All a-Twitter over Twilight/Nurse Jackie star

Peter Facinelli at Twilight premiere

PASADENA, Calif. -- By his latest count, actor Peter Facinelli has 1.5 million Followers on Twitter.

Most of them likely are lured by his continuing role as Dr. Carlisle Cullen in the Twilight movies. Perhaps a few also are entranced by the 36-year-old's portrayal of cocksure Dr. Fitch Cooper on Showtimes's acclaimed Nurse Jackie, which returns for a second season on March 22.

Since he raised the issue, locatetv.com inquired as to what he might tweet after Saturday afternoon's Nurse Jackie interview panel at the ongoing Television Critics Association "press tour."

He paused, girded himself and then mock-tweeted, "Just had a press conference. Hope the critics didn't fall asleep."

Facinelli prides himself on giving good tweet. After the session, he said -- in just over 140 characters -- "I enjoy what Twitter is because I can really connect with the fans. I like to keep my Twitter pure. I don't want to sell my Followers anything."

Sporting a t-shirt with an image of Oscar Wilde, Facinelli is reasonably well-rested at the moment after simultaneously working on the Twilight movies and Nurse Jackie's second season.

"I was going from Vancouver to New York like every three days," he says.

It got to the point where he broke down and cried during the filming of one particular Nurse Jackie scene.

"The script didn't call for that, but it was from sheer exhaustion," Facinelli says. The producers decided to leave the scene in rather than call for a re-shoot. All in a day's work.

***Earlier Saturday, Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt announced that this year's conclusion of The Tudors won't be the end of the network's relationship with long-ago "demented dynasties."

Coming sometime in early 2011, from the same creative team, is The Borgias, starring Jeremy Irons as cunning patriarch Rodrigo Borgia. His stomping ground is Renaissance-era Italy, circa 1492. That also proved to be an eventful year for a dude named Christopher Columbus.

***Sign o' these times: The CW network's two sessions for The Vampire Diaries and its new Life Unexpected series (premiering Jan. 18), positioned actors and producers on a stage where the words "Tweet, Blog, Text, Talk" flashed sequentially on a video screen.

Peter Facinelli should have been there.