The season premiere of Gossip Girl is set for this Wednesday, September 19.
Before you watch the exploits of Serena, Blair and company, however, take a look at a few of the songs you’ll be hearing on the pilot episode:
While you may wish to simply stare at three of Gossip Girl’s main studs - Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick and Penn Badgley - here’s a chance to actually hear them speak.
The actors talked about the premiere of their show with a reported from The CW recently:
Nan Zhang stars as Katy on Gossip Girl.
In real life, however, this actress stars in the science lab. She recently said:
“I studied for ophthalmology and neuroscience research, and later I focused on photoreceptor retinal damage and ear protection. So just after the [first Gossip Girl episode] wrapped, I was also working on stem cell research.”
Wow. Consider us impressed.
This isn’t really a Gossip Girl spoiler because it’s simply a preview of the series.
But we wanted to warn readers who preferred to not see a second of the show before it premiers Wednesday night.
For others, however, check out the extended commercial below:
The positive press for Gossip Girl continues to roll in.
Leighton Meester was recently acknowledged by Yahoo! as a Fresh Face viewers should watch on TV this fall. In fact, so was Chace Crawford.
Here’s the section of the article dedicated to Meester:
Meester is bringing bitchy back as Blair Waldorf, one half of the Serena/Blair duo in Gossip Girl. Meester has popped up before in 24, Veronica Mars, and 7th Heaven, but this is her chance to shine in a leading role.
Blair is willing to do anything to get what she wants, and that includes stepping all over her “friends” in the process.
Penn Badgley is one of the Eight Hottest Guys on Fall TV.
So states People magazine, as it listed the Gossip Girl star among its hunks to watch this season. Here’s what the feature said about the young actor:
As the sweet outsider who courts the popular Serena van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl, Badgley, 20, knows what it’s like not being in the “in” crowd.
“I wasn’t a loner, but I wasn’t the coolest kid either,” the actor, who plays Dan Humphrey, told CosmoGIRL.
But, it turns out, popularity isn’t all that.
“[Dan's] an outcast, and I think that contributes to him being a good guy.”
How does Blake Lively feel about starring in Gossip Girl?
Excited. Nervous. Fairly well-prepared.
She recently compared the show to her preparation for the movie Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants:
“With Sisterhood, I read all four books in the very beginning because it was just a movie,” said Lively. “So for three months we’d be telling the story of the first book. Whereas this is a full series. It could go one episode, it could go 100 episodes, we don’t know. So I read the books of the Sisterhood but Gossip Girl I just read about half of it to really get to know the character. So I know Sisterhood better but Gossip Girl, I’m very excited to dive into. I’ve never done anything like this.
And what about her character, Serena van der Woodsen?
“I’m very excited because Serena is very complex. She was what you can call a bad girl before and now she’s trying to be good. But she’s still got this core to her,” Blake said.
“She’s being pulled at all different angles from her mom to her brother to this new good guy, Dan, to Nate (Chace Crawford) who she still loves, to her best friend. She’s got all of these people pulling on her and she needs to find her place. So I definitely think there’s going to be room to explore different areas because she’s so complex.”
Lastly, the actress has a taken on the lifestyle the show portrays:
“I don’t think it’s so much a life of privilege as it is how you’re raised. I think parenting is very important because even the Humphries on the show, they’re privileged. You look at their apartment and anybody that’s been to New York and looked at apartments knows that those people aren’t struggling.
And they go to these expensive prep schools but they were brought up by really great parents and the family was so important to them that they have stayed grounded. They’re very moral people. And my family are all actors but I grew up with the business around me, but I have such a great family and such a great base, that was never an option for me to become a Paris Hilton type.
So I don’t think it’s money and privilege as much as it is parenting and the important of education and your surroundings.”
The cast of Gossip Girl came out in full force a couple weeks ago for the CW Upfront Party. Here are some pretty pictures from the event:
Leighton Meester, Blake Lively, Nicole Fiscella and Taylor Momsen pose for the camera.
More of the Gossip Girl cast: Mattew Settle, Momsen, Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick.
The lovely Taylor Momsen.
Even though Gossip Girl doesn’t premiere until September 19, but a few sites have been sent advance copies of the show’s pilot.
Below, TV Squad took an inside look at the first episode of Gossip Girl…
The pilot focuses a lot on the return of Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively). She disappeared suddenly a year earlier, running off to boarding school in Connecticut, for reasons that remain a mystery. She comes back desiring things to be the way they used to be, but how likely is that to happen, right?
Adding to the stress from her now up in the air social status is a mother, Lily (Kelly Rutherford), who is of questionable parenting ability and a brother who is hospitalized after a suicide attempt.
Serena’s former best friend, Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), is less than psyched to have her back. She was hurt by the sudden disappearance, but has now settled in as the new queen of the popular girls… and is in no hurry to give that up.
We also have the angle of Serena’s disappearance to consider, a mystery which seems to involve Blair’s boyfriend, Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford). Much of that becomes clearer by the end of the pilot, but I’m sure there is more to the story.
Nate has his own troubles, unsure of what he wants to do. He asks a friend early in the pilot if he ever feels like his whole life is already planned out for him. Later, the elder Archibald tells Nate that he can’t break up with Blair. Why? Because it could have an adverse effect on a business deal, of course.
Gossip Girl is receiving local coverage (The NY Times) and, now, national coverage: the show is featured in USA Today.
Here is an excerpt from the feature:
Gossip Girl is trying to inherit the teen-soap throne once claimed by The OC and, before it, Beverly Hills, 90210.
So it’s natural to wonder how the latest spin on the formula differs from its predecessors.
This time, the fun moves to the East Coast, as Manhattan private-school juniors claw their way up the social ladder toward prestigious colleges and into each other’s bedrooms in the CW series (premieres September 19).
The OC tracked a less sophisticated, nouveau-riche crowd, whereas Gossip’s is old money, says Josh Schwartz, 31, executive producer of both series.
The OC’s denizens were more laid back, while Gossip is full of strivers, “driven and ambitious and forward-looking,” having competed for slots in nursery school. And Gossip’s gossips are tech-savvy, with their Sidekicks, MySpace pages and frantic text-messaging.
“In the pilot for The OC, Ryan Atwood is talking on a pay phone. I don’t think these guys even know what that is,” Schwartz says in a recent interview on the set at a Brooklyn school courtyard, gesturing toward two young actors kicking a soccer ball between scenes.
And the Fox series that ended last spring centered, at least initially, on the relationship of Seth and his “adopted” brother Ryan, whereas Gossip focuses on two female “frenemies,” Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), who were once close but now are estranged by jealousy and betrayal.
Follow our link to read the full Gossip Girl article.
