From her first appearance as Daisy, the angel-faced porn actress on Season 2 of Californication, Carla Gallo added some spunk and a heavy dose of potty humor to the show, more than holding her own with male co-stars David Duchovny and Evan Handler.

It’s not the only time the Ivy league educated actress has played a raunchy role. Gallo is one of the regular players in Judd Apatow’s merry troupe, working with him on the series Undeclared and later turning up as “Toe-Sucking Girl” in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, “Period Blood Girl” in Superbad, and “Gag Me Girl” in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. She also played a stripper on the HBO series Carnivale.

“Here I am, having gone from stripper to porn—porn actress—and [my friends] are like ‘Why you?’…. I’m not that girl. I’m the girl next door, not the sex symbol,” Gallo said in a recent interview with the Harvard Crimson.

She went on to say her good-girl looks and wholesome on-screen personality set up an interesting tension between viewers’ expectations of her characters and the reality.

As for whether she’ll be back for Season 3, Gallo isn’t sure. She ended up with the guy in the Season 2 finale, but she says “I don’t know how long the pornstar who breaks up a marriage gets to stay in the picture. I’m not sure it will be a happily ever after.”

Image: Newscom

Californication Season 2, episode 12: “La Petite Mort”

Scheduled air date: December 14 on Showtime

On the next Californication:

• Hank finishes his now posthumous biography of Lew Ashby.
• Karen gets a great job offer.
• Mia takes off on a coast-to-coast book tour.
• Sonia delivers the baby.
• Marcy files for divorce.
• Charlie settles into his new life with Daisy, in the valley.
• Becca gets a new iPod, with an awesome playlist.
• Surfer Girl makes a cameo appearance.

That’s it for this season, folks. But Showtime signed on for a third season of Californication, so look for new episodes in 2009.

 “Blues from Laurel Canyon”

Air date: December 7, 2008

Coming up on the next episode of Californication:

• The New York Times reviews Mia/Hank’s book — positively.
• Mia holds a book party at Lew Ashby’s.
• Marcy returns from rehab and finds her sobriety sorely tested.
• Dani California reappears and gives Charlie advice.
• Lew and Becca bond, to Karen’s amazement.
• There’s a girlfight, and it’s not on the set of one of Daisy’s movies.
• Events take a tragic turn.

 ”In Utero”

Scheduled air date: November 30, 2008

• Hank and Karen go to the doctor to get the “lump in his junk” checked out. The doctor does a biopsy and says it could be anything — swollen lymph node, STD, cancer.
• Throughout the episode, Hank flashes back to his early relationship with Karen. In New York, the day Kurt Cobain died, Karen tells him she’s pregnant. They’ve both been cheating on their partners to be together. Not exactly the best way to start a family.
•  While they wait for the doctor’s results, Hank and Karen sleep together again. Becca asks if they’re back together or if something’s wrong. They say they’re not back together and nothing’s wrong. Becca says they’re liars.
• Hank gets together with Charlie to talk about his penile scare and confesses he thinks he screwed everything up with Karen and Becca. Not like Charlie and Marcy, who’ve always had a strong marriage. Charlie, who’s still sleeping with Daisy, is really uncomfortable.
• Hank asks Karen whether she really kissed Lew Ashby. When Ashby shows up later, Hank chases him around the house. Fruit is thrown. The doctor’s call is missed.
• Daisy tells Charlie she found a new place, and she’s done with porn. Charlie congratulates her and invites himself over to christen the new apartment.

“La Ronde”
Air date: November 25, 2008

Coming up on the next Californication:

Madeline Zima, who plays Mia on Californication, has recently granted a few interviews to promote the show’s new season and her upcoming movie, Driving Lessons, with Selma Blair.

Here are a few of the deets from Madeline’s recent chat with Complex magazine. We’ve also got a behind-the-scenes video from the the 23-year-old’s saucy photo shoot. Check it out:

Madeline loves geeks. If you’re into computers, gamer magazines and comic books, you might have a shot. “I really have a strong attraction to the nerdiest of guys,” she says.

The “F**king & Punching” scene that turns into the basis for her character’s pilfered memoir was one of Madeline’s favorite moments last season. “There’s 10 million things that guys do to girls that are gross—for a girl to come back and shake it up was nice.”

Now that she’s done nude scenes, filming in the buff doesn’t bother her anymore. “Pulling your pants back up after it’s over, that’s the worst part. Standing around naked is natural— it’s nice.”

With all the buzz about David Duchovny’s misfortune (rehab for sex addiction, ultimatum from wife Tea Leoni, etc.), it would be easy to forget about the other drama swirling around the set of Californication.

Months after losing her surgeon husband, whose heart suddenly gave out in May, Natascha McElhone is bravely soldiering on with his legacy in mind. In four weeks she’ll deliver the couple’s third child. In a moving interview with The Times of London, she shares how she reacted to the news of his death, what her plans are for the short term, and why she thinks her husband would approve.

“I’ve never been one to believe in spirits, but I feel we’re all suffused with him in different ways and that will live on, in me, in the kids, in this new little one that’s just coming along,” she says. “The amazing thing is how you can keep going if you have to. ”

She’ll keep going by adding another film to her resume, too. McElhone is set to star in Heaven and Earth, a biopic about James Miranda Barry, who in 1812 while disguised as a man became the first woman to graduate medical school and practice medicine in Great Britain. Barry was the first UK surgeon to perform a successful c-section, saving the lives of the mother and her baby.

The production, led by Oscar-winning director Marleen Gorris, will start filming in England and South Africa in 2009. Friends say McElhone’s portrayal will be an homage to her husband, who performed reconstructive plastic surgery in London and co-founded the international medical charity Facing The World.

McElhone returns to Showtime in the second season of Californication Sept. 28. Watch the debut episode online now by entering the passcode “Lady Killers.”

Here’s a midweek treat.

You can get VIP access to Showtime’s unedited versions of the premiere episodes of Dexter and Californication now — two weeks ahead of the Sept. 28 air date — by clicking on this link.

Once you’re there, enter the code “Lady Killers” (Gotta admit, this made me chuckle. ‘Cause, you know, one main character kills with the ladies and the other actually kills them. So it works on two levels).

But I digress. Check out the sneak peek premieres, then bop back over here and share your opinions with the rest of us Showtime fans.

Images: Courtesy of Showtime

Despite his sex addiction, David Duchovny isn’t cheating on wife Tea Leoni, according to today’s New York Post.

Citing an unnamed “pal” who spoke to corporate cousin Fox News, the Post says DD isn’t shtupping anyone besides his wife, but rather is addicted to Internet porn.

The source said Leoni knew of Duchovny’s problem and was supportive of his efforts to get help. She recently canceled her appearance at the Toronto Film Festival, where she was to promote her new movie, Ghost Town, in which she co-stars with British Office phenom Ricky Gervais. She’ll apparently miss the movie’s debut to stay by her husband’s side.

Duchovny’s rehab stint won’t affect Californication’s second season, which already has 12 episodes in the can, but a Showtime spokeswoman said whether the network will sign on for a third season hasn’t been decided. Season 2 debuts on Sept. 28.

I’m soooooo excited for the second season of Californication. And if you weren’t yet, you will be after watching this sneak peek.

As Natascha McElhone says, it’s irreverent (and not a lot of TV shows are that any more) and it’s not formulaic (ditto).

Or, to loosely quote series creator Tom Kapinos, it’s a show that has more heart, balls and swagger than it knows what to do with. Check it out: