Gossip Girl

It's getting hard to keep up with all the planned 30 Rock guest appearances, isn't it? We need a calendar.

Last week Jennifer Aniston was announced. Then Oprah joined her. And now, Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that Gossip Girl stars Leighton Meester and Blake Lively will appear on the multi-Emmy nominated comedy during November sweeps in a flashback as former high school classmates of Tina Fey's Liz Lemon.

As fans of both shows, this mash-up is like a dream come true. But considering that neither show has any real audience to speak of, is this a wise move?  read more »

"Eat the cake! Do it for real now!" the photographers were shouting at Abigail Lorick's spring/summer '09 presentation on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 4, at a penthouse in the garment district.

They were screaming at the models, who in a counter-Fashion Week moment were asked to eat large, tiered cakes covered with pink and blue frosting as they stood around in confection-colored party frocks (also tiered) and '50s-style hairdos.

The "Cake Coma" room was just one of seven live-action sets built for Ms. Lorick's presentation, titled "A Room of One's Own." The other rooms included a bedroom scene with models in silk garments poised atop an oversize bed, a garden scene, and a library set that we're sure would've delighted Virginia Woolf.  read more »

If Gossip Girl didn't exist, it—or rather, She—would have to be invented. With barbarians at the crossings and cultural turpitude rotting the very Manhattan schist beneath our feet, She alone upholds Truth and Beauty and Order. In the postlapsarian moral universe of today's New York, God, and Wharton and Fitzgerald and Bradshaw, are dead; long live Gossip Girl.

Does this city deserve a muse and creator who imagines it better, stronger, nobler than it's been in untold generations, or ever? Unveiled last autumn, the first episode of the series opened with the return of Serena van der Woodsen—the once and future dauphine of Park Avenue; her surname, a plaintive lament for the town's old Dutch aristocracy, long ago suppressed by the arrival of vulgar Britons—after a semester abroad at a New England boarding school.  read more »

It was really only a matter of time.

Entertainment Weekly, is reporting that O.C. alumnus Willa Holland will appear on three episodes of Gossip Girl. EW, quoting a source inside the show, says that the former Kaitlin Cooper is in negotiations to appear as Agnes, a model for Eleanor Waldorf who becomes friends with Jenny Humphrey and predictably tries to sully her.

If this all sounds familiar, it's because the same plotline basically happened last year when Georgina Sparks showed up and attempted to make Serena back into a bed-hopping, coke-snorting menace. Originally, Josh Schwartz (the mastermind behind both Gossip Girl and The O.  read more »

Irina Aleksander sat down with socialite and writer Tatiana Boncompagni, whose new book Gilding Lily may ruffle some feathers in her social set. Just don't tell that to Tinsley Mortimer, Lydia Fenet and Jennifer Creel, who are throwing her a book party on Tuesday.

Ms. Aleksander also put in a call to Gossip Girl producer Josh Schwartz to ask whether he really thought those CW Network ads were too racy. He says: No way!

And Spencer Morgan, reporting from the Republican National Convention, spent a whirlwind evening with Matt Drudge crony Andrew Breitbart, who's launching a new website called (modestly) Big Hollywood.

The season premiere of Gossip Girl was all that we could have asked for and more. Chuck and Blair continued to wage psychological warfare on each other to our delight (Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick once again showing that as they go, so goes Gossip Girl.) Serena and Dan already got back together, proving our prediction for their Sweeps Week reunion to be utterly wrong. And Jenny towered over everyone around her (poor Connor Paolo looks like he's standing in a hole when placed next to Taylor Momsen.)

The premiere also found time to showcase two New York icons: author Jay McInerney and socialite Tinley Mortimer. Who fared better on their CW maiden voyage? Let's find out!  read more »

We don't know about you, but we're spending our Labor Day Monday literally counting the seconds until Gossip Girl returns tonight at 8. And from what we've seen of the season premiere, we're in for a treat.

The first five minutes of tonight's episode appeared online last week and they are predictably awesome. The second season kicks off with most of our heroes getting ready to attend the final party of the season in the Hamptons (a White Party, natch). Nate has shacked up with an older woman (Madchen Amick); Serena is moping around looking upset (Blake Lively, as wooden and lifeless as ever, makes Mischa Barton look like Meryl Streep); Chuck Bass, in full French Mime regalia has not one, but THREE girls taking their tops off for him; and good ol' Dan is making out with a girl way byond his reach after interning with a famous writer over the summer.

It all looks deliciously trashy and entertaining.

Recently, show executive producer Stephanie Savage said that the second season is going to "go deeper and twist things further," which sounds insane to us. It's hard to imagine the show getting any more risqué. The first season featured sex and drug use that rivaled a late-night Cinemax romp, all during family hour. What could Gossip Girl possibly do for an encore?

In no particular order, here are five things we think will happen in season two:  read more »

Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson have responded to Michael Lohan's public comments about Ms. Ronson's supposed tell-all book via their MySpace celebrity blog. [MySpace via Daily Intel] 

A Gossip Girl script for the upcoming season has leaked! Click through at your own risk. [Gawker]

At the DNC, Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) asked staff to introduce her to Jennifer Lopez. Meanwhile, Jessica Alba is over there drinking something called a "Dirty Delegate" martini. [NY Daily News]   read more »

On September 4, former Ford model Abigail Lorick will debut her Spring '09 collection. Ms. Lorick's line, Lorick New York, is the real-life fashion line behind Eleanor Waldorf's fictitious fashion house on Gossip Girl. According to Steven Rojas, a spokesperson for Archetype Showroom (which will be producing Lorick's New York Fashion Week show), Blake Lively, Taylor Momsen, and Leighton Meester have been invited. But it won't be the first time that they'll be seeing Ms. Lorick's latest collection.  read more »

Transom correspondent Spencer Morgan is in Denver this week, talking his way into all sorts of political-slash-celebrity bashes. At the Creative Coalition event on Monday evening, he cornered Josh Lucas, Alan Cumming and the West Wing's Richard Schiff.

Meanwhile, in the Hamptons, George Gurley sunned his buns and found Russell Simmons, Stephanie Wei and Liam McMullan hanging out at an American Red Cross party at the estate where Mariah Carey got married a couple months ago. The songbird was nowhere in sight, but Ms. Wei and Mr. McMullan were more than happy to share their thoughts on the summer. "The Hamptons are like Disney World!" sniffed Ms. Wei.

Also: Meredith Bryan chats with model-socialite Elettra Wiedemann (daughter of Isabella Rossellini) about her new T-shirt line, whose proceeds go to help hospitals in Burundi, and Jonathan Liu thinks he may have found the real Gossip Girl—and she's wearing teal velour.

Spotted—also, striped, plaid, and fringed: all said looks were spied Sunday night in a display window at the Henri Bendel flagship on Fifth Avenue. The mannequins, as much as mannequins can be, were less silently bored than articulately, deliberately insouciant: the one on the far left held in her bent left hand a petite Sony Handycam; it was noticeably turned off, and angled at five o'clock, as if the spectators gathered on the sidewalk were obvi(ously) nothing worth committing to tape. Two places to her left, a blond had conjured the year's most fraught sartorial heresy: turquoise thigh-length stockings with color-matched open-toed pumps.  read more »

On Thursday, Aug. 21, Gossip Girl actor Ed Westwick arrived at the Soho Grand Hotel to do the unthinkable. Something that his character, Chuck Bass, would never stoop to, even if an armful of slinky Japanese girls were promised to him upon arrival: He was there to push the new aluminum Coca-Cola bottles.

Mr. Westwick arrived in slimming black slacks, a blue button-up, and suede loafers (his footwear of choice this summer), and immediately went into character for a Coke commercial. He posed with the red aluminum bottle in his left hand. Then in his right. He looked to the side very seriously and tipped his head back, taking a swig of the carbonated beverage.  read more »

Recently separated Yankee Alex Rodriguez, who was recently linked with Madonna, has been playing the field. He's been spotted out with different women in Miami and Manhattan. [P6]

At New Jersey's Parker House bar, Ashley Dupre qualifies as enough of a celebrity to skip the line, though she apparently will never shake the hooker jokes. (First Item) [NYDN]

The Gossip Girl kids were a mess at a party held in their honor at the EMM Group’s estate in the Hamptons this weekend—cast members picked their teeth, inadvertently flashed the cameras, and spilled vitamin water. (Second Item) [NYDN]

Danity Kane's Aubrey O’Day, currently starring in Hairspray, defended herself to Wendy Williams, telling the talk-show host that she has not had plastic surgery.  read more »

On Tuesday, Eric Daman, Gossip Girl's costume designer, will unveil his creations for Henri Bendel's windows. Mr. Daman is recreating each of the Gossip Girls using designs from Peter Som, Anna Sui, and Gryphon. [WWD]

Polo Ralph Lauren is venturing into m-commerce, or shopping via mobile phone. [Vogue UK]

The Obama campaign has trouble spelling Anna Wintour's name correctly. [The Cut]

Ryan McGinley has shot some intriguing ads for Wrangler Jeans that show attractive young women as either animals or rape victims--no one is quite sure which. [Radar]

Rachel Roy is expanding into green designs. [FWD]

Christian Siriano called Kate Moss a "Stumpy Stump." [The Cut]

The young woman who approached the table by the window at the Pinkberry on Eighth Avenue and 18th street was nervous, breathless. She was sorry to interrupt, sorry to be a bother, she said. It was just that she loved Taylor Momsen so much.

The just-barely-15-year-old Ms. Momsen, who plays aspiring queen bee Jenny Humphrey on the CW show Gossip Girl, gave the woman—who looked to be at least in her mid-20s, and was clutching a napkin and shaking like a whippet in winter—a warm, practiced smile and helped her locate a pen and piece of paper so she could sign the autograph on something suitable.  read more »

Model Agyness Deyn and Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. are engaged. [Us]

Woody Allen's new film Vicky Cristina Barcelona premiered Wednesday night at the Hotel Plaza Athenee on East 64th St.; stars Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall didn't show up. [WWD]

At the screening, Vicky Cristina Barcelona star Javier Bardem gloated over his sex scenes with Ms. Johansson, Ms. Hall and real-life girlfriend Penelope Cruz. [P6]

Mariah Carey is paying $125,000 to rent the Stone Meadow Farm in East Hampton for one week to celebrate her recent marriage to Nick Cannon. [P6]

Someone has been RSVPing for events under Gossip Girl stars Blake Lively and Penn Badgley's names, and now people are wondering who's playing a joke on Serena and Dan. [Rush & Molloy]

Alexander McQueen is reportedly in talks to design a line for Target. [Vogue UK]

Michael Kors has agreed to appear in an upcoming "fashion week-themed" episode of Gossip Girl after the show's producers told him, "You are very Gossip Girl." [WWD]

Alexandre Herchcovitch Band-Aids are the new "It" accessory. [Times]

L'Oreal is being accused of digitally lightening Beyoncé's complexion for its new ad; they allegedly whitewashed her face to be several shades lighter. [NY Post]

Famed fashion critic Mr. Blackwell has been hospitalized with a serious illness, according to his partner Robert Spencer. [US Weekly]

Paris Hilton has filmed a mock campaign ad responding to John McCain's references to her in his latest campaign ad. In it, she calls the Republican candidate "the oldest celebrity in the world. [NY Daily News]

Writer Jay McInerney says John Edwards's reported mistress, Rielle Hunter, is "a nice girl"; she was the inspiration for the character of Alison Poole in Mr. McInerney's 1988 novel Story of My Life. [P6]  read more »

Vacationing in Miami, Samantha Ronson and Lindsay Lohan "aren't hiding their affection at all." [People]

Long Island girl Nikki Blonsky, of Hairspray fame, could go to court over an altercation with America's Next Top Model's Bianca Golden. The two 19-year-olds got into a physical fight over a row of saved seats in the Turks & Caicos airport last week. [NY Daily News]

In the Hamptons, Gossip Girl mom Kelly Rutherford was overheard telling a companion that her son Hermes Gustaf Daniel Giersch was named after the designer label. [P6]

Morgan Freeman will undergo surgery for injuries sustained during a weekend car wreck. [  read more »

Deceptively tall (she's 5-foot-7!) Gossip Girl actress Taylor Momsen ventured out to Brooklyn the other day, but not to film a scene in her character's Brooklyn loft apartment. Instead, Ms. Momsen was trying on a modeling a career, according to Fashionista.

The youngest of the show's cast members, 14-year-old Ms. Momsen has reportedly signed with IMG. But hers will not be a career of commercial modeling. Ms. Momsen's shots are aiming for the high-fashion heroin chic look of models nearly 20 years her senior.  read more »

Heath Ledger was reportedly a silent investor in Five Leaves, a Greenpoint bar designed by John McCormick, who also designed Smith & Mills and Beatrice Inn. While the project was at first put on hold after the actor's death, his father has agreed to fund the project to its completion. [P6]

Christian Bale's assault on his mother was possibly not an assault at all; sources say he never touched her, but merely raised his voice when she made negative remarks about his wife. Apparently, the British consider yelling a verbal assault and therefore a crime. [NY Daily News]

As part of an investigation into Raffaello Follieri's affairs, the F.  read more »

OMFG! The CW is bringing Gossip Girl back to the internet so you can enjoy endless hours watching pretty people sort out their problems while at work or at the local coffee shop with free wi-fi. You're welcome, xoxo!

TV Week reports:  read more »

Depending on which day you read the papers, rehabilitated Kirsten Dunst is chasing Into the Wild actor Emile Hirsch, or maybe Drew Barrymore's ex, Justin Long. [P6]

CNBC interviewed Tinsley Mortimer as the "socialite-turned-entrepreneur," who designs handbags, lip gloss and clothes. Apparently she's huge in Japan! [Park Avenue Peerage]

Anna Wintour has offered to "discuss her career, stories of former successful Vogue interns and give advice on how to do well in the business of journalism" with current Vogue interns. [The Cut]  read more »

New teasers are out for the upcoming season of Gossip Girl and from what we can tell, everyone is in the Hamptons, Serena seems to be dating a lifeguard, and Nate is running from someone's house in his boxers.

Tinsley Mortimer was spotted shooting an episode of CW's Gossip Girl this morning, wearing a white dress alongside co-stars Blake Lively and Taylor Momsen.

Of course she's not the first of Manhattan's "socials" to appear on the show: Lydia Hearst was in last season's finale. But then it's not Ms. Mortimer's first time filming for television: Page Six recently reported that MTV shot a reality show featuring Ms. Mortimer that was then killed because the producers thought that her life wasn't interesting enough.

Click here to see photos of Ms. Mortimer on the set.

Last night we ran into Gossip Girl's Nicole Fiscella at the Simon Wiesenthal Tribute Dinner at the Plaza honoring Whoopi Goldberg. Ms. Fiscella, 28, wearing a belted, coral-colored sheer dress with patent leather chunky heels, was excited to talk about her life outside of the show (the girl is getting her masters!) and what it's like playing a high-school girl 10 years younger than herself.

We heard you're enrolled at University of Bridgeport?

Yeah, I'm getting my master's in nutrition.

Nutrition? How did you get into that?

Both of my parents are doctors, so we were always the health-nut family.  read more »

Mariann Florio, widow of former Condé Nast C.E.O. Steve Florio, is reportedly in a dispute with the company over payouts following her husband's death last December. [P6]

Gossip Girl had a casting call in Southampton this past weekend and no one showed up. [Daiyl Intel]

Jay-Z dined with Governor Paterson at the Spotted Pig. [P6]  read more »

Josh Schwartz has denied rumors of a Taylor Momsen-headlined Gossip Girl spin-off. [E!]

Grey's Anatomy's Katherine Heigl says she withdrew her name from the Emmy nomination list because she was not given Emmy-worthy material by the show's writers. [LA Times]  read more »

Earlier today, The Hollywood Reporter told us that Gossip Girl's Jenny Humphrey might get her own show. Taylor Momsen plays our least favorite character on GG (or maybe we just love to hate Brooklyn brat Jenny Humphrey) and apparently producers were planning on shopping a show based on her storyline, or introducing a new character in the fall for a later spin-off. But New York Magazine alerts us to a Josh Schwartz interview with E! in which he says it might not happen. "Not sure how this got out there, but no plans for a spinoff at this moment," Schwartz told E! Online this afternoon. "The books do have a spinoff, but we have nothing in the works right now other than making sure season two gets off to a great start." Sigh.  read more »

Now that HBO has hired Tina Brown and Frank Rich for consulting gigs, Felix Gillette wonders, "So what’s next?" He also notes, "the truly free-range journalist-consultant—one with a broad editorial mandate to roam here and there gnawing lustfully on some projects while trampling others willy-nilly—remains a rare and exotic beast."

Speaking of television, Doree Shafrir meets Bravo's Flipping Out host Jeff Lewis, "a deeply neurotic man who treats his staff like a dysfunctional family and has managed to turn his obsessive-compulsive disorder to his advantage."

John Koblin looks at this past week's New York Times Magazine and writes, "Sex sells, of course—but this was not Maxim. And women writers in Manhattan could be forgiven for a slightly sickly feeling as they regarded the images. This again?" Plus: Slicing the SATC Pie.  read more »

Gossip Girl creator Cecily von Ziegesar went out with a proposal last week for a novel she’s been working on called Cum Laude. It’s about a preppy girl from Greenwich; a hippie from Manhattan; and a jock-turned-artist from Westchester, whose work is said to display some violent tendencies toward women. There is also a college-age boy and his beautiful younger sister, who suffers a terrible fate. This is according to an editor at one of the finer literary houses in town, who read the first 150 pages of the proposal before passing on it.  read more »

In yet another attempt to find a new and creative way to cover the over-exposed show Gossip Girl, Vanity Fair sat down with three--real!--Upper East Side high school girls they call A, M and T. The girls talk about going to Butter--"Butter is ok; I’m not really into it"--drinking cosmos, and how many people they know that went to rehab a la Serena van der Woodsen. Here are a few of our favorite answers:  read more »

Following the announcement of Lydia Hearst's guest appearance on Gossip Girl, the CW revealed that Lisa Loeb, the 90's librarian-like hottie, will also make a cameo in the May 12 episode. Do you think she'll ... stay?  read more »

MONDAY

There’s something comforting about the predictability of House (Fox, 9 p.m.), which returns tonight. Sometimes it’s nice to have a show where you can set your watch by its familiar plot points, like the show’s every climax where Dr. House has reluctantly ordered some incredibly invasive procedure to cure a patient, only to have it interrupted at the last moment by a new symptom or a phrase that triggers one of Dr. House’s Eureka moments. But, finally, there’s a twist! It’s now on Mondays. (You probably saw that one coming, too.)  read more »

MONDAY

OMFG, Gossip Girl (CW, 8 p.m.)! (Is OMFG even appropriate slang anymore? Honest to blog, who can keep up?) Too many murdered brain cells to remember exactly where the show left off? Here’s a primer. Blair’s secret affair with Chuck Bass had recently come to light after her reconciliation with Nate. He’s angry, while she’s mortified because being a “whore” undermines her leader status amongst her prim ladies. (Uh, really?) Jenny Humphrey, Dan’s younger sister, recently slighted by Blair, uses Blair’s weakened state to her own social advantage. Jenny’s rebuke—she’s from Brooklyn!—plunges Blair into a deep shame spiral. At the end of the last episode, Serena had just swooped in to console her. All caught up now? Gr8! Kthxbai.  read more »

Oh noes! They want you to watch Gossip Girl exclusively on the Oldstube!

The CW network has announced that it will no longer stream free episodes of Gossip Girl on its Web site. Apparently the show has become so successful with online audiences that CW has decided to try to draw that viewership back to television.  read more »

Following the Gossip Girl frenzy, the CW just greenlit another show about the rich and elite: How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls. Based on the book by Zoey Dean, the show revolves around a young woman who's fired from her job as the assistant at a glossy tabloid mag. She's then hired to serve as a live-in tutor and life coach for the teen granddaughters of a cosmetics magnate. She'll have to win over the bratty girls while "navigating Palm Beach's high society and dealing with her own personal issues," according to Variety. Hmm, sounds very Ugly Betty to us.

Woo! Despite semi-dissappointing ratings, Gossip Girl is in for a second season. Maybe all the hype over Janet Malcolm's piece in the New Yorker about the original book series helped the CW make the decision. Who seems to be out at the CW's exclusive lunch table? Aliens in America and Reaper. Bummer. The Hollywood Reporter has more.  read more »

MONDAY

For several panicked hours on Friday, fans of Gossip Girl—and presumably, The O.C.—swamped message boards following the news that producers of the new CW show had offered former O.C. cast member Mischa Barton a role on G.G. as Georgina Sparks, an old chum of Serena van der Woodsen. A wave of invective ensued: “This is the dumbest idea I have ever heard,” wrote one irate commenter, “[M]ischa [B]arton is the most useless actress ever!!!” wrote another. Too harsh? Maybe … maybe not. Consider the history: Josh Schwartz, who now produces G.G., and the other O. C. producers opted to kill off Barton’s character, well before the show ran its course. Now they want her back?  read more »