VampDiaries.com

MTV reports:

Sean Faris may no longer be stalking the woods of Mystic Falls on the “Vampire Diaries,” but that doesn’t mean his dance with The CW is over. The 27-year-old actor has just been cast as the lead in the series “The Wyoming Project,” penned by “Gilmore Girls” writer Amy Sherman-Palladino. We’re betting execs saw his hot, hot Men’s Health cover and knew they couldn’t let the star flee too far.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the drama centers around Sean’s character Gideon Thorpe, “a horse trainer who becomes the patriarch of a Wyoming ranch responsible for his three younger sisters after their parents die.”

Reuters reports:

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Stephen Martines has landed a recurring role on the CW’s freshman drama “Vampire Diaries.”

He will play a vampire named Frederick who is locked in the tomb with Katherine (Nina Dobrev) and is up to no good when released.

The vampire drama has begun a six-week hiatus, returning with originals on March 25.

Stephen Martines, a former soap star who started off on “General Hospital” and “The Guiding Light,” recently had a recurring role on TNT’s crime drama “The Closer,” playing a news reporter who asked Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick) some tough questions.

Reuters reports that the CW has issued early series renewals to five shows, including the Vampire Diaries! They also note that TVD “quickly became The CW’s most-watched show, averaging 4.6 million viewers.”

Check out Fancast‘s interview with Katerine Graham, aka The Vampire Diaries’ Bonnie!

When Bonnie was haunted by Emily, how did you do all of those special effects?

We have a great stunts department. We have a great special effects crew. Whether it comes to fire or the floating feather trick, there’s such an intricate science behind all of those great scenes that you see. For the Emily stuff, we definitely had a safety meeting. When the amulet got thrown up there was somebody standing above me hidden by a tree with one of those specks of fire that looks like it’s rings of fire. They lit that pentagram around me. A lot of the stuff was actually done [live]. It wasn’t [put together] in post.

In the 19th century flashbacks, the witches and the vampires were working together. Now they are enemies. What caused the rift?

There’s definitely something that happened. A lot of the time it’s mostly vampires asking witches’ assistance, not the other way around. It’s having to offer a helping hand to protect someone. So certain things are being asked of witches that are not being asked of vampires. Something happened to make them be on bad terms. They obviously don’t trust each other.

Who are your closest friends in the cast?

I’m close with all the girls. From the beginning of the show, when we started shooting, we just bonded. I saw Kayla [Ewell, Vicki] last night. She’s one of my good friends. Nina [Dobrov, Elena] and I obviously have the most scenes together so we spend the most time together because but we’re really close. She’s great.

Have you had any funny bloopers?

There’s one that I can’t share because it hasn’t aired yet but it involves Jasmine Guy. Call me after it airs and I’ll tell you how funny it was. Any time Elena and I have to run somewhere out of fear we end up snickering. When Damon is in his vampire attire and hair and make up, Ian Somerhalder always pranks everyone.

Digital Spy reports:

James Van Der Beek may direct a future episode of The Vampire Diaries, Digital Spy has learned.

The former Dawson’s Creek star has entered discussions withDiaries creator Kevin Williamson, who also worked on Dawson’s.

Asked if the pair are still in touch, Van Der Beek replied: “Yeah I do talk to him actually – fairly regularly.”

He added that Williamson has not approached him for a part on The Vampire Diaries, but confirmed that they have been “talking about maybe going down and directing one of the episodes”.

Check out these newly-released promotion stills from episode 1.14 of the Vampire Diaries: “Fool Me Once”

The Futon Critic reports the following CW press release:

VAMPIRE DIARIES Builds on Last Week’s Midseason Return; Posts Best Ratings since Nov. 12

VAMPIRE DIARIES Again Ranks as Thursday’s #1 Show among Teens and Female Teens

January 29, 2010 (Burbank, CA) The CW’s freshman hit THE VAMPIRE DIARIES was on the rise last night, ranking either first or second in the 8:00-9:00p.m. hour among all key demographic categories, according to preliminary live plus same day Nielsen ratings for Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010. VAMPIRE DIARIES again ranked as Thursday’s #1 show on TV among female teens and teens.

VAMPIRE DIARIES took first place in its 8:00-9:00p.m. hour among females 12-34 (2.8/8-tie), female teens (2.8/10) and total teens (1.9/7). VAMPIRE DIARIES ranked second in the 8:00-9:00p.m. hour among women 18-34 (2.7/8), adults 18-34 (2.1/7), women 18-49 (2.3/6), adults 18-49 (1.8/5) and persons 12-34 (2.0/7).

VAMPIRE DIARIES improved on last week’s midseason return last week by 17% in adults 18-34, 8% in women 18-34, 13% in adults 18-49 and 15% in women 18-49.

VAMPIRE DIARIES delivered its best adults 18-34, adults 18-49 and total viewer (3.72mil) performance since Nov. 12.

People reports:

In an early episode of the CW’s hit drama, bad boy vampire Damon Salvatore (played by Ian Somerhalder) flipped through a book in the Twilight series and dismissed it, saying, “This book, by the way, has it all wrong.” Scoffing at the idea of a vampire that “sparkles,” he also added, “I live in the real world where vampires burn in the sun.”

The cast and writers of Vampire Diaries are aware that being the latest blood-sucking drama to unfold following the success of Twilight and True Blood will inevitably force comparisons, but they’re not worried by it.

“When the show first started … you automatically thought Twilight,” Nina Dobrev, who plays mortal heroine Elena Gilbert, tells Nylon magazine. “But once you continue, there’s a whole other side of it that goes a lot deeper. It’s about letting everyone know that we’re different but we all respect each other.”

E! Online reports:

Good news if you are a fan of Leighton Meester and Nina Dobrev: Their executive producer has promised to “work on” getting these real-life friends to guest star on each other’s CW shows.

Here’s what Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl executive producer Bob Levy tells me:

“I love that idea!” Levy said of having Nina guest star on Gossip Girl and Leighton guest star on Vampire Diaries some time in the future. The idea came up while I was chatting with Nina and Levy at a recent press event, and Levy said: “We’re gonna work on that. You have my word.”

Leighton and Nina became friends while shooting the upcoming big-screen movie The Roommate, set to come out later this year. And Nina told me she would jump at the chance to make a guest appearance on the Upper East Side. “Oh my god, I would love to be on Gossip Girl,” Nina said. “I feel like it’s hard to do because we’re both so busy. But I would love to, and I would for her to be on our show. Leighton would make a great vampire, I think!”

The hitch, of course, is working out the logistics, given that Vampire Diaries shoots in Atlanta and Gossip Girl shoots in New York. “The trick is tearing Nina away from Atlanta,” Levy explained. “She’s in almost every scene of every episode. So it’s hard scheduling-wise to work that out. But I love that pitch! Good pitch. We’re gonna work to make it happen.”