A new episode of Smallville airs tonight beginning with 9.15 “Conspiracy” at 8/7c, and repeat episode 9.06 “Crossfire” immediately following.

Smallville will then be on a 4-week hiatus (airing repeats), and returning with new episode, 9.16 “Escape” on Friday, April 2nd.

Smallville 9.15 “Conspiracy” HQ promo-pictures are now in the gallery, thanks to “OSCK“!

You can view those in “Smallville Episode Promo Pictures”, and “Season Nine”.

Check out the newest trailer for “A Nightmare On Elm Street”, starring Smallville alum, Kyle Gallner (Bart Allen/Impulse), and a few other familiar faces, such as Thomas Dekker (TSCC), Kellan Lutz (Twilight) and Katie Cassidy (Supernatural):

(Coming to theaters April 30th)

Finally, some news about season ten! Read the latest from Ausiello below:

Question: Crazed fans like myself desperately need an update on Smallville’s renewal. How’s it looking? Any idea what the hold-up is? —Ryan
Ausiello: It’s looking really, really good. And the hold-up is due to boring stuff like contracts and money.

SOURCE: EW

Geoff Johns is featured on the “Writers Issue” of San Diego Comic-Con International’s 2010 magazine cover:

SOURCE: Comic-Con on Twitter

Will Tom Welling be directing another episode this season? Matt with “Fancast” has the scoop:

Matt, what is the second episode that Tom Welling will be directing this season on ‘Smallville’? – Scarlett
Something happened after Tom announced at last summer’s Comic-Con that he’d be directing twice – dude got superbusy, both as a producer of ‘Smallville’ and the cheerleading drama pilot of his that The CW just picked up. So as of right now, one source tells me, Tom sadly isn’t on the schedule to direct again this season.

SOURCE: Fancast

This just in from “IGN” – Gil Bellows has been cast in Smallville to play DC villain, Maxwell Lord!

Read below:

Gil Bellows, best known for his role on Ally McBeal, will portray the ruthless businessman, whose complicated history in the comics had him backing the Justice League during their Justice League International days, only to be revealed as a villain in recent years — beginning with his murder of Blue Beetle. More recently, after being killed by Wonder Woman, the comic book incarnation of Lord was resurrected as a Black Lantern.

SOURCE: IGN

I just added a few “Persuasion” screencaps to the gallery – you can view them by clicking here. I included some preview caps below:

Please note: I did not create caps for the entire episode.

Thanks to “SHoEpodcast” on Twitter, we have another Tom Welling candid that was taken at the Winter Olympics on February 12th posing with a fan. Simply gorgeous! *squee*

You can view it larger in the gallery under “Smallville Cast”, “Tom Welling”, and “Out & About”.

There is a brief interview with actor Wesley MacInnes, who played “Icicle” in Smallville’s Absolute Justice on “Starry Constellation Magazine”.

In his interview he talks about playing a villain, why he wanted to be a part of the show, the cast chemistry on and off the set, and more. You can read it here.

Thanks to “Starry Constellation Magazine” for the heads up!