'Gossip Girl' Heats Up 'Rolling Stone'

The guilty pleasure CW show, Gossip Girl, has reached a cultural milestone of sorts. It's featured on the cover of Rolling Stone. Many years ago, that was a real achievement (hence the novelty song, "The Cover of the Rolling Stone"), and while the overall importance of landing the Rolling Stone cover might not be as big as it used to be, it consistently has some of the better cover shots of any magazine.

That's the case with the Gossip Girl issue, photographed by Terry Richardson. Clearly, Richardson is not so much interested in the guys in this pictorial; Blake Lively and Leighton Meester are the stars of this pictorial, and they're pretty willing models. Incidentally, if you've never seen Richardson's work before, this is really, really, really tame for him. Everyone's dressed, for starters. Actually, you probably have seen his work and just never realized it.

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Other 'Gossip Girl' Girl Gets a 'Roommate'

I have a hunch that the longer Gossip Girl is on the air, the more Leighton Meester will be the rising star who moves on to bigger and better things. I've seen a couple episodes, and man, does the camera love that girl. Many times, that's all the rocket boost a young actress needs. Signing on to be the lead in a movie isn't a negative, either, even if it is with MGM. The Hollywood Reporter Hollywood reports that Meester is in negotiations to star a new thrilla called The Roommate. It sounds quite a bit like a spin on Single White Female. See if you agree: Meester plays a college student randomly assigned a new roommate, who soon becomes obsessed with our heroine and starts targeting people in her life. Yeah, that's what I thought. If you haven't seen Gossip Girl, Meester's role in this film sounds unlike her snooty rich girl Blair Waldorf, who would have definitely been a Heather 20 years ago. We don't know who will play the psycho roommate, but we did read that Christian E. Christiansen will direct. And I believe that is his real name.

DVD Review - 'Gossip Girl: The Complete First Season'

Welcome to the world of New York City’s young and privileged Upper East Side. From The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz comes Gossip Girl, based on the popular novels by Cecily von Ziegesar. Fortunately, you don’t have to be familiar with the books to enjoy the series; Gossip Girl quickly possesses you with its seemingly endless glitz and glamour, the traditional markings of Old Money.

The premise for this teen drama is simple enough: Notorious and anonymous blogger Gossip Girl, voiced by Kristen Bell, is our one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan’s prep school elite. Think TMZ-style paparazzi made up of teenagers with camera phones and bad attitudes.  Spotted: former It girl, Serena van der Woodson (Blake Lively) is back from boarding school after being gone for a year. But why did she leave so abruptly and why has she returned? More importantly, why isn’t BFF Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) happy she’s back? Could it be that Blair’s long time boyfriend Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford) has always had a thing for Serena? Then there’s lonely boy Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), the sensitive outsider who carries a constant torch for Serena, as well. Can the more genuine Dan exist in her material world? Of all the characters, Dan and the Humphrey family are the most easy to relate to for the audience, making them our way into this world. And of course, Gossip Girl wouldn’t be complete without the brooding, pompous, you-know-you-love-to-hate-him bad boy Chuck Bass (brilliantly embodied by Ed Westwick). The first season is filled with cat fights between frenemies Serena & Blair, Serena’s budding romance with Dan, the complicated on-again-off-again relationship between Blair and Nate, the infinitely mischievous exploits of Chuck and Blair, a pregnancy scare, a drug addiction, blackmail, and a wedding, just to name a few highlights.  Among the best episodes is The Handmaiden’s Tale, a beautifully filmed episode that centers on a masquerade ball; all masks come off in this story of mistaken identity. Victor Victoria is a brilliantly wicked hour, in which Chuck tries to persuade his millionaire father to purchase a burlesque club. As it often does on Gossip Girl, mayhem ensues.   Hi Society takes a look at the class system – a constant refrain within the show’s subtext - and the troubles it presents for Serena and Dan. It appears that history does in fact repeat itself since Dan’s father, Rufus (Matthew Settle), experienced the same struggles when he dated Serena’s mother, Lily van der Woodson (Kelly Rutherford), in their checkered pasts.

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New 'Gossip Girl' Posters Turn Up the Heat

Who am I to deny the success of Gossip Girl? Along with America's Next Top Model, the vampy New York teen drama is legitimizing CW as a network, at least in terms of ratings and revenue. The show has made a big star out of Blake Lively, although these things are relative; Jennifer Aniston is a "big star" and she can't navigate a movie career with any more success than she can her relationships. Granted, it's awfully early for Lively, who turns 21 next week, and I'm sure if she did more than Traveling Pants movies and Accepted, her status in the movies might be elevated. You can't really argue, though, that she was the breakout star on television last year, arguably on the breakout show on the tube.Gossip Girl is gearing up for its second season, which starts Monday, September 1st. The DVD set for season one will be released tomorrow, and we'll even have a guest writer filing a review of that collection Tuesday morning. Because all of those elements are converging - and because these are just really cool shots - here are the rather provocative promo posters for Gossip Girl's new season, which were loitering over at IMP Awards. They's hot. I think they're trying to sell sex here. And if that's the case, then in the words of a very bad president: Mission Accomplished.