If you’re keeping score on True Blood sex scenes, make sureto chalk up two  — what’s the family-friendly website term, manualmanipulations? — from last night’s episode. That made for acomparatively low-key offering, considering that so far this seasonwe’ve had raunchy couples, a human escort/meal ordered up from hotelroom service, and at least one orgy. In fact, True Blood’s stars are naked so often, you almost wonder why the show bothers to have a wardrobe department. Okay, maybe that’s a slightexaggeration, but really, the actors on HBO’s fang-banging vampiredramedy have to be comfortable with their bodies, since we’re seeing somuch of them. Series stars Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, who playSookie Stackhouse and vampire Bill Compton, have the most sex scenes(they accounted for one of last night’s grabfests), and they’re luckythey’re a real-life couple, as it’s gotta make things easier…or atleast seem less like work. (And how about that season-opening coupling?Jaw dropping!)

Ryan Kwanten, who plays Sookie’s brother Jason,was nude so frequently that series creator Alan Ball had to insert aline in the second season explaining how much the character worked out.(Unfortunately, Kwanten told me for my True Blood featurethat’s in this week’s issue of EW, in season 2, “I’ve only been halfnaked once in 10 episodes.”) Nelsan Ellis’ gay drug dealer Lafayette isso wild, his own parents can’t watch. Put it this way, says Ellis: Whenyour dad’s a deacon, “HBO is an island that’s far, far away.” SamTrammell, who plays shape-shifting bar owner Sam Merlotte, also wasafraid he’d offended relatives…sort of. When Trammell arrived at alocation shoot for a season 1 scene that had him running in the buffthrough the woods, he discovered that he was already familiar with thearea. “It’s on state-owned land, but it used to be owned, back in theturn of the century, by a great-great-grandfather,” he says. “I’ve got13 relatives buried there. I ran naked on old family land! And I’m sureevery one of those people turned over in their grave.”

To read more secrets on True Blood — both sexy andsacrilegious — check out my feature in this week’s issue ofEntertainment Weekly, on newsstands now. There’s scoop on the rest ofthe season’s twists and turns, and TB and Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball reveals the surprising and tragic reason why he is so fascinated with death. –Alynda Wheat

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