Warm Glowing Warming Glow

Will Holland Alert

I'm probably not going to do a full response to Monday's season premiere of Gossip Girl -- I have overly ambitious plans for 90210 and one or two things to say about Project Runway and The Hills before I can get to that. Short story: decent episode, where the f!@# was Kelly Rutherford, can't stand the Blair/Thin White Duke subplot, everyone's skin looked weird.

Enough about that. Here's the exciting news: Zap2it is reporting that Willa Holland will be appearing in at least three episodes of Gossip Girl, in a Little-J-centric storyline. I'm speechless. Willa Holland was a delight on The O.C.; I'm sure she's going to rock whatever it is she's doing on Gossip Girl.

Did Someone Order a Townie?

Yes, Blair, we did.  That's September 1 for the season premiere.

That's all we know, except this: According to People, this dude will be playing Leighton Meester's new love interest, when the show returns. I saw The Nanny Diaries (albeit on a plane) and don't remember him -- maybe he played one of Chris Evans's dicky friends?

And of course this:

It Girl?

Zap2It reports that there's talk of a Gossip Girl spin-off. Apparently Cicely Von Whatever published a bunch of books about Jenny Humphrey's adventures in boarding school. They're called It Girl -- this sounds familiar, actually. TV's Little J might follow her print equivalent, or Josh Schwartz et co. might introduce another character to spin off. Or the CW might pass (or might not be around to pass . . .) Interesting, I guess. Not surprising -- Schwartz reportedly wanted to do a boarding school spin-off of The O.C., built around Kaitlin -- even before Willa Holland took over the role and knocked that shit out of the park.

OMFG, Again

Here is a funny discussion of the idea of Gossip Girl as a web-based phenomenon, as opposed to a show that actual people watch. I think that this sort of online buzz might eventually translate into actual viewership, sometime down the road -- say when the show returns for five episodes this summer. Or, on the other hand, TV might actually be dead. It could go either way. I do think it's interesting that the online aspect of the show is approaching that of The Hills, but that many more people watch The Hills (even though it's on cable). So what's the difference? I think the big difference is the gossip rags are covering Lauren, Heidi, Spencer and Audrina, and they're not covering Serena, Georgina, Dan and Blair . . .I may have this wrong, though, because actually comparing Gossip Girl and The Hills is making me a little queasy.

The Non-Judging Breakfast Club

Dear Jenny,

Did you see our girl Lisa Loeb on Gossip Girl? Does it age us to refer to Lisa Loeb as "our girl"? Wait. Do we even like her? I know that we loved #1 Single. I think I used to hate that "Stay" song, except I know it by heart -- how? -- and I really enjoyed hearing it at Rufus's concert last night. I might even get it from iTunes, because -- not old!

In any case, singer-songwriters of our collective past aside, pretty great episode last night: not as pop-culturally funny as last week's* but well-plotted and satisfying. We did not yet get Chuck + Blair vs. Georgina (next week?), but we did get Blair, in Great Friend mode, vs. Lily, in Awful Mother mode. I finally decided that I like what Michelle Trachtenberg is doing with the Georgina role. I was hating Georgina in general, but this week she seemed to slip over from hateful nuisance to screaming psychopath (around the point where she tried to bring Serena coffee -- the Hell?), and it turns out Dawnie can do that. I think we should all be glad that Mischa Barton allegedly passed on that role, because Coop? I don't think Coop can do that.

Love,

-- Pete

*Last week's was almost Sherman-Palladinian in its speed and fluency -- I only just remembered that great, throwaway Zac Efron joke.

The Gay Bomb Drops

Dear Jenny,

I am still hyperventilating as a result of last night's Gossip Girl and I'm kind of pissed off at Us and Kelly Rutherford for leaking the business about Eric. We've got bigger problems, though, don't you think? Here are mine:

1. The show only really sings when Rutherford, Leighton Meester or Ed Westwick is on screen. Last night's episode was extraordinary in being entirely Chuck-free (and Nate-free, for what it's worth), and yet compelling from beginning to end. But it brought home how dependent the tone of the show is on those three actors.

2. Are we sure this show isn't on Fox? Last week's Nelly Yuki material made me more uncomfortable the more I thought about it (I think I initially praised that subplot because Blair was so good). The take-away from this week was mildly supportive of gay teens, but we got there via some pretty homophobic stuff.

3. Michelle Trachtenberg is still not clicking for me. I think the problem is maybe the character: Georgina is unbearably evil. Even when Blair was being mean to Serena at the beginning of the season, she was never this bad. Also, again, see above about Leighton Meester doing no wrong.

What did you think? Do you care? After all, the fashion remains so great.

Love,

-- Pete

Take Your Bobo and Leave Me in Peace

Dear Jenny,

Is there something wrong with me that I'm starting to really appreciate Spencer? I used to hate the guy. Remember the cheap, fake-out engagement ring? Remember when he and Heidi tried to fix Brody up with Jen Bunney? Remember "I'm on Team Heidi"? What happened? Did he have some sort of actual, legitimate spurt of personality growth? Or are the producers just feeding him all the best lines because they can't think of anything else to do with him (sort of like Lo in that way)?

Not much to report about the rest of The Hills, except Stephen! Colletti! Should we care? It's been so long since Laguna Beach that I'm not even sure what we're supposed to think about him and Lauren maybe possibly getting together, except totally not, because Stephen! always just wants to be friends (now it's coming back to me). Hey, remember when Stephen! Colletti! was going to be a big star? He shot a film in Rhode Island and no one cared about the more famous actors, they just wanted to catch a sighting of Stephen! (Or so our Aunt said.) Did that film ever come out?

Meanwhile, on the other coast, a pretty good week for Blair Waldorf and for Chuck Bass, a kind of sucky week for everyone else. I don't know how I feel about Nelly Yuki as a cliche -- mildly offensive? not offensive? racist? post-racist? -- and the plot made very little sense (as in, how come Blair was able to win back all the A-girls so easily, after last week's Butter disasters?), but as usual, Leighton Meester worked it for all it was worth. Plus, did you see that cape Blair was working in that one scene? Chuck also managed to make crazy couture (a fire engine red trenchcoat!) work for him, plus something about the Serena-SAT-stand-in really sent me over the edge. BUT the Serena plot is a little boring. Michelle Trachtenberg, at this point, carries so much baggage from earlier roles, that I'm having a hard time with her as Georgina. I can't even tell if she's doing good or bad work here. What do you think? Would this story be better or worse, had Mischa Barton taken the role?

The Paper is finding its groove, isn't it? I still feel like I already know these kids, I mean like I went to high school with them as well. Do you know what I mean?

Love,

-- Pete

Spoiler Alert: Kelly Rutherford Is Very Charming

Kelly Rutherford tells Us Magazine kind of a lot about upcoming Gossip Girl plot points, here. Seriously -- she seems like a delightful person, but she also tells more than I wanted to know. Oh well.

Monday Night Round-Up

Gossip Girl. Wow. It's been such a long time that I'm having a hard time evaluating last night's episode. It was good, but was it good? How do I feel about Blair not quite getting her revenge? A little sad. How far has Little J fallen? Really freaking far. Am I excited about or dreading the arrival of Michelle Trachtenberg? A little of both. How great will it be if Serena and Chuck team up to fight Georgina? Really freaking great. [Edited to add this.]

The Hills. Another really choppy, confusing episode. I'm not sure I know what I was looking at. The big girl-non-fight scene at Goa was very poorly choreographed, almost like someone (Lauren!) was ignoring her marks. I'm not even sure how I'm supposed to feel about these various conflicts, or whether or not I'm supposed to care. I think I'm sympathizing with Spencer again. Weird.

The Paper. I'm still awfully excited about this show. I think we're heading somewhere pretty interesting. Amanda is spectacular. I feel like I went to high school with her -- the ambition, the self-delusion, the purple tights. Don't you know that girl?

OMFG

A funny thing happened to me last night. I watched the premiere episode of The Paper, again, and then I saw this promo:

and then my head exploded.  April 21, for serious.  -- Pete