OMG! The Boys of ‘Gossip Girl’ All Have Chest Hair!It turns out that we aren’t the only people in the world who uncomfortably fetishize the cast of Gossip Girl. The gays do it, too! (Okay, to be fair, Daily Intel editor Chris is one, and Jessica is a big ol’ ‘mo ho herself.) Out Magazine has a delicious photo shoot of the boys “roughhousing” around in its March fashion issue, and we couldn’t be more delighted with the results. Also, they provide telling insight into why their home demographic is so into the show:
The thought of returning to high school is a harrowing one for most gay men, but being able to look at adolescence through a lens that idealizes everyone as insanely wealthy, impossibly gorgeous, and improbably well-spoken is like porn.
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Okay, we have, but it took us thousands and thousands of words to do it. Dan Penn Badgley talks a bit to the mag about whether or not he would be comfortable going gay for the show. “It would be an interesting thing to do,” he says. “It could bring in a whole different demographic.” If you’re talking about the kind of demographic who lusts after teenage boys discovering their sexuality, Penn, we’re pretty sure you’ve already got that one sewed up.
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‘Gossip Girl’ May Be Over, But Serena and Dan Go OnThere were socialites and movie stars galore at Chanel’s “Night of Diamonds” at the Plaza Hotel last night, but to us, there were only two souls in the sumptuous ballroom: Gossip Girl deities Blake Lively and Penn Badgley, or, as we prefer to call them, Serena and Dan. It’s been rumored that the onscreen couple has been dating in real life, and we were relieved to see this seemed to be true, as we try our best to maintain the illusion that characters on Gossip Girl are real. We positioned ourselves uncomfortably close to their table and watched as Serena pirouetted for Dan, her blonde ponytail slapping his face; Dan drummed his fingers while Serena chatted about fashion; and Serena close-talked to Dan between courses. Finally, we got up the nerve to approach them. We mentioned that, you know, some people have commented on whether the show portrayed Manhattan realistically and asked what they thought. “From what I’ve heard, it’s pretty accurate,” Serena said. Upper East Side teenagers “really do hang out in the lounges of bars after school.” But Dan wasn’t so sure. “I would say definitely, um, when my little sister, Jenny, swings from our Brooklyn apartment to an Upper East Side palace in five minutes top — that’s really absurd,” Dan admitted. (He actually said, “My little sister, Jenny!” We died.) He must have noticed the crazed fandom in our eyes, because right then he started talking about what the network is planning for the hiatus in order to keep people like us off the streets, or at least from turning to Cashmere Mafia. Starting January 28, he said, they’ll be airing the reruns with “extra tidbits” called Gossip Girl Revealed. “It will entertain people who have seen it,” he said. “And for those who haven’t seen it, it will be illuminating.” —Justin Ravitz
Get scandalous hotel memories from Helena Christensen, MisShapes, Julia Stiles, and others at our complete coverage of Chanel’s “Night of Diamonds” at the Plaza’s Grand Ballroom.
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James Taylor Crowd Knows Nothing of His WorkThere was the usual phalanx of celebs at the Ross School in East Hampton Saturday for James Taylor’s penultimate concert in the Hampton Social series — the Olsens, Richard Gere, Jimmy Buffett, Daryl Hannah, even Paul McCartney — but, as it turned out, they weren’t all necessarily there to see Sweet Baby James. “I don’t know much of his music,” James Blunt admitted to us before the show started, “but I’m looking forward to it.” So no favorite songs, then? “I’ll have to get back to you at the end of the night,” he said. Mischa Barton was equally flummoxed. “Um, I don’t know,” she admitted. “Everyone’s been asking me. I put it on my iPod before we left, but I haven’t listened.” Beth Ostrosky, there with her boyfriend, Howard Stern, was one of the few who could answer the question. “‘You’ve Got a Friend,’” she said proudly. And local gal Christie Brinkley eventually came up with an answer, too. “I sing the kids this song at night to help put them to sleep,” she said. “I don’t know what it’s called, but it goes, ‘There is a young cowboy ’ Oh, ‘Sweet Baby James,’ that’s it.” Yup. —Brett Amelkin