The New Season: Ladies lunch with a vampire

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We have just returned from breaking bread at a “Ladies Who Lunch With Vampires.” It was CBS publicist Beth Haiken’s idea (and we must add a very relevant note: She is very pregnant at the moment. Read: hormones) — to invite seven female members of the press to have a private lunch with CBS’ new resident hottie: Alex O’Loughlin.

As dear Beth explained at the top of the hour — and we must add here that Beth is a TV critics’ darling — she decided to call the group together after being left breathless by the “Moonlight” pilot, which she watched with her husband. Then she heard there were other women across the nation having trouble breathing, namely her female colleagues at Television City in Beverly Hills and Black Rock in New York.

This tale embarrassed the 29-year-old O’Loughlin and those of us who might be covering his show, but we moved past it, mostly because he seems to be a grounded, good-natured guy who cracks joke like, “I live my life with lightness and laughter, unless I’m playing Xbox! Then it’s about death!”

O’Loughlin confessed he’s never been to a press tour and is a little bit nervous about facing the 250 or so assembled critics. He knows the tough questions are coming. His entire ensemble cast was fired after the pilot was picked up to series, and most of the pilot script has been rewritten. His first call time is at 4:30 Thursday morning.

But first, he had to face the critics. More on how he handled himself after the jump.

(Photo: Robert Voets / CBS)

One of the ladies who lunched with the vampire, Ellen Gray of the Philadelphia Daily News, prompted him on stage to retell a story he had told us, and one he desperately wants to get out.

Contrary to widespread rumors and printed articles around the world, Alex O’Loughlin is not the son of the late Bon Scott of AC/DC. The actor, who will play a private eye who is a vampire on CBS’ “Moonlight,” said he learned of the rumors a year ago from a friend.

“I was shocked,” he said. “And I was thrilled! Secretly, I rock all the time. I do rock a little bit. I play music very badly. I’m Australian and I grew up with AC/DC. But then my mum called me and she was very upset at being publicly labeled a groupie and therefore a hussie … Which isn’t true at all. Since he’s passed on and he can’t speak the truth, I should speak up for him. I’m pretty sure he’s not my dad.”

So who is his father? Well, you wouldn’t know him. But he teaches physics and astronomy at a private boy’s school in Sydney and is in a book club with his only son. Awww, how sweet.

With the panel now over, we can report that the vampire survived and didn’t suck.

-- Maria Elena Fernandez