After some dispiriting music-related news it’s good to read something hopeful regarding the industry. By which I mean the future depiction of its recent demise. Producers of the HBOs “The Wire” have purchased the rights to Steve Knoppler’s "Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age". The book describes everything from the technological transition of tape to CD to my time as a marketing intern at Interscope where the lead singer of Puddle of Mudd told me to shut the fuck up. Because he’s a man and a writer and as such thinks people care what he has to say, Knopper, a former columnist for Rolling Stone, has some ideas for the show and its musicians.

Barack Obama's favorite show is The Wire, and now he'll have a chance to join those illustrious crack dealers on HBO. According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO just closed a seven-figure deal with Edward Norton's Class 5 Films, who approached the Obama campaign in 2006 with intentions of filming a documentary about the politician's campaign and political history. Filmmakers Amy Rice and Alicia Sams were given special access to Obama and his inner circle and followed the campaign all the way to Grant Park this past Tuesday. Here's a preview of what it might look like in photo form.

This news breaks my little heart. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that HBO has decided not to renew their graphic relationship drama Tell Me You Love Me, despite the fact that it was one of the better shows on television. The news is especially troubling because I had the pleasure of speaking to one of the show's stars last month (Adam Scott), and although it isn't explicitly mentioned in the interview, he told me they were planning on starting shooting in January, with the new season slated to air sometime next year. The show's creator, Cynthia Mort, said that "given the considerable amount of time that has passed and despite the best efforts of everyone involved, we were unable to find the direction of the show for the second season." That's TV-speak for "not enough people gave a shit." Hopefully, HBO will put those prosthetic penises to better use.

I've seen Adam Scott have all kinds of sex. I've seen him make frustrated love, passionate love, even detached love (by far the hottest). I've seen him try to impregnate his wife and fail. I've seen her emasculate him in front of friends, I've seen his private confessions to a couples therapist, and I've seen his penis. But relax guys, it's just a TV show, albeit a hyper-realistic one. HBO's classy relationship drama "Tell Me You Love Me," is stuffed with are-they-or-aren't-they sex scenes that have gotten the show and its actors a lot of attention. It's one of the first things I ask Scott about, and he's quick to clear it up.

Television is ideally seen as a launching pad for by actors en route to film career. Look at what ER did for George Clooney, what Friends did for Jennifer Aniston, or what The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air did for Tatyana Ali. But recently, there’s been a wave of film stars retreating to the small screen, often to critical acclaim and ratings success. Take Martin Sheen in The West Wing, Glenn Close in Damages, and Holly Hunter in Saving Grace, as recent examples. Now, Coppola clan member Jason Schwartzman is taking a shot at serialization with a new HBO comedy pilot called Bored to Death.

Someone give baby Pearl a gold star. Two years ago the world’s youngest and booziest landlord launched FunnyorDie.com into the stratosphere of the blogosphere, or something like that. So far 57 million people have watched Pearl reduce Will Ferrell to the sniveling coward we all knew he was, and now HBO wants themselves a slice. The TV network—and despite their sloganeering, it is TV—has purchased a stake in the website Will Ferrel and Adam McKay launched two years ago. Rumors abound of 10 half-hours of FoD programming on HBO, co-produced comedy tours, and a dramatic series based on The Landlord, by "The Sopranos" creator David Chase. That last part was a joke. It’s being written by the guy who did "Deadwood".

Um, so Kim Cattrall—the one from SATC that doesn't care for Sarah Jessica Parker and the others—will star in and produce the American adaptation of "Sensitive Skin," a "sex-themed single-camera comedy project set in New York," according to the Hollywood Reporter. But she's not only plagiarizing herself circa Carrie and company, with the older gal unearths her dormant libibo shtick. No, she's also poaching from her 2005 partnership with HBO, the documentary Kim Cattrall: Sexual Intelligence, about an older gal who likes sex. Still not sure whether I'm bored or jealous.