Goodbye 'Gossip Girl': A Premature Look at Why Everyone Is Leaving the Show
Four seasons into Gossip Girl, it's beginning to look like CW's flagship hit has run its course. With the core castmembers seemingly eager to jump ship, it's only a matter of time before the show's big finale is announced or it re-launches with an all new cast a'la 90210.
With an eye to the future, we take a look at what's next for Blair, Chuck, and even not-so-innocent little Jenny Humphrey, and their motivations for putting some distance between themselves and the show.
Leighton Meester
Character: Blair Waldorf
Satus: On her way out
Time limit: Two years tops
As Blair Waldorf, Leighton Meester is the manipulative Queen Bee at the center of the Gossip Girl universe. Unfortunately for producers, she's made no attempt to hide the fact that she wants to leave the show. In December she confirmed as much to E! News when she told them she would be gone in two years and is only sticking around "because we're under contract."
Meester is already working hard to kick off her post-GG career. Earlier this year she appeared alongside Gwyneth Paltrow in Country Strong, and then there's her college spin on Single White Female, The Roommate, her supporting role in the upcoming Selena Gomez vehicle Monte Carlo, and her foray into indie drama, The Oranges.
The icing on the cake? She doesn't even like her Gossip Girl character.
"I work on a show every day where I feel literally, maybe point-one percent in common with the character," she told PopEater.com. "You have to somehow find common ground; otherwise you hate them. The character I play on Gossip Girl is incredibly manipulative and conniving and, you know, this heightened personality in this weird universe that doesn't even really exist." WTF, article? Also at the same source: Meester says that in spite of all this, she finds Blair's "vulnerable side to be pleasant and fun to portray."
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Ed Westwick
Character: Chuck Bass
Status: "Really ready to do something else"
Prestige Project in the Works: J. Edgar
As Gossip Girl's go-to bad boy, Ed Westwick has alternately enraged and enchanted the prep-school debutantes of the CW. Despite the fact that he actually dresses as lavishly as his Upper East Side character in real life, the British actor wants to do other things.
In an unconfirmed quote he may have given to British gossip rag Tatler, he elaborated: "It's all about the work, you know. The feeling you get when you connect to the work. And that's what I had with Chuck Bass in the beginning. I was fascinated by him. But now, to be completely honest, I'm ready to do something else. Really ready to do something else."
Westwick is doing his best to avoid future typecasting. He's playing the romantic lead in the upcoming light-hearted comedy, Chalet Girl, and following that up with a supporting role in Clint Eastwood's planned presidential biopic J. Edgar, which is slated for 2012. It probably doesn't help Westwick's attitude that he's still working with ex-girlfriend and co-star Jessica Szohr.
IMO, Ed is rarely called out for his ego jfc.
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Blake Lively
Character: Serena van der Woodsen
Status: Gossip Girl's frontrunning contender for Hollywood's A-List
Can Always Fall Back On: Interior Decorating
In her time on Gossip Girl, Blake Lively has turned into a full-fledged fashion plate with a bright future whether she's working the big screen or a New York apartment. Last year, Lively won acclaim for her supporting role in the critically-lauded Ben Affleck movie The Town, and this year she'll enter the big-budget superhero genre as she plays Ryan Reynolds' love interest in Green Lantern.
Unlike some of her co-stars, Lively hasn't come right out and said she's ready to quit Gossip Girl, but she doesn't have to -- she's already too big a star for a small-time show on the CW.
LOL, not trying to hate, but did her publicist write this? Since season one she's been trying to convince us that it was like pulling teeth to get her to do a TV show while she was doing movies and she mostly agreed because she claimed they'd would let her enroll at Columbia part-time too.
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Taylor Momsen
Character: Jenny Humphrey
Status: Indefinite Hiatus
Why She's So Over The Show: Rock 'n' Roll!
Conceivably much to the delight of her agent, Taylor Momsen stuck around Gossip Girl for at least part of the fourth season even though it was all over as soon as she took the stage at the Warped Tour last summer fronting the Pretty Reckless. As a kohl-eyed cigarette-smoking teenager in knee-high boots and garter belts, Momsen is probably the only castmember who is too edgy for a show that once promoted itself with the words: "Every Parent's Nightmare!"
While it's all too likely that Momsen will work herself back into acting after a couple years of hard touring, for now she's content to growl her way through songs like "Make Me Wanna Die" and "Miss Nothing." Before she left Gossip Girl, Momsen's contempt for the show was palpable even to fans. Upon filming a guest spot on GG, A-List stylist Tim Gunn remarked that she was like a "brat" who hadn't bothered to learn her lines.
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Penn Badgley
Character: Dan Humphrey
Status: Bored
Ex-Factor: Blake Lively
Penn Badgley showed off his comedic timing in Easy A, and this year we'll see if the the up-and-coming star can hold his own alongside Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons in Margin Call. As for his role on Gossip Girl, it sounds like Badgley might be getting bored of playing Dan Humphrey.
"It is what it is," Badgley told the New York Post last summer. "It's the fourth season. It's become routine."
And that quote was before his split from Blake Lively. While the two have reportedly remained friends following the break-up, it's likely Badgley would welcome some new career opportunities that don't involve working alongside his ex.
w/e, suck it up and finish up the season/show with lots of good DAIR
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