I remember the day I got hold of New Moon, the second book of the Twilight saga. I was so deeply engrossed in this vampire love story that I missed voting for myself in the college elections. Thankfully I won so no regrets!

The credit for that simply goes to the author of the Twilight series, Stephanie Meyer, who has described the raw emotion in so much detail that you cry and feel the pain of the characters as if it were your own, you laugh and rejoice with them and you can't stop thinking about them for days. It is as if the scenes are being played in your mind and you create your own movie version of the whole story. But for those with weaker imagination, Summit Entertainment has begun the filming of all four parts of the Twilight saga. The first movie in the series, Twilight, was released last November. It was an instant hit and debuted at #1 at the box office with $70 million.

The next installment in the series releases today. I'm not sure about its release date in Pakistan, but I hope it doesn't take too long. The fans all over the world are eagerly waiting for the movie and to satiate those Twi-Hards who read Us magazine, I've written this exciting piece filled with tidbits about the movie, background information about the lead actors and their juicy comments about the experience called New Moon.

Storyline

Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the irresistible Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). Suddenly she finds herself drawn into the world of the werewolves, ancestral enemies of the vampires, and finds her loyalties tested.

Stars

You'd be surprised to find out that Kristen Stewart who plays Bella is actually very similar in nature to Bella Swan. She hates undue attention and is in fact very shy! KStew wears brown lenses for the movie because she has green eyes whereas Bella is supposed to have chocolate brown eyes. And believe it or not, she is also a guitar player and singer. She reads novels by Charles Bukowski and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Her favourite books are East of Eden by John Steinbeck and The Stranger by Albert Camus. Wow! I sure am impressed by her various talents. So it turns out that all pretty ladies are not shallow. Well, I guess there's still hope for me then (haha who am I kidding!). She says about New Moon, "It's just a glorified, elaborate version of the worst breakup you've ever been through. All of a sudden you question everything. All of a sudden you know nothing and you're dropped in the middle of a freezing cold ocean."

Well, nobody could've summed it up better than KStew did.

Her lead co-star is Taylor Lautner portrayed as Jacob Black -- the werewolf friend of Bella who cheers her up in the darkest period of her life. Taylor is a keen martial artist who has won many karate tournaments on local, national and international levels. In his spare time, Taylor loves playing football and baseball. Taylor was bitten by the acting bug when he was seven years old, after his martial arts instructor persuaded him to audition for a part in a Burger King ad in Los Angeles. Although he was unsuccessful, he enjoyed the experience so much that he told his parents he wanted to pursue a career in acting. In an attempt to keep the role for New Moon, Lautner weight-trained extensively and gained approximately 30 pounds because drastic physical changes occur in his character in New Moon.

He is very humble about his new found fame and says, "I think fans would love anybody who played Jacob. I'm just lucky to be the one who got the chance."

The supporting role in New Moon is played by Robert Pattinson as the devastatingly handsome vampire, Edward Cullen. He appears in Bella's dreams and has significant parts in the beginning and the end of the movie. As his workload has been lessened in this movie, Rob feels, "I don't have to hold the movie or worry about the fans. I think I did it better without all those pressures." Well, could he get any better?

Like Chace Crawford, Rob broke into the entertainment industry as a model. He has that pretty boy-model-y look to him -- the wavy hair that begs to be styled, the sallow cheeks, the thick eyebrows. However, he has not always been like. "Up until I was 12 my sisters used to dress me up as a girl and introduce me as 'Claudia'! Twelve was a turning point as I moved to a mixed school and then I became cool and discovered hair gel," Pattinson shares

The Twilight hottie is an excellent musician and plays both the guitar and piano. He began taking piano lessons when he was three and started learning classical guitar when he was five. He also appeared on the soundtrack of Twilight with songs "Never Think", which he co-wrote with Sam Bradley, and "Let Me Sign", which was written by Marcus Foster and Bobby Long. "Music is my back-up plan if acting fails," he says.