One thing’s for sure right now, Vampires are totally the new black. Since Twilight made us fall in love with the very idea of falling in love with a vampire, it’s been hard to escape the vampire world. We’ve had the entire Twilight saga, True Blood, a slew of vampire related books, Vampire Weekend and now we have The Vampire Diaries on our tellys. The hit show is actually based on a book series written long before vampires were this red-hot. Wanna know more? We’ve got all the goss from the set, including interviews with two of the lead characters, Nina Dobrev and hottie Paul Wesley…

A beautiful love triangle

Protective Stefan or devilish Damon? Elena’s got a tough choice in front of her! Or, err, not so much if you’re against vampires who kill people! Regardless, both brothers are drop-dead gorgeous! So what’s it like in real life for Nina, playing opposite two great guys? “They are sweethearts!” she says. “I feel like we’ve developed a family environment already. That can happen pretty quickly on a show, because you’re together so much. And we’re filming in Atlanta, so we don’t know anyone. So we’re all kind of leaning on each other. Specifically with Paul and Ian, I bought my first car recently. I’d never owned a car before, and I had no idea what to do, how to go about buying one. Ian came with me to the dealership and helped me do it. He’s like my big brother. Paul is awesome, too. Working with them on set, they’re so cool and there’s a lot of laughing on set between takes. It’s a really good environment.”

Ian hearts the earth!

Ian grew up in Louisiana, which is one of the states currently affected by the devastating oil spill. Ian’s been desperate to do something to help out, so he jumped on a plane and headed to his old hometown to see what he could do. He even ended up sleeping in his rental car because everywhere was booked out and he couldn’t find a place to stay! He’s now trying to organise a telethon, or celebrity event to help bring awareness and cash to the oil-spill affected areas. “Coming from the entertainment world, I’m really shaken by how quiet Hollywood is,” he says. “And I say that out of respect for my peers and colleagues, but I’m really bummed that no-one is really coming up to help the situation. I think a telethon is a good way to funnel money into these channels… We need to set one of those things up to really paint a picture of exactly how much devastation is here. This is ground zero right now. I’ve been watching pelicans die… this place is going to need money.”
You can follow what Ian’s up to on Twitter – he’s www.twitter.com/Iansomerhalder.

Real life Vamp?!??

Nina says when she first met Paul she was struck by how vampire-ish he actually is in real life…which freaked her out a bit! “I’m still unsure about whether Paul is or isn’t a vampire,” she says. “Obviously, there’s the pointy teeth, but also, he just kept showing up everywhere. I would be out with the girls, having lunch or going shopping, and he would just be there, out of nowhere.”

"It’s not really a fad, it’s timeless. Vampires – they don’t die"

Ten mins with Paul Wesley.

1. Tell us about your character, Stefan.

I play a guy who is a couple of hundred years old. He’s a vampire who has decided not to feed on humans, and to make a long story short he’s desperately in love with a mortal girl. The conflict arises when his brother – who is also a vampire and evil-ish – arrives. Damon, my brother, is played by Ian Somerhalder and he comes in and is a reminder of my past life. He won’t let me go and pretend that I’m just this kid who’s in love. He is reminding me that I am this vicious monster. Then we have this love triangle and battle over Elena.

2. How does it feel to be the good vampire?

As opposed to the bad vampire? Well, it’s good, because actually I’ve been acting for 10 years and, for some reason, always gravitate towards the bad guy. I always play the bad guy. So playing the guy who is more inherently good is kind of a nice change.