BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- "Deadwood" fans should quit holding their breath for those two promised wrap-up movies. HBO executives said there's only a 50-50 chance they'll ever happen.

"Deadwood" creator David Milch is finishing up the first season of "John From Cincinnati" and he's "exhausted," according to HBO programming president Michael Lombardo. If the show gets picked up for a second season, he'll have to start writing "John" again soon to get the second season on the air next summer.

At that point, one critic rightfully said, "Whoa!" HBO let David Chase take years between seasons of "The Sopranos," why not give Milch time to finish "Deadwood" before returning to "John"?

"The truth of the matter is waiting a year-and-a-half between shows is probably not ideal for the viewer," Lombardo conceded.

"We'd love to find a way to do it," said HBO co-president Richard Plepler about the "Deadwood" movies. "I think the question is going to be whether or not all the actors can be pulled together, whether or not David is fully committed and motivated to getting the script written."

Milch was scheduled to attend HBO's star party Thursday night, where I had hoped to ask him about the "Deadwood" movies, but he was a no-show.

Doug Hyun, HBO Jane Alexander plays a therapist who counsels couples in HBO's frank, graphic "Tell Me You Love Me."

HBO's shocking new drama "Tell Me You Love Me," premiering Sept. 9, explores several couples in therapy and shows them in their most intimate moments, including the most graphic, borderline pornographic sexual scenes of what appears to be penetration, oral sex and actress Sonya Walger ("Lost") masturbating her on-screen husband (Adam Scott) to completion.

In an era post-"Shortbus," last year's film that featured actors performing the sex acts depicted by their characters on-screen, asking about how "Tell Me..." was made is absolutely legit. But producers kept dodging the question all the while hypocritically proclaiming the show's honesty.

After the press conference, creator Cynthia Mort continued to dance around the question, which only assured that the question would linger.

"They are actors first and they will not ask anything of themselves, nor will I ask anything of them that they are uncomfortable doing," Mort said, which isn't exactly a denial, especially to the ears of people who think Hollywood is Sodom and Gomorrah. Finally, she said, "No, they are actors that are committed to those characters."

And with that, it seems reasonably certain that the actors did not engage in the sex acts depicted on screen.

Mort would not discuss specifics of how the realism in the sex scenes was achieved (prosthetics, perhaps?), but she did say, "Sonya is not going to put her hands in a place that they shouldn't be."

Claudette Barius, HBO Larry David stars in "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

"Curb Your Enthusiasm" looked like it could have ended in its run last season when Larry (Larry David) went to heaven, but David said he ultimately decided to return because even though he's miserable doing the show, he's also miserable not doing it.

"Every season that I do is my last season. That's the only way I can get through the season," David said. "The way I trick myself is I tell everybody it's the last season and then I go, 'Oh, maybe I'll do another one.

"The season ended, the editing was done, and I went into my office and I'm sitting at my desk and I went, 'Geez, I don't have anything to do. What am I gonna do now?' I thought, 'This is very uncomfortable, I better do another season."

The 10-episode sixth season premiere Sept. 9 and it may or may not be the last hurrah.

"It could be the last show, it may not be the last show, I'm not sure," he said. "It was written as a could-be-the-last-show-ending and not-be-the-last-show-ending. Let's just see if I get back to my desk in October if I want to do it again."

David admits "there's a very fine line between TV Larry and me," which begs the question, since David is divorcing his real-life wife, will TV wife Cheryl (Cheryl Hines) get the boot should the series return for a seventh season?

"Oh, it's too bad you're gonna be off the show," David teased Hines. "Oh, what a shame. It's a good idea for the seventh season, by the way."

Co-star Jeff Garlin said he missed out on reprising his "Daddy Day Care" role in the upcoming sequel "Daddy Day Camp" for one simple reason: They didn't offer him enough cash.

"To be in a sequel to 'Daddy Day Care,' they have to offer you a lot of money," Garlin said, "because there's no joy in that."

Among other HBO series, "Extras" will return for a one-hour special that begins filming in August; The final season of "The Wire" kicks off in early 2008; "Real Time with Bill Maher," which begins its fifth season Aug. 24, will return for a sixth season in 2008; "Entourage" fans take note: A new trailer for the fake Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) movie "Medellin" will air after Sunday's episode.

HBO will buy a new comedy series from Matt Lucas and David Walliams,[cq] stars of the BBC hit "Little Britain." The sketch comedy will film in America this fall for airing in 2008 and will feature some existing "Little Britain" characters alongside new ones.

HBO's "John Adams" miniseries, based on the biography by Point Breeze native David McCullough, will premiere in the first half of 2008.

Coming soon: A chat with the executive producers of HBO's "Big Love" and a report on "The Kill Point" press conference.