blake lively

Where you've seen her before: As Bridget in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." She reprises her role in the upcoming sequel.

Fun fact: Her parents and her four siblings are all actors. Her father, Ernie, plays Bridget's father in the "Sisterhood" movies.

On her character: "All teenagers are different. Some teenagers are much worse than how we are on the show. But what's most important is, for my character alone, she gets caught up in this universe. They're handed everything on a silver platter, and she's the center of her own world and she sees her best friend's boyfriend. She wants him, so she takes him. And I think what's so important about her is that she realizes that she was wrong and she needs to reform herself. And she goes away to boarding school and tries to make herself a better person and comes back into this world and is fighting not to be sucked into it. And I just think that that's what's really great, that you see that people can change."

On what her "Sisterhood co-stars" - America Ferrera ("Ugly Betty"), Amber Tamblyn ("Joan of Arcadia") and Alexis Bledel ("Gilmore Girls") - thought about her starring in a TV series: "My first instinct was I'm going to call the girls, because I knew they had all been through it. But they're so doggone opinionated, and they're all so different. When they get together, I'm like their baby sister. And they sit me down. I was going to get another dog recently, and they're like, 'No. You're not going to.' They wrote a whole list of pros and cons for me. So I thought I'm just going to make this decision on my own, and then I'm going to talk to them about it, which, I think, was the right decision. I'm very happy."

Where you'll see her in five years: Starring in a remake of "Little Women" with her real-life sisters.

Oh, they grow up so fast, don't they?

Really, really fast in the case of the privileged teenagers portrayed in the CW's delicious new drama series "Gossip Girl."



Blake Lively plays Serena van der Woodsen, queen bee at a Manhattan private school. (By Kc Bailey -- The Cw)
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These underage private-school elitists living on Manhattan's Upper East Side dress in designer threads, are fond of martinis and champagne, can seemingly drink at any bar in New York (no fears of losing liquor licenses here, apparently) and trade witty bons mots as if they're members of the Algonquin Round Table.

And don't even get us started on their randy sex lives.

"Gossip Girl," from the teen-addled brain of Josh Schwartz, who served up the canceled "O.C.," carries on the legacy of that West Coast soap opera and perhaps turns it up a notch with both drama and sheer teen-soapy goodness. (It's all quite a startling contrast to those hard-working youngsters slaving away on "Kid Nation," which also debuts tonight on CBS.)

"Gossip Girl" is based on a popular series of young-adult novels by Cecily von Ziegesar about a mysterious blogger who keeps all the city's rich kids up on what's going on in a very vibrant social circuit. On the show, the blogger is never seen but only heard in a voice-over by Kristen Bell (she of the recently canceled "Veronica Mars").

Gossip Girl's topic du jour, at least in the pilot episode, involves the two top dogs in the high school hierarchy: gorgeous Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively, a clone of a young Ellen Barkin, right down to that smirk) and her beautiful BFF Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester). Serena has just returned to New York after leaving abruptly a year earlier for a Connecticut boarding school, and the whole community is wondering: Why did she go in the first place and what's she doing back?

Blair, who felt dissed by Serena's abrupt departure, is cool to her returning "friend," and things are only going to get uglier when the reason for her leaving becomes apparent. "There's nothing Gossip Girl likes more than a good catfight." (Us, too, GG. Us, too.) "And this one has the makings of a classic," the blogger says in one of her many voice-overs.

Meanwhile, Chuck, one of the social scene's biggest players (superbly slimy Ed Westwick), knows why Serena fled town, and he'll surely exploit this information for his own good.

The show's other standout character is Dan (Penn Badgley), a middle-class outsider and overall nice guy who stumbles into the clique accidentally. Lucky Dan might soon be romantically linked to Serena, who, like, is so out of his league on many levels.

At times, it's overboard and maybe a bit giggle-inducing, like watching little kids play dress-up. But overboard is exactly where "Gossip Girl" wants to be -- and what viewers must embrace when taking the guilty plunge.


To kick off the Totally Tube 2007 festivities, I bring you Five Newbies You'll Love. These are the five breakout stars of the new season―I adore them, and I have a pretty strong inkling that you'll love them, too. The countdown begins today, with...Number Five: Blake Lively!


Who She Is: Ladies and gentlemen, meet your new favorite Sister of the Traveling Pants. Blake is the last of the Sisterhood to have her own TV show. (If only all movie casts were so lucky!) First, we met Alexis Bledel, aka Rory Gilmore of Gilmore Girls fame. Then we got to know Amber Tamblyn, aka Joan Girardi from Joan of Arcadia. Third at bat was America Ferrera, now a huge star thanks to Ugly Betty.

Last but not least, Blake makes her television debut this fall, after spending most of her career so far in film. Better known to you Sisterhood fans as "Bee," Blake is the youngest of the four ingenues.

Where to Meet Her: This season on the CW, Blake stars on Gossip Girl as Serena van der Woodsen. Serena is a complicated beauty who has returned to her hometown of New York after a tour at boarding school. A woman with secrets, Serena nonetheless has a good heart, and she wants to do right by her friends and family. Of course, that goal is complicated by her tempestous relationship with her mother and her frienemies at school, not the least of whom is the beautiful but insecure Blair Waldorf.

According to Blake, "Serena does have a past of being a bit wild, but what's interesting is that even though she's so young, she realizes that the way she's been living her life is wrong. It just makes her a cool person, that she's able to see that and wants to change."


Why You'll Love Her: Well, just look at her. Gorgeous! Of course, just to make you love-hate her all the more, she's also talented, smart, funny and genuine. And she's very, very excited to be here! She says: "It just hit me yesterday that our show is going to come out soon! I thought, Oh crap, the show is going to premiere in two weeks! It's so anonymous right now, and people are going to see it!" Are they ever!

Want to meet Blake for yourself? Watch the video below, where Blake discusses her own school daze (including meeting costar Penn Badgley in a previous life) and then tune in Sept. 19 at 8 p.m. on the CW for the series premiere of Gossip Girl. See you there!