HBO Panel Ducks Questions About Sex

Critic: I'm assuming it was fake, but how did you go about making it look so authentic, and why did you have to do that?

Actress Michelle Borth: The sex scenes in any of the episodes are a pretty integral part of the story line. We are not porn stars. We're actors.

("We are not porn stars" -- we think that's a Press Tour first.)

Critic: Question for the producers: I'm not even sure how to word this and believe me, people for the last two days have been trying to figure out a way. Is there anywhere in this that there's, I don't know, CGI, prosthetic? . . . Could Jane Alexander be holding something that is not David Selby[the actor who plays her husband] at a certain point?

Exec producer Gavin Polone: I'm not sure and I don't think you need to get into it.

The critics are now pretty much done with Polone.

Similarly, after a critic tells actor Tim DeKay his character is the most intriguing because he clearly loves his wife but is unwilling to have sex with her, and then asks, "What is the problem?," DeKay goes all tongue-tied.

"Wow, these personal questions -- they go zing!" he says.

This strikes critics as odd, not thinking of him as a shrinking violet after watching his tour de force masturbation performance in the opening scene of the first episode.

Polone jumps back in, uninvited, asking DeKay if he has sex with his real-life wife.

"I do have sex with my wife," DeKay answers, increasingly flustered. Turning to the critics, Polone says, "I feel like you're asking Tim about Tim and [his actual wife] Lisa, which is not what you're asking at all."

"Do you understand your character?" the critic asks, trying to make the distinction.