[Video] 'Vampire Diaries' Star Ian Somerholder Talks Auditioning For 'True Blood' & Loving His Girlfriend

Hey Ian Somerhalder: please stop talking about your girlfriend. Especially when you're being interviewed for Newsweek's "7 Things" video series, and the questions you're being asked really have nothing to do with your special lady friend. I'm sure she's smart and funny and absolutely gorgeous (I hope you wouldn't settle for anything less), but I don't need to hear about her anymore. This way, I can pretend that our eight-year age difference won't matter when we finally meet and fall desperately in love. I mean what? Oh yeah, seven things we need to know about the guy, besides the unofficial number one (he loves his GF).

Apparently Ian sat down and thought about what he could reveal about himself that would make me love him even more, and his list reads more like a parody of a beefcake calendar than an actual list of facts about him. He is "obsessed with saving stray animals" (...with his girlfriend). He's an advocate of conservation and saving the environment — he even modeled as a kid for a calendar encouraging children to conserve energy. His tattoo says "here and now" in Latin. (Picture him saying these things with that adorable smile and his hands awkwardly in his pockets. Swoon.)

The "Vampire Diaries" star also told Newsweek that he loves playing Damon, the villain, because "he's justified in everything he does and he has a blast doing it." Ian thought he might not have gotten the part on "The Vampire Diaries" until he was vacationing in the desert (...with his girlfriend) and got a call that they wanted him on set at 11 the next morning. So he learned the first nine pages of the script while driving (...with his girlfriend asleep next to him) through the desert, pulling a semi-dangerous reading-while-driving maneuver.

Sadly, we won't be seeing Ian again until January, since "The Vampire Diaries" is away on winter vacation until then, but Ian's taking advantage of his free time by shooting a couple of episodes of "Lost" in Hawaii. This is probably major news for those of you who are major "Lost"ies (a.k.a. everyone in the world besides me), since Ian's character, Boone, died in the first season, but I'll take any opportunity I can get to see his beautiful face on television.

One opportunity we missed: Ian says he auditioned to play the role of Jason Stackhouse on "True Blood," but didn't get the part (obviously as Ryan Kwanten currently owns it). He's OK with it now, since he's got his own successful vampire show. I'm not going to lie, though, seeing him on naked-friendly HBO would've been nice, but since I think Ian's the best part of "The Vampire Diaries," I'm pretty fine with how things turned out.