HBO honchos announced they were picking up Entourage (8 million viewers a week), Hung (10 million) and -- hooray! -- True Blood, which, with 11 million viewers a week, is knocking on the heavy door set by The Sopranos as HBO's most popular original series. All will return next summer.

But, before that, season two of True Blood will wrap up with Evan Rachel Wood (and, my, hasn't she grown up?) as Queen of the Vampires. She "totally delivers," says Michael Lombardo, president of HBO programming. "I don't want to give anything away, but wait till you see her."

Other HBO programming notes: Big Love is back in January. Flight of the Conchords? "We're ready when they're ready," says Lombardo. In Treatment, based on an Israeli show that only ran two seasons, will have trouble getting new scripts written, but star Gabriel Byrne is waiting. And, coming in March, HBO has another sprawling World War II mini-series coming from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, this one set in the Pacific.

And what of Boardwalk Empire, the period piece (early 20th Century) series featuring Steve Buscemi that was being shot this spring in Atlantic City under the auspices of Martin Scorsese? "We're anxiously awaiting the director's cut of the pilot so we can greenlight it," says Lombardo. "We're set up to go. What we've seen so far is fantastic, big, everything we hoped it would be."