‘The Vampire Diaries’ season 5 notes: Candice Accola’s video, Ian Somerhalder’s birthday

As you start to prepare yourself for the “Vampire Diaries” midseason finale on Thursday night, why not enjoy a few little updates on what some of the stars are doing away from the show? We’ll start here with Candice Accola, mostly because she’s found herself some time away from playing Caroline Forbes to star in a brand-new music video.

In case you have not heard already, Candice is engaged to guitarist Joe King of The Fray. Therefore, it’s not exactly much of a surprise to find out the news that she is featured in the alternative band’s brand-new music video for the song “Love Don’t Die.” Not only that, but she even has an opportunity to be saved by her man after a situation at a bar turns a little bit chaotic.

None of this is really a surprise at all, given that Candice does have a background in music as well. Not only that, but she performed a song during one of the early “Vampire Dairies” seasons.

Other happy news – In particular, we’re talking about a happy birthday for Ian Somerhalder! The man behind Damon Salvatore is now 35 years old, and ultimately has had the opportunity to get all sorts of well-wishes from around the world, and also raise money for charity using his celebrity status and his birthday for donations.

In addition to having his name trending all over social media, Ian shared a post on his own Twitter account talking about his birthday:

“Dear Mom, Thanks for pushing me out into this beautiful, magical & insane world to be challenged, loved and ALIVE…”

Ian’s character of Damon has had quite a big role in “The Vampire Diaries” as of late, at least in that we have learned so much more about Damon in some past science experiments. All of this will culminate again in “50 Shades of Grayson” on Thursday, but in case you are really the impatient type, just click here to watch a sneak peek. We will have some more news soon.

Photo: The CW