Taylor Momsen

Before Penn Badgely acquired his sarcastic smirk, before Leighton Meester had a stylist, before Blake Lively's breasts became the lead characters on Gossip Girl, before Taylor Momsen's '80s glam hair, and before Ed Westwick mastered the Chuck Face, the young actors on the CW show were, shall we say, not quite as polished.

Digging through old photos of the cast, the Daily Transom discovered that the group of twentysomething lead actors--or teenage actors in Ms. Momsen's case--that have become the beautiful young fixtures on red carpets over the past year were once just goofy teenagers with bad skin and terrible fashion sense.  read more »

If you happened to watch last night's off-the-reservation edition of Gossip Girl, here's a question you probably asked yourself as the episode came to an end: are they kidding me? Rarely can we say with actual meaning that a television show made us feel dirty all over. The latest Gossip Girl left us wanting to take a decontamination shower.

How crazy was it? Well, the opening, featuring Blair masturbating to a fantasy of Chuck going down on her, was actually one of the more tame moments of the night. (Also, hello, this show is on at eight o'clock!) By the time the last act rolled around, 15-year-old Jenny (15-year-old Taylor Momsen), and her new friend Agnes (17-year-old Willa Holland), had stripped down to their bras and were dancing around seductively while getting their pictures taken. For real. The scene played out like an American Apparel ad come to depressing life. It just made us feel bad for all the participants involved.  read more »

Lindsay Lohan's guest appearance on Ugly Betty was cut from six episodes to four because of trouble on the set. Issues included ego clashes with star America Ferrera, the size of Ms. Lohan's entourage, and a de-pantsing incident. People on set were also bothered by Ms. Lohan's tendency to "obsessively cut pictures of herself out of the tabloids like she was creating some sort of scrapbook." [P6]

Among the things Sarah Palin doesn't know: who Oliver Stone is. [R&M, second item]

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have been buying up a bunch of separate apartments in a building in the East Village, where Tom is friendly to the neighbors and Katie "keeps her head down." [P6]  read more »

Question: What did polite city-dwellers do, say, the weekend of November 2, 1929, with the markets fully imploded but the world-historical ramifications not yet clear and the breadlines not yet formed?

Answer, if that depression was great like this one: Attend a screening of the latest teen sex comedy (or is that teen-sex comedy?) at the Tribeca Grand.

This past Sunday it was Sex Drive, an oddly restrained little composition in the American Pie school whose craftsman-like simulation of raunch almost made up for its workmanlike impression of heart. The thrill might be gone (surely as much the Daily Transom's problem as the film's), but the mileposts were reached with unimpeachable alacrity: virginity, semen-involving hijink, astonishingly attractive best-friend girl understood as edgy due to darkness of hair, improbable set-up of road trip leading to sex-opportunity (sexportunity?), execution of said road trip, sight gag involving an elder gentleman's scrotum, an imbecilic Seth Green as Amish mechanic, complications to said road-trip and said sex-opportunity, mutual realization of unspoken more-than-friend status with best-friend girl.  read more »

On Saturday, Oct. 11, Lindsay Lohan arrived at the Diesel xXx Rock & Roll Circus party at Pier 3 in Brooklyn. As celebrities like Taylor Momsen, Emma Watson, Mark Ronson, Chace Crawford, and Peaches Geldolf made their way down the red carpet, Ms. Lohan managed to stand out. 

Dressed in a pleated mini skirt, asymmetrical checkered top, motorcycle jacket and hooker heels, something seemed off about Ms. Lohan's seemingly exposed legs--as in, her feet did not match them in color. Ms. Lohan was suffering from a severe case of a farmer's tan, which we presume was caused by pairing skirts or shorts with ankle-high shoes. The result is a tan that made it look as if she was wearing copper-toned leggings. (We would've advised the actress to rub some self-tanner on her feet on the car ride over.)   read more »

Samantha Ronson's former lawyer, Martin Garbus, is threatening to sue her for nonpayment. He wrote "Please don't force me to do it ... The blogs will pick it up." [NYDN]

In more fun news, Ms. Ronson's girlfriend, Lindsay Lohan, will dress as Sarah Palin for Halloween! [Full Disclosure]

Gossip Girl's Taylor Momsen assured worried reporters that she is "naturally thin." [US Weekly]

Suri Cruise reportedly gets abnormally excited when she sees kids her own age because she's had "not a lot of socialization." [P6]

Family drama: Photographer Bruce Weber is suing his girlfriend's cousin, the actress Anna Thomson, over money he provided for the care of Thomson's dying mother, shoe designer Beth Levine.  read more »

Anya Hindmarch's handbag collection for Target sold out within two minutes when it went on sale at 11 a.m. on the designer's Web site. [Vogue UK]

Balenciaga has signed a deal with Coty Inc.’s Coty Prestige division to create a new line of fragrances under the Balenciaga name. [WWD]

Gossip Girl Taylor Momsen's high fashion spread in Crash magazine is everything we hoped it would be: a little awkward, a little scary, and way too fun to stare at. [FabSugar via The Cut]

Marc Jacobs is still wearing skirts around town. [FashionIndie]

We admit we have a rather unhealthy obsession with Taylor Momsen, the 15-year-old actress who will likely do the bulk of her growing up on CW's Gossip Girl. (If Josh Schwartz's first show, The O.C., is anything to go on, Gossip Girl will likely be on the air for about four seasons, by which time Ms. Momsen will be safely post-high-school age.)

But the young Ms. Momsen has already embarked on the fast track to image makeover, trading in her pink tutu dresses for '80s rock star hair, leather pants and motorcycle jackets. All of which makes us wonder if the young actress is in desperate need of a stylist.  read more »

As far as Fashion Week parties go, Thursday night's Interview magazine relaunch party at the yet-to-be finished Standard Hotel in the meatpacking district will be hard to top. The Standard is still a construction zone—exposed wire, plywood laid down for walkways, DJs in hard hats—and the effect was very much early '90s East Berlin, except for all the New York darlings wandering around, thrilled at the prospect of a new party venue.

Arden Wohl was there. Donna Karan was there. Gossip Girl’s Taylor Momsen made an appearance, as did model Jessica Stam, author Tama Janowitz, real estate developer Janna Bullock, socialite Stella Schnabel, and actresses Mary-Kate Olsen and Lauren Hutton.  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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

In an effort to name promising newcomers so that they can later say, "We Told You So!" Vanity Fair has come out with its Bright Young Hollywood package for its August issue.

The spread of young men and women features their answers to a hard-hitting questionnaire about their lifestyle preferences: Levi's or J Brand? BlackBerry or iPhone? Jimmy Choo or Christian Louboutin?

And what do we learn?

They love shoes!

Seventeen year-old Emma "Julia's Niece" Roberts, tells the magazine that she owns a little under 50 pairs of shoes and hopes to imitate the Olsen twin look.  read more »

A Gossip Girl spin-off show set at an all girls boarding school and headlined by Taylor Momsen's character, Jenny Humphrey, possibly in the works. [Hollywood Reporter]

While speaking at a public hearing in Scotland to push his $2 billion golf resort, Donald Trump said, "We have a President in the United States who's terrible. He stinks." [NY Daily News]

Tatum O'Neal sang karaoke last night with Radar's Neel Shah at Broadway East on the Lower East Side. They performed a duet of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together." [Radar]  read more »

Blake Lively isn’t the only one seeing an in increase in attention since Gossip Girl debuted this season. Just ask the staff at Henri Bendel on Fifth Avenue. It seems the ritzy retail store has seen a spike in curious visitors dropping by to inquire about the show, which has filmed scenes on the premises. Bendel’s Web site and general phone number have also been seeing an increase in usage. And because they have been keeping a record of the surge times, they’ve discovered that most of hits and calls happen after the CW show airs. According to WWD, even Gossip Girl stars Ms. Lively, who plays Serena van der Woodsen, and Taylor Momsen, who plays Jenny Humphrey, have popped in to pick up some pricey wares.