Everyone's been asking Jay McInerney about John Edward's mistress, Rielle Hunter, whom McInerney dated in the eighties and who made such an impression on him that he modeled a character after her in his novel Story of My Life, now a best seller, thanks to the scandal blah blah. But in their excitement to find out about the obsession of the week, they've somehow neglected to ask him about the obsession of our lives, otherwise known as Gossip Girl. It was reported he had a bit part in the upcoming season, which starts in, oh, sixteen days six hours, and 45 minutes. "It's true," he told us in an e-mail. "I have a part in the season premiere of Gossip Girl. I play a novelist named Jeremiah Harris who employs Dan as an intern for the summer. So far I'm just in the one show." Apparently, he got involved when he met Josh Schwartz on the Tribeca Film Festival jury this spring. As it turns out, he is a longtime fan. "It's my daughter Maisie's favorite show, and I got kind of hooked myself last season. In fact, I'd actually read a couple of the novels when they came out years ago."

So there you have it! Jeremiah Harris. Except then in a subsequent e-mail McInerney referred to his character as "Sebastian." So, you know, drugs. Anyway, it's one or the other.

Related: Meet Alison Poole, A.K.A. Rielle Hunter [NYM]