Idol thoughts on juicy gossip
By May Seah, TODAY | Posted: 13 October 2008 1144 hrs

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SINGAPORE: Hey, Singaporeans. Plus Reporter Girl here.

You might or might not have heard, but there have been some not-so-secret juicy tidbits going around the grapevine these days.

Serena van der Woodsen may not actually be in town, but her show certainly is.

Gossip Girl is arguably the most talked-about teen drama since The OC — which, incidentally, has the same executive producer (Josh Schwartz) and writer (Stephanie Savage).

The salacious series chronicles the lives of wealthy, privileged teens from Manhattan’s snooty Upper East Side, including their sexual exploits, substance experimentations, petty jealousies and darker family issues.

Adapted from the novels by Cecily von Ziegesar, the naughty show is also the bane of the American Parents Television Council and has received public criticism from “wholesome” stars like Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera.

“Shows like Gossip Girl kinda condition us to be mean,” she told Seventeen magazine.

It’s no secret, though, that salacity sells, and who wouldn’t want to chat up, hook up, or shack up with these boys?

Spotted: Chace Crawford, Penn Badgley and Ed Westwick, Gossip Girl’s leading men.

Crawford’s character, Nathaniel Archibald, is the boyfriend of Queen Bitch Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), but also has a scandalous history with her “frenemy”, bad-girl-turned-good Serena (Blake Lively).

Dan Humphrey, portrayed by Badgley, is the average Joe who manages to get the girl of his dreams, Serena. British actor Westwick plays Chuck Bass, the Iago of the Upper East Side who is ruled by his passions and doesn’t give a darn.

Here’s the lowdown on the boys in real life: C is a good Southern boy, P’s been mobbed by zombie groupies, and E is a rock star on the side.

After all, to quote the show’s tagline: You’re nobody until you’re talked about. Remember — you didn’t hear it from me.

CHACE CRAWFORD, 23

What’s distinctive about your character, Nate Archibald?

I think he’s caught between wanting to have reckless teenage fun and wanting to do the right thing, because he’s got a good heart and a moral conscience. He’s conflicted, like any teenager is. He wants to get away from the family-ordained girlfriend and the roles that other people have created for him.

But his redeemable quality is that he’s a good guy at heart. He’s becoming the head of his family and learning how to stand up instead of being indifferent.

And he’s torn between two girls, too.

I think Serena represents the something different that Nate would like for his life — a sort of freedom of spirit and sense of spontaneity. Blair is more safe — very safe and very proper. I think he’s truly in love with both of them for different reasons, but he’s definitely torn, and it would be nice to get to play that up more.

How has life changed for you since Gossip Girl began?

I have scenes where I’m waking up on the couch hungover, or making hangover remedies. That never happened to me in real life, so it’s cool to experience it for the first time.

And even when I watched the scene in the pilot episode where Serena and I hook up in a bar when it aired, I thought about my Southern Baptist Church friends commenting on it right about now, and I got red in the face.

Not that I was embarrassed — it was just the overwhelming feeling of knowing that millions of people were watching that.

PENN BADGLEY, 22

Tell us about your character, Dan Humphrey.

Everyone else (on the show) lives outlandish lives of privilege and excess, and they’re far too young for that.

Dan’s the one kid — he and his sister, actually — who’s from the other side of the tracks. He’s conflicted, because he doesn’t really approve of the Upper East Side lifestyle but he is in love with the one girl who epitomises that: Serena. For some reason,he thinks she’s different. And so there’s a budding romance between the two.

Have you ever been the outsider in the real world?

Well, yes, but not in the way Dan is. He’s constantly ostracised by the elites, as exemplified by the relationship between him and Chuck. Dan is probably the easiest to relate to for most people, because he’s like the audience’s voice of reason, and honestly, it’s hard to relate to the other kids’ lives — nobody has that kind of privilege and excess. There’s some of me in Dan and some of Dan in me. But I’m not quite as socially-awkward, thank god.

How do you feel about gossiping?

When you’re a teenager in high school, you’re painfully self-aware and self-conscious, and gossip is vicious. I mean, everyone’s biggest concern in high school is how cool they are. The show has tapped into that culture. Initially, it seems like it glamorises that lifestyle, but it’s the people who are most involved in all that stuff that have shattered family lives. Blair and Chuck, who are the most vicious, are the unhappiest by far.

Gossip Girl is huge right now. How does stardom feel?

When people see us now on the streets in New York City, they take pictures of us with their camera phones and text each other.I got mobbed by 50 girls at the mall. They pull at my clothing and their eyes glaze over and they kind of dumb down — they don’t listen to you.

ED WESTWICK, 21

Are you a bad boy yourself?

It’s kind of interesting to play the bad boy — he gets up to the most interesting mischief. He’s always there, in amongst the scandal. He’s promiscuous and manipulative. I’m not like that. I try to treat people the way I would like to be treated.

How do you feel about Chuck Bass, then?

When people come up to me and say, ‘You’re an a**hole ... I love what you’re doing,” it’s fantastic. It means I’m doing my job well.

I haven’t seen a character exactly like Chuck before, and I think what’s beautiful about him is that he’s got a kind of multi-layered thing. He starts off as very bad and arrogant, but as the story develops, you see a more vulnerable side of him.

You’re the lead singer in the band The Filthy Youth. Have your tunes been used on the show?

Yes! I think in the 12th episode, they used two of our songs. It was quite surreal seeing me as Chuck with my song playing in the background. I’ve got the English voice and the American voice right there at the same time. I’m dominating.

The second season of Gossip Girl is available through SingTel mio TV’s Season Pass.

XOXO, Plus Reporter Girl.

- TODAY/ra