For its fourth season of Hard Knocks, HBO insists it won't give in to the tabloidization of everything in life, and that its sports show about a professional football team during training camp — this season it's the the Dallas Cowboys — won't make much of, say, Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson's relationship. Instead, insists NFL Films president Steve Sabol, "Ninety-five percent of our efforts will be focused on what happens on the field and in the locker room." And don't think that means frontal shots of Terrell Owens.

So why pick a team like the Cowboys, which is rife with gossip page nuances — Romo-Simpson, Vegas stripper shooting personality Adam "Pacman" Jones, larger than life owner Jerry Jones — and not deliver the gossip-y footage? Because, says Sabol, "there is good drama with these characters, and there are arresting personalities from the administration down to the field."

Alas, so many missed opportunities! No chance to see Jones try and negotiate his way back into the NFL. No chance to see Jones try to buy Cowboys.com. And no chance to see Simpson lead Romo around by the hand before throwing him in the back of a SUV and darting off to their separate hotel — to stay out of the team's spotlight — for an evening of tabloid speculation.

Because vampires are all the rage right now, HBO is getting in on the act with its new fall series True Blood. It's show about a group of vampires living in modern society, and they will probably address all those questions about silver bullets, crosses, and daylight. But what makes the show worth even being interested in, of course, is the marketing leading up to it. HBO's main gimmick for the show is Tru Blood, an "energy drink" made of your favorite O or AB- platelets. Perhaps you've seen advertisements for it on billboards or websites like ours. There's also the website BloodCopy.com, a faux news blog for all things vampires. And some tube of synthetic blood that will likely appear in the mailboxes of television critics.

Which is all well and good, but when it comes to marketing a show about bloodsports, HBO's True Blood has a worth adversary.

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It only took the $146 million grossing Sex and the City movie to make HBO sound semi-relevant again, and the pay-cable channel doesn't intend to let that buzz disappear so quickly. Already execs are working on a second SATC movie, and the low-rated but buzzworthy In Treatment and Tell Me You Love Me are expected to return for sophomore seasons. HBO still won't be carrying Weeds, Dexter, or This American Life, but another season of Curb Your Enthusiasm and the introduction of vampire series True Blood might be reason enough to hang on to your subscription.

Jumping on the tribute train, HBO changed up its schedule to squeeze in hours and hours of George Carlin specials. And remember, HBO is a pay channel, which means none of that censorship nonsense. [TV Zone]

HBO will broadcast Taxi to the Dark Side, the documentary about an (innocent) Afghan taxi driver tortured to death by U.S. officials at Bagram Air Base, which was originally set to air on the Discovery Channel, which backed out of its contract to air it before the election. It will air in September, on HBO. And then on Discovery … in 2009. [TP]

Perhaps HBO was waiting to see the box office receipts for Sex and the City before announcing – or officially inking – Kim Cattrall's new deal with the network? After SATC cleaned up this weekend with $55.7 million, HBO and Cattrall reveal she'll exec produce and star in Sensitive Skin, a single-camera comedic British import. [THR] It's part of a development deal Cattrall signed when she agreed to do the feature film, which explains why there's a "significant penalty" to be paid if HBO kills the series. (She also teamed with HBO for 2005's Kim Cattrall: Sexual Intelligence.)

Cattrall may have a reputation of being a catty actress, but she's also very much responsible for getting her, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon much higher paydays. She took the public relations hits for it, and now it appears to have paid off.

If you need a reason to find fault with HBO's election process flick Recount, boy do we have ample talking points for you.

Also, if you want to find a reason to defend Recount, we've also got your manifesto.

Like a Choose Your Own Adventure, in this Kevin Spacey flick, you can choose what you want to believe.

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When you think of Jeremy Piven, you think of an Emmy-winning actor, Ari Gold, and hair plugs. This fall, add Broadway star, as the Entourage misfit takes one of the leads in Speed-the-Plow, which returns to the Great White Way after a twenty year hiatus. Piven will play one of "two dueling movie producers," which means he'll have to stretch the capacity of his ego exactly one-half a centimeter.

Do viewers still care about Lady Liberty and its surroundings? HBO sure thinks so, which explains why they've got what sounds like 10 different series about New York City on their plate. [WWD]

HBO, the premium cable network that claims it cares only about subscribers and not viewers, is desperately stabbing at viewers for its critically acclaimed, dismally rated psychology series In Treatment. (Blair Underwood uses a fancy coffee machine! What more do you people need?!) So now it's giving away the show for free on HBO.com. Oooh, and they have a YouTube channel, which is the savior of all old media. [AI]

So, The Wire. It’s kind of a big deal. It’s HBO’s rebound show after The Sopranos. Also if you read that New Yorker profile of David Simon, the show’s creator, the guy comes off as kind of a genius.

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In every group of friends, there’s always one person who is too into The Wire. This guy is constantly chastising you for not watching the show and thinks he’s too good for Law & Order SVU. Whatever, Law & Order SVU really isn’t so bad. It’s certainly better than thinking.

Anyway, this friend is about to get the backing of the MSM, as the final season of The Wire takes place at a degenerating paper that’s a stand-in for The Baltimore Sun.

The season hasn’t even started yet, and Variety is already breathless over it:

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SHOWTIME DIDN'T WANT HER "The amazing Tina Brown is in a newly struck, first-look deal to bring projects and story ideas to HBO, the TV network that also seems to understand "buzz" and great storytelling versus the hackneyed stuff that is on the networks." [Liz Smith]

If the steroids were baseball’s Watergate, then Mark Fainaru-Wada is Bob Woodward. Along with Lance Williams, Fainaru-Wada broke the Balco steroid scandal for the San Francisco Chronicle. Sadly, the public is more forgiving of lies when homeruns are attached.

Now Fainaru-Wada is taking his scoops to ESPN, ESPN.com and ESPN the magazine. He joins Rick Reilly who left Sports Illustrated last month for a $10 million deal.

ESPN’s recently launched the newsmagazine show E-60, which is sort of like HBO’s Real Sports, but not as good. Still, with this hire, ESPN seems posed is overtake SI for serious sports journalism. Apparently that shouldn’t be so hard.

HBO's novel attempts at staying current just keep on failing. From Project Greenlight to Flight of the Conchords – oh, wait, that's still on the air? okay, we'll use Lucky Louie as an example instead – nothing is working out for 'em. Including This Just In, the comedy site the Time Warner pay station launched at the end of last year that was supposed to be a grooming ground for new talent. Oh, and showcase irreverant stabs at humor. It's too bad Will Ferrell's vehicle Funny Or Die beat 'em to it: HBO announced it's closing down the site in full by August.

But hey, at least they've got that uber-expensve HBO Voyeur campaign going for them. So creative. So cutting edge. So done by summer.