Oh, little Jenny Humphrey — er, Taylor Momsen! The charming 15-year-old Gossip Girl actress must be swept up in discovering herself, fashion sense included. Because earlier this week at a M.A.C-sponsored Fashion Week kickoff dinner at Café Select downtown, the little cherub was all choppy bangs and kohl-rimmed eyes, wearing a very black, very severe Dolce & Gabbana frock. This marked Momsen’s second Joan Jett–inspired party outfit in as many weeks: Last week she wore a black leather-jacket ensemble with smoky eyes for a Henri Bendel event. For those of us accustomed to the smiley schoolgirl’s on screen knee socks and frilly, pastel-intense party dresses (now, of yore), it was a little startling. But at Café Select, she said she’s obsessed with Alexander Wang and D&G’s edgy offerings. And canary-yellow minidresses she’s worn to parties past aside, Momsen claims she’s always preferred to dress on the dark side. “I don’t think I ever wore anything tacky. I always wear dark colors.”

Then again, maybe it’s all an elaborate life-imitating-art thing, since Momsen also hinted that her Gossip Girl character is headed for White Oleander territory: “Jenny goes through a giant transformation this season — from the Jenny you know to a completely different person.” Ooooh! Still, let’s keep a watchful eye on this (predictably?) unpredictable 15-year-old: Many months before the entire world flipped their wig over Miley Cyrus’s bare back in Vanity Fair, the media barely batted an eyelash when Momsen, then just 14, graced the cover of this mag in her skivvies.

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E! News has learned exclusively that Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester’s mother Connie Meester, who gave birth to her daughter while doing time in a Texas prison for a drug-related crime, may soon be coming to a bookshelf near you.

Connie’s manager Loch Powell confirms that Mama Meester has penned “a memoir,” about her family life, which began as a screenplay “3 or 4 years ago,” but that she has yet to find a publisher.

The book will reportedly tell Connie’s life journey from drug ring co-conspirator to suburban real estate agent to author and, of course, to the rearing of her TV star child.

As for Leighton’s reaction to it, Powell says the star is supportive. “Leighton and her mom are very close,” he says. “Connie has had a spectacular life.”

On the heels of Gossip Girl’s successful season two premiere, Star magazine reported Tuesday that Connie was jailed in 1985 for marijuana trafficking. The report asserts that she (along with ex-husband and Leighton’s father Doug) were part of a family-run drug ring importing Jamaican weed to the U.S.

After an FBI bust in 1985, Connie began serving over a one year sentence at a Federal Prison in Fort Worth, Texas. Her stint was briefly interrupted in April of 1986 when she was released to give birth and nurse Leighton for 12 weeks. Mama Meester ultimately returned to the clink where she served until November of ‘86.

“I’m obsessed,” said Karp, a 26-year-old interior designer who lives in the neighborhood. “I’ve been to most places the show has been filmed at.”

“Gossip Girl,” the CW network teen drama that began its second season this week, is the current buzz of television, luring fans to the New York venues frequented by its wealthy high school characters. Restaurants are offering menu items featured in the show, and blogs report cast sightings. BlackBook, an urban lifestyle magazine, posted a “Gossip Girl” tour of the city on its Web site last month. “It’s such a strong advertising vehicle for us because people are so into that show, so engaged,” said Andy Donchin, director of national broadcast for New York media buyer Carat USA. Donchin’s clients, including Papa John’s International Inc. and Alberto-Culver Co., have bought time on the show to market pizza and Tresemme shampoo.

The $25 tuna truffle sandwich ordered at Geisha by character Waldorf and her ex-boyfriend Nate Archibald has become one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes, said spokeswoman Katie Roose.

“Everyone asked, `Where did they sit?”’ Roose said. “Geisha brings in a very socialite, Upper East Side, New York crowd. It’s perfect for the show.”

Grilled Cheese

Gilt, a bar in the New York Palace Hotel, says its best seller is the truffled grilled cheese sandwich that hotel heir Chuck Bass fed to inebriated schoolmate Serena van der Woodsen before trying to have sex with her. The sandwich sells for $50.

“We have men in their 50s asking for the grilled cheese sandwich and asking where Blair and Serena sat,” said Pete Holmberg, a spokesman for the Palace, which was featured as the home of the van der Woodsens in the first season. “The youngest I’ve seen is an 8-year-old girl coming in to see Gilt because of the show.”

CW, jointly owned by CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., based “Gossip Girl” on a series of books from Cecily von Ziegesar. The title character is a mystery blogger who narrates vignettes of romance, spats and scandals, and signs off: “You know you love me. XOXO, Gossip Girl.”

`New Yorkiest Show’

New York magazine in April dubbed the program the “New Yorkiest television show since `Sex and the City,”’ the HBO series that ran from 1998 to 2004. The magazine cited its raciness, melodramatic plot and portrayal of Manhattan privilege.

“Gossip Girl’s” local following hasn’t translated into ratings success. Its Wednesday airings in the season from last September through August averaged 2.19 million viewers. Monday broadcasts, after CW switched the time slot mid-season, lured an audience of 1.47 million, according to Nielsen Co.

The ratings put the show below other CW sitcoms such as “Smallville” and “One Tree Hill.” TV’s most-watched show last season, Fox’s Tuesday “American Idol,” drew about 27.7 million viewers per episode on average.

“Gossip Girl” was renewed because it “hits a bulls-eye with our target demographic of females 18 to 34,” said Paul Hewitt, a CW spokesman. Comparisons to the total viewership of “American Idol” are irrelevant, he said.

`Rabid Following’

The season premiere on Sept. 1 drew 3.4 million viewers, the second-highest total after the premiere episode a year ago.

The show has a “rabid following” across different media, including cwtv.com, Hewitt said. The episodes have been among the most-downloaded on Apple Inc.’s iTunes service, said Tom Neumayr, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple.

Filmed in Silvercup Studios in Queens, the show also featured the teenagers hanging out at the restaurant Butter in the downtown neighborhood of Nolita last season. The Box on the Lower East Side was depicted as Victrola, the burlesque club that Bass convinced his tycoon father was a worthwhile investment.

Karp, a native New Yorker who attended Horace Mann, a private school in the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale, before going to Scarsdale High School in Scarsdale, New York, says the show reminds her of her school days, as well as her Manhattan life. She says she recognizes the tiniest details, including the cups from Sant Ambroeus, where she gets her coffee every morning on Madison Avenue.

“It’s actually really realistic,” said Karp. “I love that it’s filmed in New York. Most of the places, you’ve been to. Or if you haven’t been, you can check them out after the show.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Gillian Wee in New York at gwee3@bloomberg.net.

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The mag talks about their hit show Gossip Girl, why parents hate it and teen wants to live it.

As reported earlier, Olympic gymnastics champion Nastia Liukin has a guest-starring role in this upcoming season of Gossip Girl. John Patrick Amedori and Willa Holland also have scored multi-episode arcs on the hit CW show.

Entertainment Weekly’s Fall TV Preview is the complete guide to 92 of the upcoming TV season’s biggest shows, hitting newsstands tomorrow.

The 21-year-old blonde beauty was the breakout star on US television last year, with hit teen drama Gossip Girl.

She headlines the show as reformed wild girl Serena van der Woodsen.

The second season will be available exclusively on demand on SingTel mio TV from 8Sep.

Lively - who is currently dating her Gossip Girl on-screen love interest Penn Badgley - landed her first professional acting gig when she was cast in the 2005 chick flick The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants.

She reunited with her co-stars America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn for its sequel this year.

The 1.78m-tall California native is becoming such a hot commodity that she recently graced a rush of magazine covers.

She also landed on People’s Most Beautiful List and has been proclaimed one of ‘Hollywood’s New Wave’ by Vanity Fair and ‘Hollywood’s proverbial It Girl’ by Cosmopolitan. But Lively - who was senior class president, a cheerleader and a member of the championship show choir in high school - is simply a good girl at heart.

She told Seventeen magazine: ‘I once heard someone say that I’m similar to Paris Hilton - since I have a dog and blonde hair, that must mean we’re alike.

‘It’s a dumb thing to say… I don’t go to clubs, I don’t party, I don’t dance on tables and I don’t like sex tapes.’

YUMMY FACTOR: 3.5 out of 5

Chace Crawford
BEST known for his portrayal as promiscuous and conflicted rich kid Nate Archibald, Chace Crawford is the steamiest - and arguably the prettiest - cast member on hot US teen drama Gossip Girl, which revolves around the privileged lifestyles of Upper East Side prep school socialities.

This year, the 23-year-old Texan heart-throb won the Choice TV Breakout Male Star at the Teen Choice Awards and was listed on People magazine’s Single and Sexy Men of 2008 countdown.

While cracking the books at Pepperdine University, the 1.83m-tall part-time model tried his hand at acting upon his mother’s encouragement.

In 2006, Crawford landed his first major role in supernatural thriller The Covenant. But he didn’t gain fame until he created sexual tension between himself and co-stars Blake Lively and Leighton Meester on Gossip Girl.

He also nabbed headlines for dating American Idol 4 winner and country music sensation Carrie Underwood - until they split up earlier this year via SMS.

Unfortunately for the ladies, Crawford hates appearing topless on screen.

He even argued with TV bosses who tried to persuade him to strip to his boxers for an episode of Gossip Girl, where his character crashes on the sofa after a big night out.

He told OK! magazine: ‘No one does that. Why am I naked on my buddy’s couch? It was weird so I fought it.’

YUMMY FACTOR: 4 out of 5

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The actress, who played Marissa Cooper’s younger sister Kaitlin on the hit drama series, will take on the role of 16-year-old model Agnes in the new season. Her character is introduced when she starts working for Blair’s mother Eleanor Waldorf (Margaret Colin).

Meanwhile, John Patrick Amedori has been cast as Aaron Rose, a new love interest for lead character Serena (Blake Lively), according to E! Online. As well as starring in The Butterfly Effect, he has also appeared in a variety of US dramas, including Law & Order, Nip/Tuck and Ghost Whisperer.

Gossip Girl’s second season premiered on Monday in the US. It will continue for a full 24-episode run.

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NEW YORK — Blake Lively’s “Gossip Girl” character Serena van der Woodsen likes to wear Ralph Lauren, but in real live Blake is Chanel Girl! We ran into Blake while she was shopping at Chanel section at Saks Fifth Avenue. The 21-year-old actress was happy to take a break from her hectic shooting schedule to go shopping for her favorite brand. Blake was particularly interested in Chanel accessories and bags.

The network’s buzzy second-year show “Gossip Girl” debuted to its best-ever ratings in the network’s target women 18-34 demographic, according to Nielsen overnights, averaging a 2.3 rating and finishing a close second behind Fox’s “Prison Break” in the 8 p.m. timeslot.

“Gossip Girl,” which launched a racy campaign earlier this summer that included criticism from the Parents Television Council as part of the promotion, also hit series-high ratings among women 18-34 (3.2), women 18-49 (2.3) and adults 18-49 (1.7).

The show drew its second-best numbers among total viewers, averaging 3.4 million, behind last year’s premiere. Last year, “Girl” had the advantage of airing behind “America’s Next Top Model,” the CW’s top-rated show.

This year, after a brief Monday run during the spring, “Girl” led off the night against decent competition, including the young-skewing “Break” and NBC’s much older skewing “Deal or No Deal.”

“Girl” lead-out “One Tree Hill” held its lead-in’s numbers among all the major demos, and it actually built in women 18-34 to a 3.3. The combination of the two gave the CW its best Monday night ever in its target demos.

That certainly bodes well for the highly touted premiere of “90210” tonight on the CW. The network has heavily promoted the show, a spinoff of Fox’s seminal 1990s series, and the original series’ stars have appeared on a slew of magazine covers in recent weeks, from Entertainment Weekly to Us.

Meanwhile, Fox’s “Break” didn’t set any new highs. The fourth-year drama averaged a 2.6 for its two-hour debut, off 19 percent from a 3.2 for last year’s one-hour opener, though it also debuted two weeks earlier than last year. Still, that was enough to secure the nightly win.

Fox led the night among 18-49s with a 2.6 average overnight rating and a 7 share. NBC was second at 2.2/6, Univision third at 1.7/5, CBS and CW tied for fourth at 1.6/4 and ABC sixth at 0.7/2.

At 8 p.m. NBC was first with a 2.6 for “Deal,” followed by Fox with a 2.5 for “Break.” Univision was third with a 2.1 for “Al Diablo con los Guapos,” CW fourth with a 1.7 for “Girl,” CBS fifth with a 1.6 for repeats of “The Big Bang Theory” and “How I Met Your Mother” and ABC sixth with a 0.6 for “High School Musical: Get In the Picture.”

Fox took the lead at 9 p.m. with a 2.8 for another hour of “Break,” while NBC slid to second with a 2.4 for “America’s Toughest Jobs.” CBS was third with a 2.2 for repeats of “Two and a Half Men” and “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” Univision fourth with a 1.9 for “Fuego en la Sangre,” CW fifth with a 1.6 for “One Tree Hill” and ABC sixth with a 0.7 for an hour of “Samantha Who?” reruns.

NBC regained the lead at 10 p.m. with a 1.6 for news coverage of Hurricane Gustav, with Univision second with a 1.3 for “Cristina.” CBS followed at 1.2 and ABC at 0.9, each for Gustav coverage.

Among households, NBC was first for the night with a 4.9 average overnight rating and an 8 share. Fox was second at 3.8/6, CBS third at 3.5/6, CW fourth at 2.2/3, Univision fifth at 2.1/3 and ABC sixth at 1.8/3.