On Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the affluent prep school teens first discover that Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively, “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”) is back in town to learn all the essential news in their lives from the blog of the all-knowing, but ultra-secret, Gossip Girl. No one knows the name of Gossip Girl, but everyone depends on her website and text messages for the next scoop in this exclusive and confusing vicious circle. Even Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester, “Entourage”), Serena’s best mate, is shocked to see that Serena suddenly finished her self-imposed isolation in boarding school and returned to Manhattan.
Formerly the most infamous party girl in the Upper East Side, the motives for Serena’s comeback remain unclear, but they may have anything to do with her younger brother Eric (Connor Paolo, “Alexander”). The shift in Serena, whatever the causes, is apparent, particularly for Blair, whose relationship with Serena has always been competitive and difficult. Blair loved her moment in the spotlight while Serena was out of the frame, and she had no hope of going back to living in the shadow of Serena. Their awkward partnership is further confused by Blair’s boyfriend Nate (Chace Crawford, “The Covenant”), a young man uncomfortable with all the rights that his high-powered boss, Howie “The Captain” Archibald, Archibald, offered him (Sam Robards,
No one in this crowd is missing the friction between Blair and Serena, because they all live for news and scandal—along with beauty, shopping and drinking in the trendiest hot spots in Manhattan. This is a world in which you must be born, loaded with money, strength, and people like Chuck (Ed Westwick, “Children of Men”). Since adolescence, Chuck has been a friend of Nate’s, living a risky existence, and consistently forcing Nate to pursue his dark side.
Dan (Penn Badgley, “John Tucker Must Die,” “The Bedford Diaries”) and his sister Jenny (Taylor Momsen, “Paranoid Park,” “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”), middle-class children whose upbringing leaves them on the fringes of this elite clique, are the proverbial fish-out-of-water at the prep school. At the urging of their father Rufus (Matthew Settle, “Into The West”), a former rocker-turned art gallery owner, Dan and Jenny are attending school determined to provide a first-class education to their children.
