Did you realize that 2017 is not just the 10-year anniversary of the start of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, but also the 10th anniversary of the start of Gossip Girl? It’s weird that those two shows started at the same time, I think. It says something about society or the 21st century or something. Anyway, to celebrate Gossip Girl – even though it hasn’t been on the air in several years – Vanity Fair did a long-read piece about the show, with new interviews from the stars, producers, etc. Considering I was never into the show, this “oral history” piece leaves me cold. But there were some interesting anecdotes:
Blake turned down the offer to play Serena because she wanted to go to college: “I said, ‘No, I want to go to college. Thank you, though.’ Then they said, ‘O.K., you can go to Columbia [University] one day a week. After the first year [of the show], it’ll quiet down. Your life will go back to normal and you can start going to school. We can’t put it in writing, but we promise you can go.’ So that’s why I said, ‘O.K. You know what? I’ll do this.’”
Blake was scared of losing her anonymity (ha): “I’m actually a very shy person and the idea of losing my anonymity was one that was scary to me,” she said. “I remember saying when I read this script, ‘Whoever does this will not be able to walk out of their house ever again and be the same as before they started this.’ You could tell it was a cultural phenomenon. That was both exciting and thrilling, but also very scary.”
The weirdest Blake story: Lively asked for the show to shift production to Los Angeles while she filmed the 2012 movie Savages, directed by Oliver Stone. She began dating Leonardo DiCaprio, which also—inadvertently, thanks to her innovative means of communication with the actor—came to influence the content of the show itself. “We learned a lot from Blake,” Safran said. “When I think about shooting the L.A. episodes, Blake was dating [DiCaprio] at the time, and she had this thing where she had a doll that she took photos of that she sent to Leo. Blake was way ahead of the curve. It was pre-Instagram. She was documenting her life in photographs in a way that people were not yet doing.”
Ed Westwick still doesn’t know who the Gossip Girl was: Someone should let Ed Westwick know about the Dan reveal, though. The actor e-mailed me, in response to a question about favorite plotlines or memories from filming: “I still am not sure who GG was lol.”
Please go back and read that story about Blake sending Leo DiCaprio photos of a doll. WTF? You know what I keep thinking too? How is it that this was pre-Instagram?? Instagram launched in 2012, the same year Gossip Girl ended. But people were still sharing photos on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. I guess the doll photos were something special between Leo and Blake though – how “quirky.”
Photos courtesy of Backgrid and WENN.
What the hell could it even mean?
Was it a Chuckie doll? Voodoo doll?
Could any American posters break down this perverse, – I mean interesting – titbit ?
Is this normal?
I’m American and I have no idea what it means. This article is a big WTF to me.
To me the photos of the dolls sounded straight out of “Amelie”. I never pegged Blake for one of those girls that tried to emulate that character but maybe she did.
i think it might be like this Flat Albert thingie… I was asked by my friend’s daughter to photograph her Flat Albert in various places….
Or it might be something kinky….i would never assume to compare myself to the ‘shy’ Blake.
Flat Albert? We had a Flat Stanley. Flat Albert makes me think of Fat Albert, which is like 10000% better than Flat Stanley!
I had a bear that my friends and I passed around and took photos of. Like, if a friend went to Paris, we’d all get a pic of the bear in front of the Louvre. I went on a boat and took a pic of the bear “steering” the ship. Etc
Anyhow, it was fun for us and this kind of sounds like that. It sounds weirder when you say it then it was in practice, lol.
I think it’s referring to an actual Barbie doll of her gossip girl character. If you google “Serena van der woodsen doll” there are photos of actual gossip girl dolls.
I’m guessing it’s like Alyce said, where you pose the doll doing something that you’re doing. Like maybe she sent photos of the doll sitting in the makeup chair or the doll on set or whatever.
Knowing Leo’s reputation, I can’t imagine he thought it was as cute as she did.
This is ridiculously bizarre. I mean talk about generating gossip… you can’t just throw this out without receipts or at the very least a more detailed explanation of what kind of doll and why. This isn’t normal behaviour and it’s not even quirky as far as can be deciphered from what was shared. I just did a Google search to see if anyone else had more details on the doll but no one does, so now we all speculate. One site had even added “creepy” doll. I feel like we’re playing an internet version of telephone, where the story gets more and more distorted as it goes along, LMFAO.
She not a vacuous model , she’s artistic and ironic . I’m sure Leo got the difference.
Sure. Still I’m convinced she was hired as a beard 2.0 for Leo. Then, RR proposed and she found a way out of that contract.
Oh those HW kids…
I watched the show for a few seasons…the first season was something close to perfect. It was daring, fun, fashionable, interesting. I liked it.
It is sad though how salty so many people in this cast are…Leighton was especially not happy throughout this whole piece. Blake came off the best and most grateful. Apparently, it streams really well on Netflix, so I’m sure there will be some 6 episode reboot down the line and you know none of them will turn it down, but if they do, people only care about Blair and Serena anyway.
I think it streams well because it’s a pretty layered and detailed show with good music and constant jokes. Watchable more than once, like the office. The first time I watched i was mainly focused on the storyline/twists/mystery/suspense aspect and then the next time I enjoyed the jokes aesthetics and music more. It’s a show that will age well I think because it’s so detailed and of its moment
I thought Leighton was hilarious. She clearly regarded it as just a job, where the VF people were hoping for some gushing, and given all that we know about Leighton, it’s really not her style. Blake gave them that – she knows when she’s supposed to sell.
Yeah, there was a lot of Leighton shade in the article, which is too bad, because I like her. On the other hand, she should know how to give a better interview by now.
…and then she started curating southern ideas. I’m guessing she didn’t finish at Columbia?
I’m guessing no.
Also: “Blake was way ahead of the curve. It was pre-Instagram. She was documenting her life in photographs in a way that people were not yet doing.”
OMG girlfriend sent her bf photos of a doll. She’s a genius.
@Cherry Right? This was not 1807. People were posting pictures and sending them to friends. Blake Lively starting this trend, people! She created pictures, you heard it here first!
Exactly. Plus, it wasn’t pre-instagram. Instagram launched in 2010 not 2012, and I’m pretty sure savages was filmed in 2011. But either way, she did not invent photo sharing as everyone has said.
That Columbia story is questionable at best. I remember an interview with the producers I think and they implied that this college story was maybe not that accurate and the thing she really cared about was keeping some of the wardrobe.
that’s hilarious and sounds pretty accurate!
As an American, WTF is this story. For real.
So so weird. But she’s in a class of two: only she and Giselle have dumped him. And Blake definitely traded up.
They both traded up. Leo at 40 is still chasing 20 year old models.
I got my husband hooked on GG. I rewatched it with him on Netflix. I knew this was a great show when various personalities in my life were obsessed with it. He is simply not the type. I must say that Blake/Serena was my least favorite part of the show! I hate how much character’s lives change as you go from season to season. I miss the original dynamic and frenemyships.
I always think she’s so attractive and she is but then I feel bad that I’m not as perfect and I remember that she’s had a boob job and a nose job to make it Hollywood. But man she does have great legs.
Oh, you just reminded me of her old GFY nickname: Boobs Legsly!
Yeah, it’s hard to imagine her without the hair, legs, and boobs. Kind of a package thing.
That’s weird, I only remember Chuck and Blair and that girl who became an indie rockstar, Jenny (Taylor Momsen). I was only mildly interested in Blake’s character. I was even more invested in Georgina Sparks (Michelle Tratchenberg) than Serena. GG was good because of Leighton and Ed.
It’s funny how this article is all about Blake when the best part of the show was Ed and Leighton’s characters. I binged it on Netflix about a year ago and Serena is OK but not very compelling. Blair is the one that draws you in and her chemistry with Chuck is off the charts. By the last few seasons they were the only reason I kept watching.
This!
When you watch, it’s pretty obvious that someone really wanted the Serena character and storylines to really ‘happen’, but she was always the least compelling part. Who wants to watch a beautiful girl that everything comes incredibly easy to and just falls into her lap?
Blake really did hit something on the head in her interview though – those kids were treated like they were their characters, and you could see that they bought into their own hype because of it. Hell, Blake’s fashion cried came from her wearing GG costumes out and about. It must have been a hard comedown for Chace and Ed especially.
The cast definitely got a lot of hype. Hell Chace Crawford had a People magazine cover. It makes me wonder what the hell happened. Who expected Serena and Carter Baizen to be the break out stars? LOL
The same thing happened with that 70s show cast.
Topher and Wilmer were clearly the better actors among the younger cast but Mila and Ashton became the breakout stars.
@The hype OMG I did not know Sebastian Stan was on Gossip Girl
Same. I thought that both Leighton and Ed will be real stars. But maybe they didn’t like the whole thing as much. She works and has nice family and he is in the UK, also working.
I cannot stand Blake, too thirsty.
Weird how the vanity fair article is supposed about to be about gossip girl as a whole, but spends most of its time fawning over Lively.
Still salty that Leighton Meester never got her due while Vanilla Blake made all the covers.
Lively is the only one not acting like it’s just some dull past embarrassment, so of course she ended up being the focus. No other option really as the others clearly aren’t interested.
People wondering why she ended up the breakout star, this is why. She capitalised on GG, while the others just tried to distance themselves from it.
I used to watch GG, once it had all aired. I think I started when I was recovering from a bad illness and was stuck on the couch. I love Blair.
Anyway if you watch it, take a shot every time Chuck says “my faaaather”, with disdain or contempt or a tinge of longing heartache. It’s hilarious. My husband even started enjoying it because every episode we would wait for him to say it… “my faaather”. Chuck is the best.
I loved gossip girl for the styling. That show was my clothing porn, ahhhh.
Serena and Blair were my OTP too.
That Vanity Fair article makes it sound like Blake’s character Serena was the whole show. I guess because she’s been the most successful cast member? But I was all about Blair, Chuck and the fashion.
Who goes to college one day a week?!
Part-timers. You can take evening or afternoon classes in most American universities that meet one day a week for a 3 hour block. This is not a weird or bad choice. Many regular folks do it so they can work full time as they get their degree and not get murdered by loans. Also, people like me who majored in a minuscule department that left them needing one rarely offered class before they could graduate.
Saying you were going to go to college isn’t the same as actually going, Blake.
Lol! During the glorious ‘Preserve’ era she also claimed her father was an English teacher…
Did Blake graduate from College or didn’t she?
She never went
This reminds me of the one amazing thing Blake has ever done – when she waited out Ryan Reynolds’ marriage with ScarJo, got Leo to take her to Verona (!) and play Romeo to her Juliet (!), and then dumped his ass to get with Ryan at last.
She had amazing game during this time. Lainey was all “How did she do that!?” for at least a year. I think she could’ve gotten Leo for keeps if she wanted him. He looked like a lovesick puppy dog in those Verona pics.
Those were clearly staged pap pics
I want to see these doll pictures people! WTF?
Here you go:
http://imgur.com/a/8JFAb
Haven’t read the article or the comments, but Blake Lively is certainly on top of her game with the social climbing hustle and she just turned 30. It got her fame, fortune and celebrity with only a pinch of talent and surgically-enhanced good looks. I’m not sure if this is a cause for admiration, disdain or envy, but her hustle is pure gold. Add to this her clueless adulation of the antebellum South and Woody Allen and she is a veritable blueprint for how to attain the Good Life. She should write a book, but she is not going to reveal her opportunistic shrewdness in this lifetime.
Dude, she joined the Tay squad. It’s not like she needs “opportunist” skywritten above a quaint beach in Rhode Island or anything now is it?
This. She’s gross but her hustle and phoniness is sadly common. Or maybe it’s not sad, its normal and I’m the oddball. I don’t know what to think anymore.
I prefer Leighton. No love for Ryan Reynolds. He and Lively deserve each other.
“I’m actually a very shy person and the idea of losing my anonymity was one that was scary to me,” WHAT!? C’mon, Blake. You are one of the biggest, thirstiest Hollywood hustlers out there! That gave me a good laugh 😂
An acquaintance of mine used to have a blythe doll and set stories that included travelling and she was documenting her adventures by a series of photographs. Maybe Leo is in this trend??? I know is not for everyone, even for my sounds quirky.
I take it then that Leo has a doll fetish….maybe blow up dolls even.
Yup. One hundred percent this is a kink of Leo’s. No straight man wants pictures of dolls sent to him!! Wtf even is this story.
Nah. See my comment below.
What? Did no one else do this manic pixie dream girl shiz?
My friends an I ALL did this nonsense and we were not special.
You get a funny hat and take poloroids all day long of you and your friend, and your other friend, all in the silly hat. Or you have a stuffed animal prop.
Man, Leo really is aging poorly. He was actually 1/2 hot when he dated her.
Bleo was prime gossip. I really wish they would had stayed together longer. It would have made for some great pap strolls and wolf-pack drama.
I’m pretty sure the doll Leo and Blake were sharing pics of is a Blamo Rice doll. Here are a bunch of pics of Blake with the doll and one with Leo and Toby with the doll. She definitely seems like the kind of sap who would suggest something like this.
http://imgur.com/a/8JFAb
Btw, the dolls are $265 bucks.
https://blamotoys.com/product/rice-baby
Great detective work!
Yuk, I find it such a creepy doll and I’m appalled at the price too
I love GG!! The Chuck and Blair story lines were riveting, along with the amazing fashion! I loved it and I am surprised that Leighton and Ed did not become bigger. I went to see the movie Country Strong because of Leighton. Side note: Gwennie was in it and played the mature country singer and Leighton was the upstart. I loved it because Leighton is amazing. Super fan girl. #notsorry
Country Strong was pretty enjoyable, I watched it on a long flight and was pleasantly surprised