Hollywood Crush › Alan Ball

Tie on your Merlotte's apron and grab a bottle of Tru Blood, because we're headed back to Bon Temps for another year.

HBO announced today that they've renewed "True Blood" for a fifth season, which will go into production later this year, and we couldn't be more thrilled. All together now: SOOKEH!

Creator Alan Ball didn't seem to have any doubts about the show coming back for another year during last month's Comic-Con, teasing several different plot points that will be hit in future seasons. And, not surprisingly, we also have a few ideas about what we'd like to see happen in season five of "True Blood." Check ours (and his) out after the jump! (Slightly spoilery if you haven't read the book series!)

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Tags Alan Ball, True Blood

After one "Sookeh," a fan's request to be called "hooker," and Rutina Weasley bursting into happy tears, the 2011 "True Blood" panel at San Diego Comic-Con has come to a close.

The sizzle reel warmed fans up. Then came the arrival of the cast, complete with the Comic-Con debut of Alexander Skarsgard, who was welcomed by the largest applause I have heard since Robert Pattinson walked out into Hall H at the 2008 "Twilight" panel. Let's just say season four has a lot of naked Sookie and Eric (together!!!) to look forward to.

It should be noted that Skarsgard and Kristen Bauer van Straten have the cutest chemistry of the entire "True Blood" cast (sorry Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer). Read on to hear about some of their most precious moments after the jump.

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Tags Alan Ball, Alexander Skarsgard, Anna Paquin, Comic-Con 2011, True Blood

The good news about the upcoming season of "True Blood" is that the cast is finally back to work and has begun filming season four! The bad news, however, is a) we still have a long time to wait to see new episodes and b) the cast members are just too darned media savvy to slip up and deliver juicy plot details. Nevertheless! When MTV News caught up with Rutina Wesley and Sam Trammell at Spike's Video Game Awards recently, we begged them to tell us what their characters will be up to next season.

"I don’t know, I can’t tell you that! It’s like top secret info!" Rutina insisted. She then opened up just a touch to let us know that once again, Tara will be in for plenty of ups and downs.

"It’s going to be a wild ride for Tara, but I think she’s going to get some more stability—for a little bit anyway," she explained. "And some more power maybe, and I think maybe some happiness for a little bit, but that’s about all I can tell you."

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Tags Alan Ball, Rutina Wesley, Sam Trammell, True Blood, Video

Looks like Courtney Ford is the latest actress to be bitten by the vampire bug. She recently appeared on "The Vampire Diaries" as Duke graduate student Vanessa, and now she's the latest actress to come on board for "True Blood"'s fourth season. Just like on "The Vampire Diaries," Courtney will be playing a human character surrounded by vampires, but we're hoping her stint on "True Blood" lasts a bit longer. Deadline reports that she will be playing Portia Bellefleur, the stiff, lawyer sister of Detective Andy Bellefleur.

For those of you who have read the "Southern Vampire Mysteries" novels, you know that Portia's first appearance serves a very particular purpose in the Sookie-Bill romance. Considering the two of them weren't on the best of terms when season three finished, we could see Alan Ball cooking up a very similar plotline for the television series.

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Tags Alan Ball, Charlaine Harris, Courtney Ford, Fiona Shaw, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood

Big news, "True Blood" and "Harry Potter" fans! Fiona Shaw, who you likely know and love best as timid, squeaky and Dudley-absorbed Aunt Petunia in the "Harry Potter" flicks, has been cast as the newest series regular for season four of "True Blood," according to Deadline. She'll play Marnie, a storefront medium and palm reader described as "mousy, timid and secretly self-loathing." And as if the parallels didn't run close enough, she'll also be dealing with witchcraft!

Alan Ball has already said that season four is going to involve some witches, but anyone who's read "Dead to the World"—the Charlaine Harris novel that this season will mostly be based on—should already have figured out exactly who Marnie is (hint: she's pretty important). Deadline added that Marnie will be "taken over by the spirit of a powerful witch" during the course of the season. Uh, can anybody say "Hallow"?

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Tags Alan Ball, Fiona Shaw, Harry Potter, True Blood

The 2010 Spike Scream Awards are certainly one of the most fun awards shows on television—where else are genre nerds celebrated with such abandon? So it was unsurprising that instead of "Breaking Dawn" or "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," fans voted for "Green Lantern" as their most anticipated film ("It's a hell of a lot more gratifying than winning the 'Who Gives A F--k' award," Ryan Reynolds joked).

In that spirit, some of the surprise letdowns of the show were the uninspired acceptance speeches for the two "Twilight Saga" wins, first for Kristen Stewart as Best Fantasy Actress and then for "Eclipse" as Best Fantasy Film, and then with the much-hyped "Deathly Hallows: Part 1" exclusive clip, which really didn't give us much new footage. But there were plenty of surprise pick-me-ups in the show, like the "True Blood" sweep, a Sigourney Weaver appreciation and Rainn Wilson making fun of "Life As We Know It." If you missed the show last night, here's a recap of some of our favorite moments.

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Tags Alan Ball, Alexander Skarsgard, Anna Paquin, Breaking Dawn, Green Lantern, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Henry Ian Cusick, Ian Somerhalder, Kristen Stewart, Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Rainn Wilson, Scream 4, Sigourney Weaver, Spike Scream Awards, Stephen Moyer, True Blood, Twilight, Vampire Diaries, Zombieland

Why do we love Alexander Skarsgård so much, you might ask? Is it because he refuses to wear a modesty patch during his many nude scenes in "True Blood"? Is it because he's 6'4", blond and drop-dead-gorgeous? Is it because he's just that goddamn sexy? Well, it's all of the above and more, and fortunately all of those reasons collided in a recent interview he gave to GQ UK.

Everyone's been jumping on what Alexander had to say about working with Rihanna in "Battleship"—"She's great, she's really really good in it and her working... She's got a crazy schedule. She's really diligent and I'm impressed"—but we were more excited by what he said about that Rolling Stone magazine shoot and how he originally tried out for Bill in "True Blood."

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Tags Alan Ball, Alexander Skarsgard, Battleship, Rihanna, Stephen Moyer, True Blood

To be completely frank, one of the things I never expected to learn from anything "True Blood"-related were all the different words that rhyme with "mud." Yet here we are. "Sesame Street," in a move to include a bizarre array of pop-culture references that don't have anything to do with its target audience but everything to do with its target audience's parents, has made a spoof of the hit HBO show called "True Mud."

Here, Bill is a grouch instead of a vampire, and he has a deep craving for some true mud. Not a spud or a dud, dagnabbit, but mud! He shows up to the "Sesame Street" version of Merlotte's and is served in proper fashion by the muppet version of Sookie Stackhouse, and tries his best to get himself some of that True Mud. You're going to have to watch the video for yourself to figure out what he wants to do with it (hint: it's definitely not for drinking).

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Tags Alan Ball, Charlaine Harris, Sesame Street, True Blood

If there's anything we've learned from the previous two season finales of "True Blood," it's to expect the unexpected. Even fans of the books will have a tough time guessing what happens at the end of this season considering the television series has diverted so far from the novels (but definitely not in a bad way).

So when MTV caught up with the cast of "True Blood" at the HBO Emmy's party, we tried to get as much as we could out of the notoriously tight-lipped cast. What can we expect? "There's going to be a lot of blood and bite," Nelsan Ellis shared.

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Tags Alan Ball, Anna Paquin, Jim Parrack, Joe Manganiello, Nelsan Ellis, Stephen Moyer, Todd Lowe, True Blood, Video

A very happy birthday to actress Evan Rachel Wood, who turns 23 today! We at Hollywood Crush have been fans of the young actress since her early role in 1998's "Practical Magic," through her 2003 breakout alongside Nikki Reed in "Thirteen," and in her passionate turn in 2008's "The Wrestler." Of all her roles, though, we have loved none half as much as her portrayal of Queen Sophie-Ann Leclerq on HBO's hit show, "True Blood."

Like most of the TV series' characters, Sophie-Ann has been having a bit of a rough time this season. The finale is less than a week away, and we're sure there'll be some resolution of her storyline by then, but we hope that it doesn't end with a stake through her heart. For Evan's birthday, here's our wishlist of things that we hope do (and don't!) happen to allow her to stay around on "True Blood" for a bit longer. Alan Ball, take notes!

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Tags Alan Ball, Evan Rachel Wood, True Blood