‘Gossip Girl’ Gets an Actual New Yorker!Well, hello, Upper East Siders. It seems like Gossip Girl will be getting a real-live New Yorker this season. Brooklyn-born Michelle Trachtenberg has taken on the Gossip Girl role that Mischa Barton so unwisely passed over: that of Georgina Sparks, the bad girl “who rolls into Manhattan from rehab, shaking up and torturing the life of Serena van der Woodsen.” Trachtenberg has been working since practically the day she popped out of the womb: She’s been in everything from Clarissa Explains It All to Six Feet Under, but we (as well as probably the entire staff at Knopf) remember her as the girl who shook up and tortured Ann Packer’s The Dive From Clausen’s Pier when she played the main character in the Lifetime movie last year. But somehow, we’re looking forward to seeing her again, partly because a tortured Serena has got to be a more interesting Serena. Bring on the peer pressure!
Trachtenberg to Appear on Gossip [HR]
party lines
‘Gossip Girl’ May Be Over, But Serena and Dan Go OnThere were socialites and movie stars galore at Chanel’s “Night of Diamonds” at the Plaza Hotel last night, but to us, there were only two souls in the sumptuous ballroom: Gossip Girl deities Blake Lively and Penn Badgley, or, as we prefer to call them, Serena and Dan. It’s been rumored that the onscreen couple has been dating in real life, and we were relieved to see this seemed to be true, as we try our best to maintain the illusion that characters on Gossip Girl are real. We positioned ourselves uncomfortably close to their table and watched as Serena pirouetted for Dan, her blonde ponytail slapping his face; Dan drummed his fingers while Serena chatted about fashion; and Serena close-talked to Dan between courses. Finally, we got up the nerve to approach them. We mentioned that, you know, some people have commented on whether the show portrayed Manhattan realistically and asked what they thought. “From what I’ve heard, it’s pretty accurate,” Serena said. Upper East Side teenagers “really do hang out in the lounges of bars after school.” But Dan wasn’t so sure. “I would say definitely, um, when my little sister, Jenny, swings from our Brooklyn apartment to an Upper East Side palace in five minutes top — that’s really absurd,” Dan admitted. (He actually said, “My little sister, Jenny!” We died.) He must have noticed the crazed fandom in our eyes, because right then he started talking about what the network is planning for the hiatus in order to keep people like us off the streets, or at least from turning to Cashmere Mafia. Starting January 28, he said, they’ll be airing the reruns with “extra tidbits” called Gossip Girl Revealed. “It will entertain people who have seen it,” he said. “And for those who haven’t seen it, it will be illuminating.” —Justin Ravitz
Get scandalous hotel memories from Helena Christensen, MisShapes, Julia Stiles, and others at our complete coverage of Chanel’s “Night of Diamonds” at the Plaza’s Grand Ballroom.
intel
Guess We Know What Serena Was Doing in ‘Europe’ This SummerAs you may imagine, we are eagerly looking forward to the Gossip Girl season finale tomorrow night. You might even say that we are pregnant with anticipation. Even though we know “Episode 17: A Thin Line Between Chuck and Nate” is not the finale as God and Josh Schwartz intended, that the show is only actually ending now because some stupid writers decided they needed to have health insurance or whatever, we’ve got our white tights and headbands all laid out for the blessed event because we’re sure the Best Show of Our Time will go out with a bang. And now, our friends over at Radar have got us whipped into even more of a frenzy with an excellent item about one of the Gossip Girl players. As you may know, we prefer not to acknowledge anything that suggests the people on the show are actors and actresses, because the characters are real to us and we think everyone should fucking respect that. So we’ll put it this way: Which prominent Upper East Side princess once had a much more prominent honker? Oh, wait, duh, you can tell from the photos above. This sheds new light on what Serena was doing in “Europe” over the summer. Will Blair have to go “away” to have Chuck-Nate Jr.?
Gossip Girl Moves Out of Idol’s Way [TV Guide]
Gossip Girl Serena’s Van der Newnosen [Radar]
