Team Eric, Team Bill & Season 3 Tidbits from the Paley Center – LIVE (SPOILERS)

The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills is hosting a True Blood writers panel this evening, featuring Alan Ball, Alexander Woo, Nancy Oliver, Brian Buckner, Kate Barnow, and Elisabeth Finch. The panel is being moderated by PopWatch’s Alynda Wheat. As usual we have operatives in place to report back to us with juicy tidbits in advance of a full report coming later. The panel begins at 7PM PT; keep refreshing for the latest and beware of spoilers!

Writers Brian Buckner, Nancy Oliver, Raelle Tucker, creator Alan Ball and writers Kate Barnow, Elisabeth Finch and Alexander Woo attend The Paley Center for Media's "Inside the Writers Room: True Blood"

On the Red Carpet

• Raelle Tucker’s favorite character to write for – currently – is Jessica.
• Alexander Woo says that the scenes at the Fellowship of the Sun when the vampires and humans are fighting were among his favorites to shoot.
• Alan Ball observes that all of the characters are his “babies”, but he especially likes writing for Jason. Alan also reveals that his favorite parts of season 2 include “the growing sexual attraction between Eric and Sookie, the Dionysian revelry, and Jason watching Sarah.”
• Alan confirms that Alcide will appear beginning in episode 3.03. He has not yet been cast.
• Regarding Bubba, Alan says that he loves the character in the books, but “because he’s Elvis there’s no way we can do it” on the show.

The Panel

• Alan says he’s not a fan of stunt casting. Looks like Snoop Dogg won’t be getting his wish.
• Alan thinks episode 1.05, “Sparks Fly Out”, is where True Blood hit its stride.
• Alan: “I will admit to oftentimes saying, ‘Come on, can we just get his [Ryan Kwanten’s] shirt off?'”
• Nancy Oliver feels lucky to be on pay cable because pretty much anything goes. “We can do a story about priapism.”
• Our girl Raelle Tucker on Sookie: “What makes Sookie an amazing character is that she feels as though she has a disability, she feels hopelessly flawed.”
• Alexander Woo says True Blood fans are the best looking fans in the world. (Yeah we are!)  Alan appreciates the fans’ enthusiasm and Raelle thinks True Blood fans have great costumes.
• Raelle reveals a soft spot for Lafayette: “I am a dirty little slut for Lafayette, even if I’m not his type.”
• Expanding on comments made on the red carpet, Alan says he enjoys writing for Jason and Lafayette, Raelle enjoys writing for Hoyt and Jessica, and Brian likes writing for Eric.
• Alan knows what the fans want: “Alexander Skarsgard appears without most of his clothes in the very first episode of S3.”
• We find out where Bill is in episode 3.01.
• Fans in the audience are expressing their unhappiness with Evan Rachel Wood as Sophie-Anne. Alan takes it in stride.
• Nothing new coming out of the fan part of the Q&A: lots of new characters in season 3, including possibility of the Newlins; Maryann is totally dead; the theme for season 3 is “identity”; Sookie will be driven to find out more about what/who she is/
• Ah, some reassurance for Team Bill: “Bill will not be marginalized. Bill and Sookie will have troubles, but Bill and Sookie have a connection that will not die.”
• And something else for Team Eric: Alan confirms that Eric will get amnesia in season 4.
• The fans gave Alan a standing ovation for the last scene of Six Feet Under.
• Alan says we’ll see more Pam and Nan Flanagan in season 3, groans at mention of pink spandex.
• Godric’s death scene was partially live, partially green screen and they got it in only two takes!
• Alan confirms that we’ll see Godric again in flashbacks in season 3.
• Alan also confirmed that season 3 will launch in June 2010.

That’s a wrap! Our reporters on the spot are sticking around to get more photos and (hopefully) some autographs. We’ll have photos and a full report tomorrow.