Stephanie Savage News

Gossip Girl executive producer Stephanie Savage has dished some more on various topics involving our favorite characters in an interview with People.

Here's what she has to say about ...

CHUCK & BLAIR

"Chuck (Ed Westwick) and Blair (Leighton Meester) are definitely going to be a couple and stay a couple this season," Savage revealed recently.

But don't expect it to be all chocolates and roses: "Chuck and Blair in a relationship is going to be something very unique and something we haven't seen before. They have definitely found ways to not be boring." Now thatsounds interesting.

SERENA & CARTER

In last season's finale, Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) unexpectedly took off with Carter Baizen (Sebastian Stan). So, are they now a couple? Not quite.

"Something definitely happens with Carter over the summer and we see Serena and Carter deal with the fallout over that in our first few episodes," says Savage.

NATE'S NEW ROMANCE

The drama between Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford) and his grandfather continues. When Nate finds a new ladylove in Bree Buckley (Joanna Garcia), a Texas girl whose Republican family counts the Vanderbilts as political rivals, it's game on.

"It's a bit of a Romeo and Juliet romance," says Savage.

DAN'S NEW A-LIST FLING

So, how does a kid from Brooklyn score the superstar new girl?

"[Olivia Burke] (played by Hilary Duff) is a child actress who craves a normal college-girl existence and happens upon Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), a Brooklyn hipster and cultural snob who doesn't know who she is," says Savage.

But don't count on Serena being jealous. "Dan and Serena are a lot more like siblings than former flames. It is much less romantic than it has ever been."

THE LOVE CHILD REUNION

"The Rufus-Lily-Lovechild story will definitely come [full circle] in the first part of the season," says Savage, who won't divulge any more details.

Something tells us Vanessa Abrams (Jessica Szohr) might help it happen.

"Vanessa has someone new in her life, who may or may not be related to Dan Humphrey," hints Savage. Any guesses? Gotta be this good guy.

In case you weren't excited enough for the September 14 premiere, the junior season of Gossip Girl is set to return "with a bang," Stephanie Savage promises.

“We have our big Polo match in the first episode of the season, then go to Sotheby’s for an auction in the third episode and in the fourth episode, we have a big movie premiere at Ziegfeld [Theater],” says the show’s executive producer.

What does the future hold for our favorite characters?

For Blair Waldorf, an identity crisis. Her college (NYU) is just across town from her posh Upper East Side pad, but it might as be well be across the country.

“Blair is a fish out of water,” says Savage of Leighton Meester’s character. “Now that she is going to school downtown, Vanessa and Dan are among her people."

"It’s bizarre-o world for her.”

However, Blair won’t be totally alone downtown. As promised, Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg) will be returning - as Queen B's new roommate.

“She is not going to be in our first episode, but she will be in the second episode when our kids start college,” says Stephanie Savage of Trachtenberg.

Boyfriend Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) will be a staple by Blair’s side throughout the season. While Chuck won’t be clocking in any school time, Savage says:

“This year, [Chuck] is really going to be focused on getting out from underneath his father’s shadow and starting his own entrepreneurial direction.”

Adding to Blair’s “shadows” downtown is off-again BFF Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), who will also be stirring up trouble south of Central Park.

As well as locking lips with Carter Baizen (Sebastian Stan) in the first episode, Serena’ll be hooking up with designers Tory Burch and Georgina Chapman.

Savage tells us the fashion cameos have to do with fair Serena’s “decision [in terms of college] and what happens to her in the first couple of episodes.”

A reconciliation with Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) won’t be in her future, at least not this year - he is busy romancing Olivia Burke (Hilary Duff).

Then there’s Jenny Humphrey (Taylor Momsen), learning the ropes of Queen B.

“We really do see Jenny struggling with what she is going to do with this power that has been given to her,” says Savage. “Jenny is back at Constance and now she is a junior - the same age as our other girls when the show started."

"So we have lots of story areas for Jenny that are opening up.”

One in particular that will make a comeback is J’s fashion career: “As we get into the season, that is going to be a bigger and bigger story,” says Savage.

One of New York’s greatest bands, Sonic Youth, will perform an acoustic version of their 1986 single “Starpower” on the fifth episode of Gossip Girl this fall.

“Sonic Youth is one of my favorite bands,” Gossip Girl executive producer Stephanie Savage said, “and last year when I was doing my regular Gossip Girl Google search, it came up in some blog about a Sonic Youth show that Thurston [Moore] was playing 'Psychic Hearts' and Gossip Girl was playing on a screen in the background."

"And I was like, ‘Whaaaat? Oh my God. I hope they’re not making fun of us! I hope it was a cool, edgy homage!’ And it turned out that it was - tongue in cheek for sure, but definitely with love, and that they were fans of the show.”

Last year, Moore (who has a 15-year-old daughter with his wife, Kim Gordon) and Be Your Own Pet’s Jemima Pearl cut a cover of the Ramones’ “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” for Jenny Humphrey’s guerrilla fashion show, and the talks continued from there.

“We have a very special event coming in episode five that we’re filming right now,” the Gossip Girl show-runner says, “they seemed the ideal musical guest for it.”

But, in traditional Gossip Girl fashion, Stephanie Savage is keeping quiet about the exact circumstances of the festivities involved. “It’s a big event that involves [engaged adults] Rufus and Lily. Just draw your own conclusions,” she laughs.

During tonight's "Valley Girls," we're flashing back a quarter-century to the teenage days of Lily Rhodes, and if all goes well for producers Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz, those flashbacks will morph into a new Gossip Girl spinoff series.

In the past week alone, the spinoff has been presumed dead, then reported to be still alive and kicking (albeit tenuously). Can fan reactions to tonight's show make or break its chances of getting picked up by the CW for the upcoming season?

That we'll have to wait and see on. But for now, Stephanie Savage previewed the episode, and the spinoff in general, in an interview with Zap2it's Korbi Ghosh.

Here's what she has to say ...

Q: '80s. Love it. Already on board. But exactly what year will things begin, will we know?

A: We’re going to try and be somewhat vague about that, just so we don’t get trapped in nitpicking, but we’re starting around 1983. Lily is in high school, so we wanted to give it a nice long run before it turns into the 90s when she’d be meeting Rufus.

Q: The Gossip Girl episode during which Lily made a list of all the men she'd slept with... should we have been pausing our DVRs and looking closely at that list? Are any of those guys going to pop up should the show go to series in the fall?

A: Well the names on that list were mostly our crew members’ names, and that’s largely just for legal reasons. A lot of the guys that would have been on Lily’s list, that are on the list in her mind, are guys that are older and have families now and they don’t necessarily want to be associated with Lily’s past. But we'll still be telling those stories, definitely.

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We've all been wondering for weeks now: what is the deal with the Chuck-Blair-Nate triangle? Will it be the real thing or just a blip in the total Gossip Girl time line?

The short answer is the latter.

Zap2it's Korbi Ghosh recently spoke with executive producer Stephanie Savage, and what she came away with was that Blair and Nate won't go away next week, and we will have to live with it for a time, but the two are not exchanging rings.

"We are definitely out there [online], kind of listening to what people are saying. We are very aware there is a lot of interest in having the Chuck and Blair story come to fruition... and that’s what we’re thinking about right now," Savage said.

And what exactly does "right now" mean?

Well, Gossip Girl season two has already wrapped, so where does that leave us. Stephanie said Chuck and Blair would be a top priority for Season Three.

But does that mean Blair and Nate will be a big part of Season Two's five remaining episodes? "They have a little run," Savage revealed.

"I don’t want people to not be invested in that story because I think that when the Nate and Blair story finally ends, people will understand that it was necessary growth for both of the characters. They come out in a different place."

Sounds like she's got a plan.

Stephanie Savage can even explain the reasoning - or at least try - behind this Nate and Blair reunion and why it makes sense right now:

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The return of Gossip Girl is just 10 days, three hours and five minutes away (not that we're obsessed), and Entertainment Weekly has some new teasers / Gossip Girl spoilers about the final eight episodes of the current season for us.

Some of this we knew, and some we didn't. Either way, enjoy - and count down the minutes until March 16 at 8 p.m. with the staff of Gossip Girl Insider:

For Gossip Girl's final eight episodes of Season 2, Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) is a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. "She's realizing that life is not turning out how she wanted," says executive producer Stephanie Savage.

Blair will seek solace in her old flame Nate (Chace Crawford).

Meanwhile, Blair's frenemy Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) will once again hit a rough patch in her life after falling under the spell of a dubious tobacco heir (hints Stephanie Savage: "Let's just say Serena gets a mug shot").

All this, plus college acceptances, prom, and the Constance Billard school play.

Adds Gossip Girl executive producer Josh Schwartz, "You have not lived until you've seen Nelly Yuki in a fat suit in The Age of Innocence."

No, no we have not.

The juiciest story right now is what happened way back when.

Putting the longstanding (and not-happening) rumors to rest, the CW has ordered a pilot for a Los Angeles-set Gossip Girl spinoff, E! News confirmed Wednesday.

The new venture from Gossip Girl creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage is not, however, going to be a by-the-book look at Taylor Momsen's rebellious character, Jenny Humphrey, as was speculated for several months.

Instead, they have opted for an original story about Lily van der Woodsen and surely scandalous teen years growing up in the 1980s.

Gossip Girl's May 11 episode will reportedly serve as what is referred to as a "backdoor pilot" for the spin-off, introducing the younger Lily via flashbacks.

A new hot-young-thang will play Lily (maiden name Rhodes), who moves in with her black-sheep sister after a falling-out with her folks, going from a ritzy Montecito, Calif., boarding school to a public school in the San Fernando Valley.

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Here's a new video - at least new in the sense that we haven't posted it yet - of Gossip Girl executive producer Stephanie Savage discussing our favorite show.

In this Q&A session, she talks a little about the episode titles, the evolution of Dan and Jenny, and whether she'd ever consider making a Gossip Girl movie!

Stephanie Savage, co-executive producer of Gossip Girl along with Josh Schwartz, shares her thoughts on some of the highlights of the show's second season so far (as well as what's to come) in a new video posted by the CW. Here she is ...

The CW posted this online video of Gossip Girl executive producer Stephanie Savage previewing "O Brother, Where Bart Thou?," which airs tomorrow night.

We always enjoy hearing from the producers, however briefly, so let's hope this becomes a regular thing! Here's what she had to say about Monday's episode ...