Given the task definition and input, reply with output. In this task, you are given news articles and you need to generate a highlight, i.e., a short summary, with a maximum length of 10 lines.

(EW.com) -- Chris Meloni has booked his first post-"SVU" gig -- and it's a bloody good one. The former star of the Dick Wolf drama will join HBO's "True Blood" in season 5 as "ancient, powerful vampire who holds the fate of Bill and Eric in his hands." He will be a series regular. Meloni's role on Alan Ball's drama marks a homecoming, of sorts: The actor previously played Chris Keller on the pay cabler's gritty drama "Oz" from 1998 to 2003. Earlier this year, Meloni decided to step down from playing Detective Elliot Stabler on the long-running NBC drama. See the full article at EW.com. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.

Christopher Meloni will join HBO's "True Blood" in season 5 .
He will play an "ancient, powerful vampire who holds the fate of Bill and Eric in his hands"
The actor previously played Chris Keller on the pay cabler's gritty drama "Oz"