Tastemakers

If HBO was in a lull after the end of pop-culture phenomenons Sex and the City and The Sopranos, it’s now back on top, drawing in 3.7 million viewers for the sophomore-season debut of Alan Ball’s vampire drama, True Blood. “I woke up this morning and felt like nothing could go wrong today,” says Naegle, who before becoming president of HBO Entertainment a year ago repped Ball as head of the literary division at UTA and packaged his hit series Six Feet Under. But she isn’t stopping with vampires. Next up are a Martin Scorsese–directed drama, Boardwalk Empire, chronicling Atlantic City’s casinos; and the fantasy Game of Thrones. And then there’s Hung, about a father who becomes a prostitute to support his kid. “What’s so great about Hung is, at first, it seems really provocative, but the issues are universal. That’s the beauty of the network—everything is thought out.”