GOSSIP GIRL “School Lies” Recap

I’ve missed my little Upper East Siders like deserts miss the rain. With the barren wasteland of television these days, it was a treat to see Gossip Girl back on my tube. Welcome to 2008 kids, sadly we only have one more week with our favorite group of teen miscreants. Onto tonight’s show…

Hells Yes, Chuck Bass is back and in rare form. Within the first few minutes he’s got B and S on the run.

The kids break into the school pool and it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye… okay so GG is not Supernatural but there is a little bloodshed which leads to a bitch hunt from the school’s new headmistress, Ms. Kweller.

Banding together, the whole gang goes silent. It’s just a matter of time until someone cracks. My bets are on Dan Humphrey.

Rufus’ Christmas Day confession to Lily comes back to haunt him as she and Bart Bass return from a post-engagement getaway and she tells him she’s going to accept. Putting the final nail in the R and L coffin, or so it seems. Later he makes a face to face plea but will this change her mind?

Dan confronts Chuck about possessing the pool key and has video footage to back it up. Blair steals the key from Chuck and later Nate discovers it in her desk.

Chuck, still a little obsessive over B threatens her once more. B pulls the innocent girlfriend in denial card and all seems squashed, that is until they realize Vanessa’s videotaped the whole conversation. As Gossip Girl herself puts it: “Now that sex and lies have been caught on videotape, V’s documentary just became the most anticipated new release of the year.”

Back to the witch hunt, Nate confesses to breaking and entering and has the key to prove it. Too bad Head Mistress herself is one step ahead. Nice try Nate, it seems like chivalry is as good as dead. Suspension will suit you well, enjoy your free time while the real culprit, Serena tries everything in her power to dodge the bullet until she realizes that it could cause her to lose Dan. She confesses to breaking and entering and owns up to her past. Looks like Serena really is trying to make a change for the better.

Chuck’s discovered that V has a price; $10k buys just about any cow. Little does he know that V’s given him a blank and donated the money to a medical grant for teens with genital herpes. Why you ask? The little heart to heart with B. Seems like some new frienemies are forming.

Lily decides to run away with Rufus until Serena makes a selfish plea not to ruin what she has with Dan by bedding his father. Reluctantly she leaves Rufus with a foggy goodbye and the two new families “celebrate” the blessed union. Grossly, Bart tells Serena that he went over the Head Misstress’ head and S is now free and clear. I guess its harder to turn over a new leaf that it looks, huh S?

Favorite Quote:
Chuck: “Poor little Humphrey Dumpty”

Just wait until next week’s finale. It’s pretty great (except for the last couple minutes which are a little too pretty package for my taste). Spoilers later…

Okay so maybe I just made a Lamar type the leap of faith, but tonight is some seriously gay television. The only way it could be gayer would be if Pushing Daisies was on tonight (sadly, it’s not).

GOSSIP GIRL is on The CW and it’s a really dirty scandal rocked episode entitled “School Lies.” At 10 over on Bravo we finally get a new episode of PROJECT RUNWAY and Designer Zac Posen is a guest judge (that’s pretty gay) immediately followed by the Casting Special for MAKE ME A SUPERMODEL.

The “Make Me A Supermodel” casting special follows the series’ open calls in five cities – Dallas, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles and New York, where models from around the country auditioned for the chance to be on the show. The top 35 applicants were then brought to New York to meet with the series’ hosts and representatives from New York Model Management. The models then completed a series of challenges – testing their runway walk, posing in a bathing suit and posing for photos with a partner. Ultimately, Beckford, Taylor and New York Model Management eliminated 11 contestants, narrowing the field from 35 to the top 24 finalists. During the special, a second round of cuts was made and the models were pared down to the final 12 selected for a spot on the show. Meanwhile, three men and three women were placed online on www.BravoTV.com, where viewers were able to choose the final two models that will compete in the series. The casting special includes the models’ audition videos and Bravo’s cameras follow the final 14 to their hometowns when they receive the good news that they were selected for the show.

As previously announced, during the run of the series, Bravo viewers will vote each week to determine who stays to walk the “Supermodel” catwalk again and who goes home. Over a 12-week period, 14 hopefuls will live together in a New York City loft and explore friendships, romance and naked ambition while undergoing a series of creative challenges designed to test their professional modeling potential. This series will explore what it takes to turn the exceptionally good-looking into the king or queen of the catwalk.

Am I completely clueless about this departure or is this new news? BROTHERS & SISTERS openly gay creator Jon Robin Baitz has left the show and moved to New York. The article below seems to question whether Baitz was asked to leave the show or if he left on his own but one thing is clear, he’s not involved in the day to day of B&S any longer. I’m so confused by this and I hope that it really doesn’t impact the future of the show’s gay characters or gay friendly atmosphere.

*UPDATE: I just finished reading Baitz’ essay on why he moved to New York and how the process of leaving Los Angeles came about. It talks heavily about why he’s happy to no longer be associated with the B&S of today and the glories of living on the East Coast. Most importantly, it talks about his true vision for the Walker clan and how the ageist white Hollywood mucketymucks pushed in a safer/demo pleasing direction.

Tonight a good chunk of the Late Night shows will return to the airwaves with new episodes. As we all know, Letterman and Ferguson have worked out a new deal with the WGA to get their writers back and working so all is well.

However Conan, Leno, Kimmel and our Comedy Central gods Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are going back on the air without writers and the WGA is ready to react.

Beginning tonight, there will be picket lines set up at Conan, Leno, and Kimmel’s shows. On Monday when Colbert Report and the Daily Show return, the same will happen over at Comedy Central. It looks like they are really wanting to put pressure on the production companies behind late night and it’s going to be intense.

In a letter from Michael Winship, the President of WGAe:

With the start of 2008 and the continuation of our strike come many new challenges and dilemmas. As you know, last week we reached a binding independent agreement with Worldwide Pants that will allow Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to return to the air on January 2 with their full writing staffs. Worldwide Pants accepted the very same proposals, including new media, that the Guilds were prepared to present to the media conglomerates when they walked out of negotiations on December 7. As we said Friday, it demonstrates our eagerness to put people back to work, and that when a company comes to the table prepared to negotiate seriously, a fair and reasonable deal can be quickly reached.

Other late night shows – The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel Live in Los Angeles, and Late Night with Conan O’Brien here in New York – also are returning Wednesday night, but without their striking writers. Leno, O’Brien and Kimmel are all members of the Guild and have been and continue to be extremely supportive of our strike and their writing staffs. For that we truly are grateful

Nonetheless, they are coming back without writers and without a new Guild contract, forced back on the air by companies that refuse to sit at the table and bargain with us. We cannot let that pass.

It’s a difficult and painful decision, but the Guilds East and West have determined that we will picket outside the studios of these programs, beginning January 2. We know that some believe this to be unfair and will be unhappy, but we are taking into consideration our overall strategy and the needs of all 10,500 of our members currently on strike.

Our picket will not be of the hosts themselves but the companies for which their shows are produced. Our purpose is to continue awareness of our strike and the media conglomerates against which we strike, and to encourage performers, politicians and others to honor our picket line and not appear as guests on these struck programs.
Nothing at all personal or defamatory is intended and we will take all measures to make sure the public and press are aware of our motives and issues.

If the companies want these shows to be back on the air with the writers whose creativity and talent make them so successful, the answer is simple. Bargain in good faith, negotiate, make a deal.

Thanks for your attention.

In Solidarity,
Michael Winship
President
Writers Guild of America, East

GOSSIP GIRL returns tonight with the first of their last two episodes of season one (probably). Yes, only two more episodes were produced prior to the WGA Strike and they are quite scandalous. Over the weekend I watched both episodes and loved almost every second of them.

Tonight a late night school pool party gets out of hand and the new school head mistress is out for blood. Can the gang band together and keep quiet or are some of these nuts about to crack? There’s blackmail, plenty of skin, black eyes, confessions, sex, lies and videotape. Just your average day for our favorite Upper East Siders.

Watch a preview of tonight’s scandalous Gossip Girl “School Lies”

Watch a special clip from tonight’s “School Lies”