?
Alexander Skarsgard: Yes

Why does he forget to wear shirts? And what’s with that outfit he wears?
Skarsgard: Sookie finds me in the woods. And when she finds me, she dresses me. It’s something she found at her house. Where did that come from, Alan?
Ball: If you translate the spell, it will say “You will lose your shirt, but find a dorky outfit that you will wear for several episodes but still be insanely hot.”

First you have weird head-twisting sex, than you have sex with your great, great, great granddaughter. What’s up with that?
Moyer: If Bill did a little work at the library, she could have figured out who she was. They will see each other again, but Bill has bigger fish to fry.

Is Lafayette along for the ride with the witches because of Angel, or does he believe?
Nelsan Ellis: He loves the dude. He didn’t want to step out into the supernatural.

Tara’s transformation from victim to kicking ass and taking no prisons. What do you think of the evolution to lesbian cage fighter?
Rutine Wesley: I love MMA. I think Tara was sideswiped by love and didn’t know what happened. I think it’s awesome that she’s happy and smiling.

Ryan, tell us about being strapped to the bed and ritualistically raped?
Ryan Kwanten: It’s interesting for an actor when all you have to use is your face, especially for Jason who is a physical type of guy. It’s strange for him, especially being called “Ghost Daddy.”

We all know what happens when a person drinks vamp blood, so what will happen when Jason drinks Jessica’s blood?
Deborah Ann Woll: We all know what happens, but it’s more interesting on what happens when it wears off.

What do you think of Pam’s “face off” with Marnie?
Kristin Bauer van Straten: We work hard to make you squeamish. It’s very physical. I was told to “find the hole in my face and push up.” Only on “True Blood” will you get that kind of direction.

Will Eric remember what happened with Sookie?
Alan Ball: That moment if it comes, if you know it is coming, it won’t be as good. So, maybe.

Bill and Sookie be together again?
Anna Paquin: It will be a complicated road back. It’s impossible for me to call that one.
Moyer: There are only so many telepathic waitresses in town. It’s not like I can just move on to the next one.

What is up with creepy baby doll and Arlene’s baby?
Moyer: I was with Alan when he looked at the set for Jessica and Hoyt’s house, and he said, “This is a great place for that baby to be born. There is something not right about that baby.”

Will fans get the infamous “shower scene” from the books?
Ball: There will be a moment where Sookie and Eric are in a shower. It won’t be exactly like the books. It might be weirder and dirtier.

What are your favorite moments of this season?:
Ball: I like the ritualistic rape of Jason Stackhouse
Kwanten: Me too. It was a bizarre sense of therapy.
Wesley: The cage fighting
Skarsgard: I enjoyed the swimming in the sun.

[From Showblitz]

Spoilers for last night’s episode of True Blood
Last night’s True Blood was decent but the show has kind of lost its luster for me. It seems to be meandering a lot lately and there are quite a few plot lines that bore me. I’m also kind of tired of the constant dream sequences. The Jason explained to Hoyt how he was systematically raped in Hot Shot was almost as if the writers were trying to justify it. I found that explanation more disturbing than those scenes. It’s telling that Alan Ball says that’s his favorite part of this season. The potential romance between Jason and Jessica is very promising, though. I’m looking forward to that as much as I am to Sookie and Eric finally getting it on.

How drunk do Alex Skarsgard and Stephen Moyer look?

Also, Deborah Ann Woll’s outfit is adorable. She’s so pretty.

Photo credit: WENN.com

Some of the men of True Blood are featured on the cover of the new issue of TV Guide, with stars Alex Skarsgard (Eric), Stephen Moyer (Bill) and Joe Manganiello (Alcide) in a sexy photoshoot and joint interview inside. Contrary to some of the rumors we’ve heard about the male stars’ egos clashing on set, which they sort-of acknowledge, they seem to get along well and have a casual, joking camaraderie that comes through in print. I would have loved to have seen Ryan Kwanten (Jason), Nelsan Ellis (Lafayatte) and/or Sam Trammell (Sam) mixed in, but since they all play non-supes (with the exception of Sam) who aren’t interested in Sookie (again with the exception of Sam), it might have been too confusing to do more than the top three. This gets me thinking that all of the supes just want a piece of Sookie, which should be obvious to me from the books and series so far, but it seems like they’re hitting us over the head with it on the show.

Here’s some of their interview, with more at the source. There are major spoilers for the show here, but ones that are somewhat obvious to anyone who has read the books. It’s up to you of course whether you want to skip this.

TV GUIDE MAGAZINE: What’s it like to play your characters now that they’re in such different circumstances this season?
STEPHEN: Bill had to let Sookie go. And in doing so, he’s become a better man and a better king. It’s been great as an actor having that sort of guiding light for him.
JOE: Alcide is wrestling with that beast inside him. I like moments where that thing inside him that he’s so afraid of is also this place of great strength.
ALEX: I love Eric’s vulnerability. But it’s tricky because even though he doesn’t know who he is, you can’t play it too flat. You can’t chop off his balls. Then there’s his inner struggle. If they break the spell, then Eric finds out about all the things he’s done in the past and who he really is, and that scares him. He’s like, “Hey, I’m kind of happy in this little house with Sookie.”
STEPHEN: Eric and Sookie are the tipping point of this season. The best stuff that’s in the show is their stuff.

TV GUIDE MAGAZINE: Has it been awkward for you, Stephen, since Anna’s your wife?
STEPHEN: It could have been really difficult, but it’s about being professional. And we all really like each other. It’s tougher for Anna because she’s having to show emotion with somebody else, and it’s been the same people on our crew since she and I got together when the show first started.
ALEX: If it was awkward for us, that would spread to the crew. They see us being so relaxed with each other and it’s so obvious when the camera is rolling and when it’s not, you know? And Anna’s great. She’s a very generous actress, very professional. In fact, we shot a scene the other night and it was one of those where…
STEPHEN: It will get people talking!

TV GUIDE MAGAZINE: What is Anna like when the cameras aren’t rolling?
STEPHEN: She’s merciless in her ridicule of everybody, and she expects the same back.
JOE: I spent half of last season dressed in what she refers to as “Giant Joe’s Giant Jumpsuit.” So Anna and Rutina [Wesley, who plays Tara] came up with a dance routine and a song that they would perform every time I wore the Giant Jumpsuit.
ALEX: [Singing] Joe and his giant jumpsuit…

TV GUIDE MAGAZINE: Joe, when you came in on the third season, was there an initiation?
JOE: The new guy on a show can feel like an outsider. There can be egos and things like that. But Anna was completely friendly, welcoming. Still, the guys won’t let me make eye contact.
STEPHEN: I make him get on his knees so we’re eye-to-eye.
JOE: But I guess the initiation would be wearing the “sock” [a wardrobe item that protects an actor's modesty in a nude scene].
ALEX: I put it on him. [Laughs] Someone had to show him, you know?

TV GUIDE MAGAZINE: You guys have to be [nude] a lot. Who works out the most?
STEPHEN: Joe’s insane.
JOE: Yeah. I work out twice a day, six days a week. I eat constantly.
STEPHEN: I do three days a week. I just don’t want to watch this show 20 years from now and look at myself and say, “Who is that white blob?”
ALEX: I do three days a week, too. But with Joe, it’s all about the pecs. He can make them dance.
JOE: Alex hasn’t looked me in the eye once. I’m like, “Up here, Alex. Up here.”

[From TV Guide]

Spoilers for past episodes and potentially future ones
I’ve been keeping up with True Blood and while there are some storylines that I enjoy and want to follow, there are also plenty that I would like to skip over, and that rub me the wrong way. I hate the Hotshot storyline, with Jason being tied up, tortured and raped by Crystal. Those people in Hotshot are outrageous Deliverance stereotypes and that situation could have been portrayed without being so offensive.

Sookie and Eric’s new dynamic is cute, and I love Eric as dependent on Sookie and vulnerable. I also like the twist where Eric killed Sookie’s fairy godmother. (If that’s what indeed happened and she didn’t just get sucked back to fairy or whatever.) In the books, Claudine is killed in some battle with two evil fairies. I disliked that part of the books and hope that this means that we won’t be subjected to that storyline on the show.

Bill’s romance with calculating Portia is nice to witness. I enjoy that he’s become ruthless and somewhat evil. He always seemed to have that in him and I never really cared for him and Sookie together.

Jessica and Hoyt’s relationship problems seem genuine and relatable. They remain my favorite couple on the show.

Overall, though, the show is kind of losing me this season and while I’ll watch all the episodes I won’t rush to see them the minute they come out. Maybe it’s inevitable that shows lose their focus after a few years. It must be hard to put out 12 hours of programming every year and keep it fresh.

TV Guide Cover and scans via TrueBlood-News.com

This is an amusing story in this week’s Star that I hope is overblown. I’d like to think of the True Blood men as a kind of brotherhood of hotties, joking around and slapping towels at each other’s asses in homoerotic scenes in the locker room. Star claims that they’re backbiting bitches to each other, though, and are competing for screen time and trying to see who can hook up with the most extras. Even if this story is complete bunk, and I hope it is, it’s nice to hear it about men for once. Stephen Moyer is supposedly above all this since he’s married, but they claim he still acts like an entitled diva. Now that I can believe.

“The cast is full of hot guys with huge egos, and they are all battling to be the breakout star of the show,” an insider tells Star. “They each want the best dialogue, the best story lines and the most camera time.” And for some of the leading men, the feuding goes beyond the screen. “Ryan Kwanten and Alex Skarsgard are constantly competing,” the source reveals. “even about who can lift more weight or do more crunches. They always have their shirts off, flexing their abs.”

And they’re competing over hot girls too. “Some of the guys are making their way through the female extras to see who can hook up with the most,” the insider says. While Stephen Moyer stays true to his wife, Anna Paquin, he is getting a bad rap for his above it all attitude. “Stephen walks around like he’s the big man on campus,” the insider dishes. “He feels like he and Anna deserve the most perks, which doesn’t sit well with the other actors.” The one-set rivalry has also “gotten to be a problem for the producers and a real headache for the rest of the cast and crew,” adds the insider.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, July 18, 2011]

They don’t mention Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette), Sam Trammell (Sam) or Joe Manganiello (Alcide), all of whom are in long term relationships. Ellis has been with his girlfriend since 1993 and they have a son together, Trammell’s girlfriend is expecting twin boys, and Manganiello is sadly engaged. So it’s hard to tell who Star is referring to when they say they’re competing to bang the women on set. That’s probably the point, though and this whole story is hopefully crap. (Apart from the detail that Ryan and Alex have sweaty workout sessions together in which they love showing each other their abs.)

As for the last episode of True Blood, without revealing any spoilers I have to say the show really picked up steam. Where the first episode this season was too slow and was focused on bringing us up to speed with the various characters a year later, this episode had a tighter plot and some promising twists. I can’t wait to see what happens with Eric! I love him like this, and that’s all I’ll say about it. What happened to the werewolves though? We need some brooding Alcide coming to the rescue. If the books are any indication, and that’s not always the case, he’ll come back soon. (From what I remember, right? A lot of it is a blur to me.)

Photos via True Blood Online

Last night was the premiere of True Blood’s first episode for season 4, one of twelve. First of all, much love to HBO for creating HBOGo, where I’ve been able to get these excellent screenshots. It’s free for HBO subscribers and incredibly convenient. (I’ve also been watching Game of Thrones this weekend and have a couple episodes left to go. That show is amazing.)

A lot of time was spent in this episode establishing where the characters are, introducing new characters and catching us up. The show dragged in parts, but the last fifteen minutes were very well done and included many promising plot twists for the coming season.

This episode opened with a very dumb sequence featuring Sookie in fairy land. We’ve already seen the first eight minutes as they were released by HBO online, and they were disappointing. In that sequence she reunited with her grandfather, a fairy, and when the two of them escaped from the fairy realm Sookie’s grandfather died shortly after re-entry. There was a lot of melodrama as she watched him pass away in the cemetary. (Update: read Sofiel’s comment below. It’s not the case that this was the same fairy grandfather character from the books, it was supposedly her real grandfather stuck in fairy land.) This varied quite a bit from the books in that 1. she never knew this man as her true grandfather until he told her he was and 2. he used to flit in and out of the fairy realm and visit her. From what I remember there was no big death sequence, at least not this early on, and he was a very likable recurring character that used to help her out. It’s too bad they went this route with the series.

When Sookie got back to her house it was under construction. Her brother Jason returned to tell her that she had been missing for over a year and he’d sold it to some company that had been doing renovations. Sookie told him it felt like she’d been gone for just 15 minutes, and conveyed the message from their grandfather. Jason said “I believe you, but if you start telling people that you time traveled to a land of fairies, they gonna put you away.”

Bill came right at dusk and told Sookie he thought she’d died after he didn’t feel her presence for over a year. She was a little cold to him, and later said that to her it felt like just an hour ago that he’d broken her heart.

Eric showed up with his snarling hotness to say that everyone else had abandoned Sookie when they thought she was dead, but that he never gave up hope. “I knew you weren’t dead. I’d never lost hope… understand this. Everyone who claims to love you, your friends, your brother, Bill Compton. They all gave up on you. I never did.”

Then Sheriff Andy showed up to lighten the mood. He was unintentionally funny as hell and scolded Sookie for disappearing for a year. Bill covered for her, claimed she was on official vampire business and promised he would pay back the search efforts. Andy got upset and yelled at Sookie “For 13 straight months I’ve had that open case on my books. If it weren’t for you, this years Louisiana’s safe streets plaque would be on my wall and not f’ing Webster Parrish. You owe me a plaque!”

In the police cruiser, Jason busted Andy for using V. I just wanted to include the screenshot above. I love Jason.

Lafayette and his boyfriend Jesus then went to a witches circle although Lafayette protested about it. The dead vampire that Jason’s ex girlfriend killed, Eddie, talked to Lafayette through a witch and freaked him out, causing him to leave.

Then we saw Jessica and Hoyt having typical domestic issues. They fought over the fact that Jessica never cooks for him. She angrily served him up a bunch of broken uncooked eggs and he ate some of it. Then they laughed over it.

The next scene was one of the best in this episode, and involved Eric doing a PSA for vampire relations while Bill attended a ribbon cutting ceremony at a Bon Temps retirement home. Eric croons to the camera “Who would you rather trust, a vampire or a politician?” This scene also introduced (spoiler for future episodes) Portia Bellefleur, Bill’s future love interest in the books. She’s much prettier on the show than she’s described in the books.

We then saw that Tara has moved to New Orleans, where she is involved in some kind of underground women’s fighting ring. She’s in a relationship with the woman she was fighting with, and they made out outside the venue. The other woman called her “Tony” and in a later scene revealed that she thinks Tara is from Atlanta. It’s clear that Tara lies to her girlfriend and has fabricated a lot of her past.

Sookie went to Merlottes to catch up with everyone. She learned that Arlene and Terry got married and had a baby, and that Tara moved away and sends postcards sometimes. Sam told Sookie that the vampire business must have been really important to keep everyone greiving for a year. He gave her her job back part time.

Jessica and Hoyt went to Fangtasia, where a hot fangbanger tried to pick up Jessica when Hoyt had his back turned. Jessica ran into the bathroom to clear her head, which is when Pam came in to confront her. This was another excellent scene.

Jessica said “Me and Hoyt, we moved in together.”

Pam countered “That tree with the plaid shirt, it has a name? He seems sweet and all if you’re into that sort of thing, but if you’re making him bring you here, I have a hunch it’s not enough.”

“It was his idea, like a date night.”

Pam goaded her “The way you’re eye f’ing fang bangers from across the room, that’s especially romantic. You have no reason to feel guilty, you’re a hunter. You’ve never been on your own, you live with a human. Monogamously. [laughs] Sorry, it’s just so ridiculous.”

“Don’t you think if all I wanted to do was kill and f*ck that I’d be out there doing it right now? I don’t know what you saw or what you think you saw, but when I go home tonight I’m going home with the man I love. I’m just sorry that you never had that.”

Sam got drunk at a dinner party with two hot women and a man. They talked about anger management issues. Then they all got naked and a bunch of horses ran out in the night. I guess it was a shapeshifter gathering. I thought it was going to be an orgy at first.

Jason delivered food to the kids in Hotshot. They talked about how “aunt Crystal” is gone. Then a guy tricked him into looking into a standing freezer, pushing him in and locking it, trapping him inside.

At the witches circle with Lafayette and Jesus they brought a bird back to life for a moment, surprising everyone.

One of the witches is a spy, and we saw her walking to a heavily guarded mansion afterwards. She sat down in front of a regal looking desk and then addressed “your Majesty,” and it’s Bill! I guess he’s taken over somehow.

In the final scene, Sookie got naked at her house to get ready for bed, and all of a sudden Eric was there, grunting sexily. “Such a strange sensation when the reality matches what you’ve pictured in your mind so precisely,” he purred.

She asked him if it was a dream and he said “it’s not a dream, I assure you.”

“Then how are you here? I rescinded your invitation.”

“You don’t own the house anymore,” he said, holding up the keys, “I do.”

“Why would you do that, why would you buy my house?”

“Because I always knew you were alive, and if I owned the house, I would own you.”

Then he bared his teeth and walked toward her, “Sookie, you are mine.”

That was it. We won’t be doing these long recaps every week, but I have to say I really enjoyed that episode, especially towards the end. There were plot twists that were stupid, namely the fairy business, but I’m intrigued by the witches, I like that Tara has a whole new life and background she invented, and I love the potential romance between Sookie and Eric. She has to want it, though, it can’t be forced. Eric is going about it the wrong way but he’ll surely be successful in the end. And it will be hot as hell.

Entertainment Weekly has a series of three covers for their upcoming issue, out this Friday. They feature True Blood star Anna Paquin (Sookie) in American Gothic style poses with Alex Skarsgard (Eric), her real life husband Stephen Moyer (Bill) and potential werewolf love interest Joe Manganiello (Alcide). They’re very clever and amusing, with Paquin making slightly different expressions in each. There’s a lot of anticipation for this Sunday’s season four True Blood premiere, and I have to admit I’m getting anxious for it too. I just don’t want to get my hopes up too much, given the highly disappointing first eight minutes that HBO has put out. The (mild spoiler I guess) fairy fantasy fight sequence that was released was so reminiscent of campy Star Trek that I’m not expecting too much this year. Still, there will be plenty of hot guys, sex scenes, and bloody lusty moments and that’s usually more than enough for me. I love a good sex scene with some head twisting thrown in, and what other shows are doing that really?

The advance details on Entertainment Weekly’s website have Alex being incredibly gracious and grateful to his fans, as usual. I just hear his voice in my head when I read these delicious quotes and I melt a little.

Spoilers for this quoted text I guess, especially if you haven’t read the books yet:

Playing the smoking hot vampire Eric Northman is humbling, to say the least, for Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard. So to say that he’s used to the adoration from female fans of True Blood, the subject of this week’s Entertainment Weekly cover story, would be a bit of an understatement. (For proof, consider this little detail that EW dug up from Charlaine Harris, the author of the extremely popular Sookie Stackhouse novels that serve as the inspiration for True Blood: She says that fans often ask her to autograph the tomes to “Mrs. Alexander Skarsgard.”)

“I’ll never get used to that,” Skarsgard said of his googly-eyed fanbase. “It’s just very, very humbling and flattering. The character Eric means so much to me and I’m having so much fun playing him. Of course it means a lot when you meet fans and you can actually tell there are people out there who really do care about the character. It means something to you, then. That’s kind of why you do this whole thing.”

Eric fans could have plenty to salivate over this season, which begins June 26 on HBO. This year, True Blood is inspired by book four of the Stackhouse series, Dead to the World, which features a steamy shower scene between Sookie and the tall, light and handsome vamp. Unfortunately, Skargard isn’t in the mood to kiss and tell. He will say, however, that sex this year is, um, a little more down to earth. “I did some crazy stuff last year. I almost had sex with a Greek man and I was covered in his goo. Everything from here on is pretty childish. Everything’s quite innocent.”

For lots more about Eric and the other hot men in Sookie’s complicated life, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on stands Friday, June 24. And what’s that you say? You’re not a Skarsgard fan? No worries: We published two other collectible covers to satiate those who prefer Stephen Moyer and Joe Manganiello. No thank you necessary. It was our absolute pleasure.

[From EW.com]

So the “sex with a Greek man” quote threw me a little, but then I realized that he was talking about when his character seduced Talbot so he could kill him and get back at Russell. I loved that plot twist and while I’ve read all the books I couldn’t tell you if it was in there or not. This show is incredible and so many of us are waiting for it to come back on Sunday. As long as Eric will be there, so will we. I hope he’s misleading us about the “quite innocent” part for this season, though. That would be highly disappointing.

Last night was the cast party for the Season 4 premiere of True Blood, where Alexander Skarsgard ruled the red carpet as usual. To start we had Anna Paquin trying to bring her pose hard to a ridiculous little black dress with purple glitter piping down the front. It could be Stella McCartney, she’s doing a lot of these dumb boob cut-out dresses, but I can’t verify that. It’s fug, no matter who designed it, and Anna’s mouth-breathing just makes it worse. She probably thinks she’s fashion-forward as she often wears incredibly bad outfits with a sneer.

Deborah Ann Woll, Jessica, with some really terrible makeup and styling I’m sorry to say. She’s so gorgeous on the show, what happened?

Todd Lowe, showing how underrated Terry is. This is one lovely man.

Sam Trammell and his pregnant girlfriend, Missy Yager. She’s having twins!

Carrie Preston, cute as a button but in pink! I don’t like her in that color, it clashes with her hair.

Jim Parrack, Hoyt, just is so hot to me. I know he’s not a beefcake on the show, but I like him so much. His girlfriend looks ridiculous in that tight mini though.

Speaking of beefcake, here’s Joe Manganiello in pink and red – just no. He needs to take something off to look good here, pants or shirt will do.

And Ryan Kwanten. What is going on with this outfit from the waist down? I thought he could never look unattractive, but I was wrong.

Kristin Bauer tried to work a satin jumpsuit and she kind of did. Her squinty husband ruins it for me though.

Rutina Wesley looked cute and not as busy from the side. From the front, with those shoes, there’s too much going on.

Stephen Moyer just is not doing it for me at all. He never really did.

And Alexander Skarsgard steals the show as always. This man just slays me.

True Blood comes back this Sunday! You can take the first eight minutes to get your drink on after watching the disappointing preview clip. It can only get better from here, right?

We’ve already seen the actor who plays werewolf Alcide on True Blood, Joe Manganiello, shirtless in several publications. The guy is smoking hot and he’ll tell you about his workout and diet plan. He isn’t conceited about how he achieved it, though, and he recently told GQ that it’s just part of his job to be fit. He didn’t seem shy about posing in a photoshoot for GQ that makes it look like he’s about to have a threesome with a topless blonde and a lithe brunette in Santorini, Greece. It’s all rather racy, but they did got to great lengths to set the scene, showing the trio all over beautiful island while Joe wears the hell out of some designer clothes. To accompany these gorgeous photos they just have a short interview with him online, which I’ve posted below. You can see the full slideshow here.

There’s no denying it: Joe Manganiello looks good without a shirt. This fact has not gone unnoticed by HBO, for whom he frequently flexes as an oft-nude werewolf on “True Blood.” Ask him about his physique, though, and he’ll insist he’s just following the script: “If Alcide was described as weighing 300 pounds with a comb-over and missing his front teeth, that’s what I would look like.” Luckily for Manganiello’s career, he’s not playing a guy with a gap-toothed smile. It’s his He-Man physique that helped turn a six-episode stint into a regular gig, raising his profile high enough to audition for Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot. “He and his wife are huge fans of ‘True Blood,’” Manganiello explains. While Snyder ultimately went another way, Manganiello, 34, isn’t complaining. A few short years ago, he was paying his bills working as a roadie and as a delivery man for a masonry company. As for the new season of “True Blood,” spoilers are as hard to come by as clothing on-set. So, any inhibitions left at all? “Once they yell action,” he says, “you’re a werewolf and you’re not thinking about it. But before, there’s a boom guy crouched behind you at ass level.” Who says werewolves don’t blush?

[From GQ]

It’s a shame that he’s not going to be in Superman, which ultimately went to Henry Cavill, but at least we’re still hearing about him. This reminds me that True Blood premieres this Sunday! I hope they vary enough from the preview we saw and we won’t be stuck in fairy land for most of the season. It’s so much nicer on earth with the gritty sweaty werewolves and the slippery fast vampires. Fairies are filler as far as I’m concerned.