Alan Ball, the creative genius behind HBO’s Southern gothic vampire drama “True Blood,” has decided that next season on the show will be his last. At the dawn of a new season in which a Vatican-style theocracy takes hold of Sookie’s world, Ball discusses his decision with Wrap editor Sharon Waxman, and explains how Rick Santorum inspired this season’s storyline.

I’m sad. This will be your last season doing "True Blood"?
It’s just a question of mental and physical health. Running a TV show is huge. There’s a reason people take a year off and stuff like that. I’m at the point where the show is very strong. All the writer-...

In this week’s video, Howard Kurtz of Newsweek-Daily Beast and The Daily Download and I talk about President Obama’s growing reliance on Hollywood celebrities for his reelection campaign.

“I’ve gotten 10 emails from Obama inviting me to dinner with Sarah Jessica Parker,” says Kurtz. “It feels a little elitist.”

We also touch on the rest of the week’s news in media and politics:  the White House denouncing the national security leaks that led to two New York Times stories, Bill Clinton wandering off script on Romney and the Bush tax cuts and Harvey Weinstein hosting Clinton on CNN.

Let us know your thoughts.

Other WaxWord video:

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At 63, singer-songwriter Jackson Browne retains the lanky brown hair and honey singing tones of his youth. But what becomes of a folk poet in his sixth decade? The composer of “The Pretender,” “Doctor My Eyes,” “Take It Easy” and many other soulful hits now spends much of his time giving back to the causes close to his heart – arts education, the environment and anti-nuclear activism.

On June 9 he will perform a benefit at the Orpheum Theater in downtown L.A. to support Success Through the Arts Foundation with jazz musician Wayne Shorter and Lizz Wright. He sat down for a rare interview with Wrap editor in chief Sharon Waxman to talk about creativity, politics and a body of work that has permanently marked American music. (Video excerpts below.)

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Those of us who turned on CNN (a dwindling number of people, to be sure) needed to pinch ourselves on Thursday when we found Harvey Weinstein, in his signature black suit with white shirt and black tie, seated in the host’s chair.

What was Harvey Weinstein doing on our television? Piers Morgan put him there. Weinstein – movie mogul, distributor of “The Artist” and maker of “Pulp Fiction”– turned newsman in a gig for the absent Piers Morgan.

Even better: the guest was Bill Clinton.  

This may make sense for Weinstein, a media junkie who has a deep-seated love-hate relationship with the press, if less so for CNN.

It stands to reason that Weinstein, the most media-sensitive mogul on the planet, would leap at the chance to be in the power position of TV host. That's the kind of role that usually only people...