Salon.com > True Blood http://www.salon.com Tue, 02 Jul 2013 17:11:12 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Why is Twitter so awful on Sundays? http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/why_is_twitter_so_awful_on_sundays/ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/why_is_twitter_so_awful_on_sundays/#comments Mon, 01 Jul 2013 14:20:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13346886 Blocking someone on Twitter, ensuring you’ll never see their tweets, is the nuclear option -- better reserved for trollish, harassing enemies online who won’t stop making fun of your avatar than for amiable-seeming supporting players on a TV sitcom. And yet recently I found myself blocking Retta, who exhorts her co-workers to “Treat yo’self!” on “Parks and Recreation” and whose observations on TV as it happens (or, sometimes, as she's catching up later) garner retweets from many people I follow.

It wasn’t her -- it was me. I’d grown tired of a new manner of speaking on Twitter of which Retta was merely a popular example. Particularly when talking about an episode of Sunday television, it seemed, everyone I followed on Twitter spoke in a language that I just couldn’t get into; a patois of oblique references (so as to prevent spoilers) and gleeful, headlong description of whatever was happening in front of them. If you weren’t watching live, as I generally was not, you were missing all the fun, not merely because you didn’t get the reference, but because the reference was the entire substance of a sort of half-joke.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/why_is_twitter_so_awful_on_sundays/feed/ 13 On “True Blood,” silliness and Holocaust allegories abound http://www.salon.com/2013/06/13/on_true_blood_silliness_and_holocaust_allegories_abound/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/13/on_true_blood_silliness_and_holocaust_allegories_abound/#comments Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:52:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13325607 “True Blood” begins its sixth season on Sunday night in medias res, in the middle of a vampire fight that started in last season’s finale. It’s dark, the earth is shaking and Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) and a quartet of their allies are running from a newly powerful Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), who looks like he recently washed in Carrie’s post-prom pig’s-blood bathwater. The sequence is hard to follow and over the top -- vampires keep disappearing in puffs of blood -- but titillation, not coherence, is “True Blood’s" mission. Getting exasperated at it for being as silly, faux-sexy and dim as Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) is like hating on a swimsuit calendar for not containing helpful bits of wisdom. Don’t go shopping for sense at the nonsense store.

Each season, “True Blood” picks up an allegory, tosses it around for a few episodes, and then tosses it aside. In the past, vampirism has been used to gesture at homophobia, racism, religious fundamentalism, terrorism, and addictions of all kind. This season, “True Blood” takes a desultory stab at the Holocaust -- and has a B-story that references the Freedom Rides for good measure.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/13/on_true_blood_silliness_and_holocaust_allegories_abound/feed/ 8 So long, Sookie Stackhouse http://www.salon.com/2013/05/16/so_long_sookie_stackhouse/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/16/so_long_sookie_stackhouse/#comments Thu, 16 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13300360 Of all the ordeals Sookie Stackhouse, small-town waitress extraordinaire, has suffered over the course of Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries series, none quite compares to being conflated with the fairly bad HBO series "True Blood." Yes, Sookie has been tortured by evil fairies, suspected of a half-dozen crimes, had her heart broken and lost people she loved. But she has always kept her dignity, which is more than anyone involved in the creation of "True Blood" can say. Thank god Sookie's Gran didn't live to see the day!

The Southern Vampire Mysteries -- which began in 2001 with "Dead Until Dark," and continued through 13 novels with hard-to-keep-straight titles and a dozen or so short stories and novellas -- is comfort reading of superior quality, made even more endearing by the series' longtime audiobook narrator Johanna Parker. As the series title suggests, these books, while typically shelved in the romance section, are actually whodunits. In each volume some annoying minor character gets killed, and by the end the culprit has been nabbed: serviceable plots, these, but certainly not the source of the series' charm.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/16/so_long_sookie_stackhouse/feed/ 6 Eat like a vampire http://www.salon.com/2012/08/24/eat_like_a_vampire/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/24/eat_like_a_vampire/#comments Fri, 24 Aug 2012 19:48:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12991786 Fans of America's sexiest vampire show "True Blood" have a new way to connect with the show: a cookbook. The show, which already has a line of fragrances and beauty products, has partnered with Cajun chef Marcelle Bienvenu to pair food and drink recipes that regularly appear on "True Blood" with scenes and excerpts from the show.

The recipes in "True Blood: Eats, Drinks, and Bites from Bon Temps" probably won't help you resemble trim stars like Anna Paquin or Stephen Moyer. The book features rich, southern Louisiana fare like jambalaya, andouille and crawfish dip.

James Costos, vice president of licensing and retail for HBO, told the Associated Press that a cookbook was a natural extension for the show."The senses play a huge part in ‘True Blood,'" he said.

HBO released a cookbook based on "The Sopranos" and is due for another Louisiana cookbook next spring to accompany the show "Treme."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/24/eat_like_a_vampire/feed/ 0 “True Blood” bites back http://www.salon.com/2012/06/08/true_blood_bites_back/ http://www.salon.com/2012/06/08/true_blood_bites_back/#comments Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:15:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12934016 You can tell a lot about an HBO show from the way that it curses. The grandiose linguistic embellishments of “Deadwood,” the anthropologically accurate cussing of “The Wire,” the brutal thugishness and sudden verbal grace of “The Sopranos” are all emblematic of each show's larger aesthetic (and a signifier to audiences that they’re getting their premium cable money’s worth). The bawdy language on “True Blood” is also indicative of the series’ artistic vision, and since nine times out of 10 the curses uttered on the steamy supernatural soap are some variation on the f-word, take that to be a bedrock faith in the following: Fucks are always interesting.

“True Blood,” the ultimate summer series, begins its fifth season on HBO this Sunday night, and the cursing and the fornicating are present and accounted for. (Though through the first four episodes, the cursing far out-performs the fornicating — there is only one shot of Alexander Skarsgard’s bare buttocks, for goodness sake! — but that does leave eight episodes for copulating to try and close the gap.) In the meantime, the f-bombings remain, as ever, exorbitantly done, each swear delivered by an actor biting off its every syllable, delighting in it, relishing it and slamming it down, like its very own punch line. As with everything about “True Blood,” the language is not particularly inventive or clever, but it’s delivered with a wink, a smile and maybe a flash of fang or unclothed hip bone, and that’s — really — entertainment.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/06/08/true_blood_bites_back/feed/ 4 “True Blood” 4×12: A sexy, bloody end to season four http://www.salon.com/2011/09/12/true_blood_4x12/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/12/true_blood_4x12/#comments Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:59:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/09/12/true_blood_4x12 Season finale! Witch Marnie is dead, but her spirit has invaded Lafayette's body and now she's inside of him, having breakfast with Jesus before work. Jesus apologizes to Lafayette for pushing him into the blood magic before he was ready, but Marnie just twitches Lafayette a little, trying not to betray her possession. Stating the obvious here, but it must really suck to be a medium if you can be snuggled in your animal-print bedding after a long day of slaying necromancers and end up possessed by a crazy witch without so much as a hangnail for a blood offering. How does Lafayette even walk down the street in Bon Temps without being violently overtaken by every tortured sap wandering out of Sam's rental slums? Jesus offers to "lead a magic-free life" if Lafayette wants, but when he goes in for a kiss he can totally taste Marnie's cherry chapstick and he knows. Marnie tsk-tsks him and stabs his hand to the bone with a fork. Real bad things with you! 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/12/true_blood_4x12/feed/ 22 “True Blood” 4×11: The witch is dead? http://www.salon.com/2011/09/05/true_blood_4_x_11/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/05/true_blood_4_x_11/#comments Mon, 05 Sep 2011 12:06:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/2011/09/05/true_blood_4_x_11 Jessica, Pam, Eric and Bill march to the Emporium in their finest Battle of the Industrial Bands gear, seething with irritation. Pam suggests they "blow up these Wiccan dipshits already" so she can get her nails done. Inside, Marnie has added Sookie to her hostages. Lackey warlock Roy smirks that the Emporium is now the Hotel California -- you can check out any time you like blah blah. Seriously, Roy, you're already that guy, but please don't be that guy. Marnie wants everyone to know they can leave at any time, and tosses a dagger at her prisoners, suggesting they use it against the vampires. When cute little Casey's rage bubbles over and she rushes Marnie, the witch telekinesis-daggers her in the chest with a "so-there" smirk. Sookie watches the girl die with a lip-trembling, brow-furrowing look of apprehension and horror -- or is she merely thinking about the real bad things she wants to do with Eric and Bill once she gets out of this incense-reeking hellhole? Hard to say.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/05/true_blood_4_x_11/feed/ 13 True Blood 4×10: Bloodbath at the Tolerance Festival http://www.salon.com/2011/08/29/true_blood_4x10/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/29/true_blood_4x10/#comments Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/2011/08/29/true_blood_4x10 At the Festival of Tolerance, the sight of the vampire security forces massacred by necromancer Antonia's gang of witches and zombie vampires sends the human audience fleeing in panic. Antonia still has control of Eric's mind and she's commanded him to Kill Bill. A straight-up hockey brawl breaks out -- vampires attacking humans, witches killing vampires, Nan stabbing a zombie vamp, Eric attacking Bill. But Sookie weaves her way through the panic and jumps on Eric's back -- girl's got an odd approach to foreplay -- so Bill can pull back and shoot Eric with a silver bullet.

If Antonia's necromancy is so tight, how come she can't control Bill and Nan right now? Are they wearing tin-foil wigs?

Eric pulls the silver bullet out like a champ and goes back to rumbling with Bill. Sookie pleads with Eric to fight off Antonia's spell, but he tries to stake Bill instead. Eric is our favorite for a reason. Sookie, sensing her ménage à trois will never happen unless she takes charge, fairy-bombs Eric before he can shank Bill through the heart. When the impact releases Eric from Antonia's spell, he regains his free will along with all of his memories, including sexy time with Sookie. Pay attention to that little flashback, because that's all the naked you get in this episode.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/29/true_blood_4x10/feed/ 15 True Blood 4×9: Love, war and sexy dreams http://www.salon.com/2011/08/22/true_blood_episode_nine/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/22/true_blood_episode_nine/#comments Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/08/22/true_blood_episode_nine After last week’s Witches vs. Vampires tournament of champions, Alcide jogged a critically wounded Sookie back to her house like a good dog -- to the chagrin of Debbie, who followed. He’s intercepted by Bill, who grabs Sookie and whisks her home, opening a vein to heal her gunshot wound. Sookie doesn’t seem to be taking Bill’s blood, and he and Alcide get all metaphysical over her chances for survival.

Bill (improbably): "We can pray."

Alcide (bitterly): "A werewolf and a vampire, who's gonna listen?"

Bill (stiltedly): "That I do not know."

Which reminds me of a classic theological conundrum: How many werewolf bitches can dance on the head of a pin? (Answer: Dude, that's a dirty needle.)

During the battle, Marnie/Antonia activated her control spell on Eric and took him back to the Moon Goddess Emporium. Tara had a change of heart after Bill prevented Pam from killing her and is upset that Antonia didn't accept his offer of peace. Some of the witches, including Tara and waitress Holly, try to revolt, because it's all fun and Stevie Nicks songs until someone gets their throat torn out in a graveyard. Antonia's not having it, declaring that the witches are going to crash the Festival of Tolerance Event the vampires have planned for the next evening and nobody's leaving until she says so.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/22/true_blood_episode_nine/feed/ 11 “True Blood” recap 4×8: Vampire trust issues http://www.salon.com/2011/08/15/true_blood_recap_4_8/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/15/true_blood_recap_4_8/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:16:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/08/15/true_blood_recap_4_8 Last week I expressed some concerns about Vampire Jessica. Not only because the episode ended on a cliffhanger where she opened the door to greet the sun and there were gunshots, but she just had so many confusing feelings about boys! We've all been there, Jessica. I mean, not literally -- I don't consider all those times that I have feasted on the blood of skeevy men at Fangstasia to be technically cheating on my significant other. No, I mean the shared experience of being in a safe, monogamous relationship with someone and feeling like it's not enough. You start wondering, "Am I the bad guy here? Do my needs and desires make me an awful person…and follow-up question…would I be better off concealing these feelings from my partner and letting them fester, or should I lay it all out on the table and possibly hurt the guy I care most about?" These are all normal, human emotions. But since this is "True Blood," we aren't allowed to really dwell on these issues for too long. So let's crank this up to 11 and start in on the crazy Narnia sex dreams!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/15/true_blood_recap_4_8/feed/ 6 “True Blood” recap 4×7: Reach for the sun http://www.salon.com/2011/08/08/true_blood_recap_4_x_7/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/08/true_blood_recap_4_x_7/#comments Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:09:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/08/08/true_blood_recap_4_x_7 Before we start with this review, can I just say I'm worried about Jessica! Not just because she has fallen under Antonia/Marnie's spell and is about to walk out into the daylight to burn up into a pile of goo -- which is very worrisome, to be sure -- but I'm also concerned about her emotional well-being. Like she doesn't love Hoyt anymore, and she thinks it's because she has a vampire heart, but if there is one thing we've learned from "True Blood," "Twilight" and "Buffy," it's that the female gaze of modern tweens has turned vampires into loving, non-bloodsucking emo kids with souls and great hair. Not only does this show revolve around how much love vampires have for certain humans, but Jessica fell in love with her square-headed boyfriend when she was a vampire, so obviously she is capable of feeling things. Stop using the fact that you are a vampire as an excuse to cheat on your boyfriend with Jason Stackhouse, Jessica! That's more a product of your being 18 years old than it is about being a supernatural creature who craves human blood as sustenance.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/08/true_blood_recap_4_x_7/feed/ 8 “True Blood” recap 4×6: Into the woods http://www.salon.com/2011/08/01/true_blood_into_the_woods/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/01/true_blood_into_the_woods/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 06:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/31/true_blood_into_the_woods This week, "True Blood" uses Sookie and Eric's sensual Aryan lovemaking to bookend the episode, which can only mean one thing: It's all going to be downhill from here, folks. That's the problem with finally getting what you (you = Sookie, Eric, the audience) want, right? Everything is great in the beginning, but suddenly you notice how your perfect scenario can't live up to your expectations.

Look: I am all for New Eric. But New Eric is also kind of a little bitch, right? Like right in the middle of his first hookup session with the love of his (admittedly short-term) life, Eric has to fight off Bill when King Pouty-Face runs in to fangblock him. And since Eric is the older, stronger of the two vamps, he almost kills Bill (part one) until Sookie tells him not to, because that's his king. Immediatly, Eric bends his knee and is all, "Your highness!"

Except why would no-memory Eric care who his king is? It's his memory that was erased, not his personality, right? New Eric is sincere and naive to the point that it's ridiculous to think that even as a human he acted like such a dopey-eyed idiot. I think Alexander Skarsgard went back and just watched "Titanic" a bunch of times to study for this character.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/01/true_blood_into_the_woods/feed/ 20 The emasculation of the modern vampire? http://www.salon.com/2011/07/29/emasculation_of_the_modern_vampire/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/29/emasculation_of_the_modern_vampire/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/29/emasculation_of_the_modern_vampire Screenwriter Brian McGreevy did a guest stint on Vulture today with a diatribe on the emasculation of vampires in modern media, specifically in "True Blood" and "Twilight." "True Blood," at least, began with McGreevy's ideal sexy/dangerous vampire -- if not in Bill Compton, than in Eric Northman. Of course, now that Eric has lost his memory and Bill is playing at being a prissy little king, it's totally reasonable for McGreevy to assert that these characters "have taken the Romantic vampire and cut off his balls, leaving a pallid emo pansy with the gaseous pretentiousness of a perfume commercial. We are now left with the Castrati vampire."

Unfortunately, this argument smacks of chauvinism. McGreevy (currently adapting Bram Stoker's "Dracula" for the big screen) blames this on a new, dangerous "female gaze" -- as opposed to the misogynistic "male gaze" as defined by feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey in her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." The female gaze, he suggests, makes these non-threatening vampires "pornography for tweens." When he asserts that "Mad Men's" Don Draper is actually more of a vampire than any of the "True Blood" or "Twilight" characters, what he's saying is that Draper is more of a man.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/29/emasculation_of_the_modern_vampire/feed/ 25 “True Blood” 4×5: Vampire history lessons http://www.salon.com/2011/07/25/true_blood_vampire_history_lessons/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/25/true_blood_vampire_history_lessons/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/25/true_blood_vampire_history_lessons Last week's episode of "True Blood" ended with a spell which caused Pam's face to fall off. This week opens with Tommy killing his dad (on purpose) and his mom (accidentally). Since absolutely no one cares about the Merlotte family of trashy shape-shifters, this storyline unfolds on the sidelines without much fanfare or emotional resonance. Just so we won't have to revisit this later: Tommy goes to Sam with their parents' in the back of his truck. They decide to dump the evidence but get pulled over by Andy Bellefleur. Tommy turns into a crocodile to scare off the sheriff, and then the brothers bond as they throw their murdered folks into a swamp. Sam tells Tommy that he once killed two people. Also that gators love marshmallows.

Phew: Now the important stuff! Lafayette, Tara and Jesus freak out at Marnie for getting possessed and making Pam's face do that thing that happens when you open the Arc of the Covenant. If I were them, I would chill out; Marnie seems to have the vampire population pretty much in check these days. Tara wants to go back to her cage-fighting life in New Orleans, but she can't because her girlfriend opened her mail and is asking questions about this "Tara" person. (This is why I never change my name when moving to a new state.) Lafayette and Jesus go to see Jesus' grandfather in Mexico for answers, because one time pop-pop gave Jesus a pet goat and then made him kill it. Afterwards, he let baby Jesus lick the goat's blood off the knife. So... road trip!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/25/true_blood_vampire_history_lessons/feed/ 10 “True Blood” recap: Good Eric, bad Bill http://www.salon.com/2011/07/11/true_blood_recap_4_x_3/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/11/true_blood_recap_4_x_3/#comments Mon, 11 Jul 2011 05:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/10/true_blood_recap_4_x_3 I can't tell you how long I have waited for this moment. Not even a minute into the show, and "Dazed and Confused" Vampire Eric refers to Sookie as "Snooki." It's amazing. Don't tell me you've never thought about how these two annoying pop culture caricatures have incredibly similar-sounding names! Finally, one of the writers on the show has recognized this, which also means that "True Blood" is now in-universe with "Jersey Shore." (Fingers crossed on Bon Temps being the surprise location for the sixth season of MTV's reality show.)

Hopefully this joke, tossed as a casual aside after Sookie punches Eric in the nose (like a shark!) for trying to eat her, is a harbinger of the return to "True Blood's" better writing days. King Bill's whole scene where he lays out that any vampire caught feeding on YouTube will meet "the true death" is pretty baller, if only because it reminds us (and not in a bonk-you-on-the-head kind of way) that these characters live in a world where viral videos, along with "Jersey Shore," exist. The concept of the Internet having a place in the world of "True Blood" is 20 times more interesting than ghost were-panthers. Let's 2.0 this bitch up! Give Eric back his cellphone for texting!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/11/true_blood_recap_4_x_3/feed/ 14 “True Blood” recap 4×2: Louis Pasteur was a vampire? http://www.salon.com/2011/07/04/true_blood_recap_4_x_2/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/04/true_blood_recap_4_x_2/#comments Mon, 04 Jul 2011 05:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/03/true_blood_recap_4_x_2 The second episode of "True Blood" starts where last week ended. Do you remember how last week ended? I mean, for each of the 10-1,200 characters that we the audience are supposed to have an emotional stake (ha!) in? No? OK, here it goes ...

Jason Stackhouse wakes up tied to a bed in the "Hills Have Eyes" community that he has been entrusted with after his V-addicted girlfriend Crystal went away to have sex with her brother. (Side note: How can something that is so hot on "Game of Thrones" be so disgusting on "True Blood"? Incest, she is a fickle turn-on.) Turns out Stackhouse has been conned by these young rednecks who eat raw meat and lick his head wounds, because he is just that dumb. Crystal and her half-brother Felton are back, and they want Jason to spawn little werepanther babies and continue their totally non-defected, inbred gene pool. But first Jason has to become a werepanther himself, in a ritual that looks a lot like the vampire's turning process: draining (or in this case, clawing) a person till they are almost dead, then waiting for the next full moon. I think they are a missing a step where Jason needs to drink (claw) their blood? So now he's all infected and gross. Man, Stackhouse, if only you were smart enough to outthink a family whose cumulative IQ adds up to less than Forrest Gump's. Alas.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/04/true_blood_recap_4_x_2/feed/ 24 “True Blood” recap 4×1: Of fairies, brujas, and “Office Space” http://www.salon.com/2011/06/27/true_blood_season_four_premiere_recap/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/27/true_blood_season_four_premiere_recap/#comments Mon, 27 Jun 2011 06:59:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/06/26/true_blood_season_four_premiere_recap Do you remember the first season of "True Blood?" It was so good! It combined the elements of a dark Southern gothic Anne Rice novel with the pop-culture savvy of Joss Whedon's "Buffy." It was by turns sad, funny, and really scary (kind of like Ball's best work to date, "Six Feet Under"). I was initially resistant to watching "True Blood" because I had heard all the silly accents in the trailer and it just wasn't my thing, but I defy anyone to watch the title sequence of that show and not get hooked by the disturbing imagery coupled with the sinister riffs of Jace Everett's "Bad Things."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/27/true_blood_season_four_premiere_recap/feed/ 29 “True Blood’s” Stephen Moyer allowed to bite fans on breast http://www.salon.com/2011/06/23/stephen_moyer_bites_breasts_true_blood/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/23/stephen_moyer_bites_breasts_true_blood/#comments Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:24:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/06/23/stephen_moyer_bites_breasts_true_blood "True Blood" stars Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin have one hell of a kinky relationship. As vampire Bill Compton and Sookie Stackhouse, the two might be currently on the outs, but for the real-life married couple ... well, let's just say they know how to bring some spice into their relationship.

During a recent interview to promote the fourth season of Alan Ball's HBO show (which premieres this Sunday at 9 p.m.), Moyer told Men's Health magazine that Anna allows him to bite more than just the necks of some of his more rabid fans.

From Men's Health:

"I get to sign boobs a lot. I get to bite boobs occasionally, when I’m allowed…If my missus is there and she approves of the person I get to bite boobs… and necks."

Jesus, what?! Stephen Moyer is going around biting people's breasts (if his wife "approves of the person")? Because I don't remember one instance of that happening on the show. There aren't even any major arteries in the breast; that's why vampires on "True Blood" usually go for the neck, thigh or under the armpit.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/23/stephen_moyer_bites_breasts_true_blood/feed/ 4 Five pop culture items we missed http://www.salon.com/2011/06/20/pop_five_gyllenhaal_man_vs_wild/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/20/pop_five_gyllenhaal_man_vs_wild/#comments Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:02:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/06/20/pop_five_gyllenhaal_man_vs_wild 1. Creepy "Lost" update of the day: Evangeline Lilly may be in "The Hobbit," but 51-year-old Doug Hutchison (who played Horace, head of the Dharma Initiative) just married a 16-year-old "aspiring country singer."

2. Terrible names for Woody Allen movies of the day: "The Bop Decameron," the Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Page, Roberto Benigni, Penélope Cruz, Greta Gerwig and Allen picture that will be set in Rome and hopefully translates to "I'm sorry about this title."

3. Hot guys holding little kitties of the day: It's so weird, I was just talking to my friend today who was asking, "When is Sam Trammell just going to do a video where he undulates around a green screen holding a little cat?" I was worried I'd have to wait until the season premiere of "True Blood!" Thank you, FunnyorDie!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/20/pop_five_gyllenhaal_man_vs_wild/feed/ 3 Five pop culture items we missed http://www.salon.com/2011/06/17/pop_five_lost_true_blood/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/17/pop_five_lost_true_blood/#comments Fri, 17 Jun 2011 20:18:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/06/17/pop_five_lost_true_blood 1. Masturbatory comment of the day: Jason Sudeikis on how he got his technique for "Hall Pass":

"I did all my research for that scene by going on Chatroulette, that website where guys masturbate for strangers. My moves in Hall Pass are an amalgamation of, I don’t know, maybe 20,000 different dudes. I took the facial expressions from SexHog22; I took the hand motions from GrizzlyBearDong. Those guys really know what they’re doing."

2. Casting news of the day: Charlie Day ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," "Horrible Bosses") may be joining the Guillermo del Toro's monster mash "Pacific Rim." Wonder if there will be a cameo for Night Man?

3. HBO wish of the day: That "Lost's" Michael Emerson would make a cameo on "True Blood." Hey, apparently it might happen! "I'm friendly with Alan Ball ... " Emerson said at the premiere, "He'll say, 'I've gotta get you on here!' And I'll say, 'Yes, I'm ready!' "

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