Gossip Girl’s executive producer Stephanie Savage has defended the decision to break up Chuck and Blair.

Earlier this season, the duo decided that they should remain as friends rather than pursue a relationship.

“Overall, I think that we felt like that was the natural evolution of Chuck and Blair’s relationship and something that we wanted to see happen to the characters,” Savage told Zap2It.

“I think it’s frustrating fans who just want them to be together and be happy, but we have to save the finish line for the finish line.”

Savage also revealed that fans have been “pretty divided” about a possible romance between Blair and Dan.

“There’s certainly a huge Chuck and Blair fanbase who really don’t like seeing them with anybody else,” she said. “Then there are also the people who are like, ‘I always liked their scenes together and I loved the last episode [before Christmas] and I look forward to seeing more of them’.

“There’s also a Nate and Blair fanbase. There’s a fanbase for everybody. There’s a Serena and Dan fanbase and people who don’t want to see any more problems there. They can also see that this is going to cause problems between Serena and Blair and that’s the heart of the show.”

Gossip Girl continues on Mondays at 9/8c on The CW in the US. The show returns on February 2 at 8pm on ITV2 in the UK.

LEIGHTON MEESTER: NYLON COVER GIRL

"I'm a grown woman and sometimes I might be a little bit fat!"

Thanks to her magnetic screen presence and weekly must-watch TV show, it's never been hard to watch Leighton Meester.  But thanks to two back-to-back movies - Country Strong, out now, and The Roommate, premiering February 4 - the Florida native has quickly catapulted from TV star to Hollywood's new hot property.

An insider close to the CW network tells The Voice of TV exclusively that the network will bring back hit series 90210, Gossip Girl and Vampire Diaries for another season.

No word yet on America’s Next Top Model, Hellcats, Nikita and Supernatural but the insider did say the network won’t renew Life Unexpected, One Tree Hill and Smallville for another season.

Don’t expect an official announcement from the network about the cancellations until May, though you can expect one with early renewals for a few shows in the next few months.

(ska leta efter bättre kvalité på bilden)

The new Missoni campaign emphasizes once more the intention of interacting with the art world. Based on different languages and styles, it involves this time photography, collage and video, turning fashion into an unexpected portrait gallery, a contemporary accrochage of expressions and aptitudes, feelings and situations, a collection of modern, unique and inimitable ways of being, against the backdrop of the most playful and unconventional exhibition spaces.

London’s ‘Museum of Everything’ which the eccentric James Brett has conceived as a public temporary ‘wunderkammer’ for its extraordinary collection of masterpieces created on the fringes of the system. A collection of works realized by total strangers, non-professional geniuses, eccentric visionnaries, act as the setting for the shots Jurgen Teller has realized for the new campaign ‘Family and Friends’. A campaign that perfectly summarizes the trans-generational spirit of Missoni style, and the multi-cultural vision seen in the S-S 2011 collection.

Involving, besides Tai and Rosita, Vittorio, Luca and Angela, Margherita, Francesco, Teresa, Ottavio, Marco and Jennifer, also a large group of acquaintances and friends of different ages, personalities of the social and creative international scene such as Leighton Meester, Camilla Al Fayed, Eugenie Niarchos, Jasmine Guinness, Lissy von Thurn und Taxis, Tatiana Santo Domingo, Victoria Fernandez, Joan Burnstein, extraordinary artists and collectors such as Sir Peter Blake and James Brett, past and present top models like Andrea and Charlotte Dellal, Jade Parfitt, Jaquetta Wheeler.

KÄLLA

“GOSSIP GIRL” — (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET)

“The Kids Are Not All Right” (TV-14) (HDTV)

MICHAEL BOATMAN (“THE GOOD WIFE”) AND TIKA SUMPTER (“ONE LIFE TO LIVE”) GUEST STAR — A former associate of Chuck’s (Ed Westwick) father, Russell Thorpe (Boatman) – along with his daughter Raina (Sumpter) – returns to Manhattan with some unfinished business for our Upper East Siders. Serena (Blake Lively) and Chuck join forces against Lily (Kelly Rutherford). Blair (Leighton Meester) realizes that her mother, Eleanor (guest star Margaret Colin), may be her key to becoming a future CEO. Nate (Chace Crawford) worries that his father, The Captain (guest star Sam Robards), is having a little too much fun and not taking his parole seriously. Penn Badgley and Matthew Settle also star. Allan Kroeker directed the episode written by K.J. Steinberg.

Garrett Hedlund knows how to create a stink on a movie set, but not in the way you’d think. Just ask Leighton Meester.

In the movie ‘Country Strong,’ the characters played by Garrett and Leighton fall in love.

“Garrett is really awesome. I think he’s wonderful; he’s like a knight in shining armor in the movie and he also has this real vulnerable sweet side that comes out,” the brunette beauty tells The Boot. “He’s kind of a big kid.”

However, there’s one side of his personality that she admits can be a little “frustrating,” although funny. One day, Leighton was getting her hair and makeup touched up during a lunch break. “[Garrett] put a stink bomb in the [make-up] trailer. It was just me and the hairstylist, and I’m going, ‘Did he just…?’ I’m sure the hairstylist is looking at me like, ‘Did she just …?’ And then suddenly it gets to be too much to contain and I just have to run out screaming, and [Garrett's] just standing there laughing at me.”

As moviegoers will see, Leighton clearly spent a fair amount of time in the make-up trailer, given her character’s painted-on Barbie style. “I think it’s really helpful to look like a totally different person to get into that headspace,” she says. “I’d be touching my hair and I’d be like, ‘Can I just wash it, please?’ It was like this lacquered top and then underneath I kept on saying it felt like a cemetery with weeds and crazy stuff happening in there, [plus] eye lashes and lips, acrylic nails, the dresses and the little cross. But, yeah, that was a totally helpful part of the process.”

• Exteriors near Bergdorfs
• Near Wollman Ice Rink in Central Park
• The iconic Oak Room in the Plaza Hotel.

The worst part about the snowpocalypse was that no one was prepared for it. If I had known that Ed Westwick was going to be stranded at the airport in Iceland for 48 hours, I would have been waiting there to "entertain" him.

But alas, the "Gossip Girl" bad boy "walked into the duty-free shop and bought a bottle of vodka." Swoon. He was stranded when his flight to London got snowed in and according to a spy, "he looked like hell."

We know pretty brunette Leighton Meester as NYC socialite Blair Waldorf on “Gossip Girl”. This year, Leighton welcomed the chance to go to Nashville to play a stage-shy country music wannabe in the new romantic drama Country Strong even if it meant a grueling schedule filled with music rehearsals, constant plane flights and character confusion.

 

In Beverly Hills, Leighton, dressed in a cute Derek Lam dress with a denim/country vibe, told us that the film has changed her in a host of ways, including a total re-vamp of her musical tastes and style. The pop princess with an edge is stepping aside at least temporarily while the actress and singer picks up her new acoustic guitar and is determined to “write songs from my heart”.

 

Leighton got so caught up in YouTube research on both femme country singers and beauty pageants (her character Chiles claims she’s “Miss Dallas”;) that she turned “a bit evil” watching titles like “Beauty Queen Falls” or “Beauty Queen Buys her Sash on E-Bay”.

 

At our interview, Leighton asks her assistant where her “baby” is and we think we’ve got one heck of a scoop until she explains that the “baby” is her little rescue terrier mix Jack. Kick back and let’s visit with Ms. Meester who tells us first that she hasn’t given up on love.

 

TeenHollywood: Let’s talk one of the major themes of Country Strong. Do you feel that love and fame can co-exist?

Leighton Meester: I would like it to. I haven’t really been faced with that yet. I’m just doing work and that’s what I focus on now. But, I love, love and I want it in my life. I have a lot of it in different ways. When it comes, I welcome it and when it isn’t there, it kind of sucks to be honest [she laughs] but you have inspiration coming from other places.

 

TeenHollywood: Do you think love has to be the foundation when you are matching up with someone else in the same career field? Tim McGraw was saying that was certainly true for him and wife Faith Hill.

Leighton Meester: Yeah. If it’s just that you have your careers in common, [it won’t work]. People say to me, ‘Well, if you have trouble, don’t date actors.’ Well, who the hell else am I gonna date when I work 24 hours a day? [we laugh]

TeenHollywood: Which character do you identify most with? Blair or Chiles?

Leighton Meester: They are completely different and that’s what keeps me happy and not bored. I think Blair is larger than life [laughs]. She’s doing things that I would never do. She’s very manipulative and conniving in this heightened reality whereas Chiles feels like somebody who I know or maybe a part of myself. She’s a lot of things I want to be. [My director] Shana [Feste], during rehearsal was like ‘You’re not all that naïve or light and happy about things, are you?’ I was appalled. ‘How dare you?’ [she laughs]. I was like ‘Oh, I guess not’. She said ‘You should try to be’. So, from then on I did and even to this day, I’m much happier.

 

TeenHollywood: You and hot Garrett Hedlund play the young lovers in the film and have the same agent. Did you really know him though beforehand? How was working with him?

Leighton Meester: I had met him but we had a chemistry reading together. I walk in and he’s sitting on the floor. I felt very drawn toward the character. Obviously, Beau is the knight in shining armor but [Garrett] lends a totally different flavor to it with his sweetness and his vulnerable side which changes the character completely to suit him. He’s great and wonderful to work off of.

 

TeenHollywood: You have a couple of scenes with Gwyneth. Did you two get a chance to talk and bond before, during or after?

Leighton Meester: Yeah. I think, because of her role, I wasn’t sure exactly what the interaction would be. Obviously, our dynamic in this movie is two women in this industry who are not necessarily happy all the time. As an actress, I really admire her because she is incredible but, as a person, everybody loves her because she is so generous and, off camera, she’s very funny and down to earth. She’s just a down, cool chick.

 

TeenHollywood: Kelly [Gwyneth’s country music superstar character] gives Chiles seven or eight pieces of advice. What is the best piece of advice you’ve gotten about the business and who did it come from?

Leighton Meester: I feel really lucky that I’ve gotten good advice as I’ve gone along in my career. Anything that would come from my family would be like ‘Okay, cool. You’re working. Go take out the trash’. I think the best advice was from this director Julian Farino [The Oranges] who was very supportive of following your heart. If you are doing what you love, it doesn’t matter if a smaller percentage of people like it. At least you like it.

 

TeenHollywood: Were there any young country singers that you took moves or sounds from?

Leighton Meester: Yeah. We would go to lower Broadway bars in Nashville and see singers downing whiskey shots on stage and Shana is like ‘Now that’s the beginning’ then we went to the Ryman [Auditorium] and saw Martina McBride and Carrie Underwood, much more powerful; these huge stars, very comfortable in that atmosphere. I don’t know what’s more nerve-wracking; standing in front of a small crowd and having everyone boo you or having to stand in front of a crowd of ten thousand people with them all cheering and you have to be really confident. This movie has taught me to sing and write from my heart and, in that way, I like Tom Petty, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. I like the simplicity of that paired with the presence of emotion.

 

TeenHollywood: Chiles starts out frozen with stage fright. Can you relate to that?

Leighton: Yeah. It terrifies me when I have to go up on stage. Even just for the movie, that scene is really uncomfortable. It felt so uncomfortable, I’m sure, for everyone who was there. For me, if I ever have to do any kind of public speaking or be up on a stage in front of people, my hands are sweating just thinking about it, honestly. It really terrifies me.

 

TeenHollywood: We know you hit YouTube pretty hard to research. Did you watch any movies set in the same world?

Leighton Meester: I think the beauty of this movie is it’s written about human relationships and the characters and the interactions between them. That’s where life comes in. You can’t really watch a movie for research necessarily. But, obviously Coal Miner’s Daughter and the tone of that and Crazy Heart.

 

TeenHollywood: You had to fly back and forth from NYC and “Gossip Girl” to Nashville to shoot this. What was the most difficult thing about that pressure? Slipping back and forth into two characters quickly or just the exhaustion?

Leighton Meester: I rarely find myself physically tired because I do get a decent amount of sleep. It’s putting your priorities in order. I’d be going back and forth and be on the plane and say “Where am I going? Who am I now?” But I chose that for myself and I had to do it and wanted to do it. I enjoyed it. I’d show up in the morning and Shana would have coffee for me and come in my trailer and sit and talk and work it out. Luckily we had a lot of rehearsal time that got my head switched to the [Chiles] character. The thing about “Gossip Girl”, I’ve been doing it for about four years so the dialogue comes so easily.

 

TeenHollywood: Did you have any time to party at all in Nashville?

Leighton Meester: I didn’t get to do a lot of stuff other than working which was kind of unfortunate because everyone else was always going out and I just said ‘I’ve got to catch a plane’.

 

TeenHollywood: You grew up in Florida so how hard was getting the Texas accent right?

Leighton Meester: I had a dialect coach. He seemed to say I got it pretty easily. It was hard on set with everybody doing their Tennessee accent which is different but it was fun and all the dialogue was perfectly suited for her accent so I was into it that way. I fell into it and I still do sometimes. A lot of people in my family are from the South so I sort of drew on certain things that they say. It’s a different, slower way of talking.

 

TeenHollywood: Chiles really wants to learn new things. She is using flash cards while on tour in the film. Any further education in your future or any subject you would like to take classes in some day?

Leighton Meester: A couple of years ago I was thinking about that because that was about the time I would have been graduating from college and I didn’t go. I’m thankful for that because I’ve had a lot of other life experiences but I’ve always read a lot and that’s part of my life that I enjoy. It’s how I decompress. I love to live in a little fantasy world sometimes which can be good and bad. Then I decided I want to be really smart so I started reading books that you would read in college and started educating myself that way. I read all these classic books.

 

TeenHollywood: Wasn’t joining the “Gossip Girl” cast sort of like going away to school?

Leighton Meester: Yeah. When I moved to New York it was like that. Everybody in the show had moved at the same time and we all hung out and shared life experiences.

 

TeenHollywood: What do you wish the showrunners of “Gossip Girl” would let Blair do or have?

Leighton Meester: I want a cute guy to be honest. She’s not gonna be with Chuck for a minute so she needs someone else. I really liked it when she was dating the Prince for a while.

 

Källa:Teenhollywood