No seriously! That’s what the description on this picture said! We wouldn’t make something like that up. [New York City, 6/18/08]

The War in Iraq, the recession, the high price of gas, the second season of Gossip Girl is over…sigh. What the world needs now is love, sweet love!  And Sanrio, the creators of Hello Kitty, have wrapped some up in two cute little furry packages with a big pink bow!  They just announced some new characters called Cherinacherine—two besties with big brown eyes that live in a cherry forest. Squeal! Sanrio, of course, plans on merchandising up the wazoo, but guaranteed you’ll want it all too. Who could say no to those adorable little furballs?  [Mainichi]

Cecily von Ziegesar, the author behind the Gossip Girl series of books, is working on a new series for adults, to be published by Hyperion. The first book, about a group of young adults who meet freshman year of college, is called Cum Laude. She makes Latin sound dirty. [NYMag.com]

Normally, wet white t-shirts have been used on drunken Spring Break girls. But the geniuses at In Style have finally appropriated the tight, sheer, T for women by putting Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley in one. I’m sure he was cold on set soaking wet, but the pictures are super hot. Then, once they got him stripped down and warmed up, they asked him about what he finds sexy.  So based on his responses, The Frisky scientists have extrapolated how a date with him would go: After you cheer for him while he plays sports, he’ll take you home, put on some sultry Common, feed you chocolate strawberries and then eff you.  That damn Serena Van der Woodsen really is the luckiest girl in the world! (For more hotness, there’s a video after the jump…) [Towelroad]

Last night’s season finale of Gossip Girl was a spectacle, and one of the more interesting plot lines was the Blair/Chuck romance. Basically, Chuck admits (to Nate) that he’s in love with Blair. He makes this sappy toast at his father and Lily’s wedding, and then he invites Blair to go to Tuscany with him on his family’s private jet. Has Chuck reformed and gone from date rapist to romantic? Well, I got really excited because I think he and Blair are really cute together, mostly because they’re both so evil, but then things went awry! Chuck’s dad tells him that taking Blair to Tuscany will change everything, and Chuck decides he’s not really ready to commit and leaves Blair to fly alone (well, with some random hot guy), and instead hits on blonde hottie Amelia. I guess some guys never change.

Gossip Girl delved into major Melrose Place territory when (SPOILER ALERT!!!) it was revealed, kind of, sort of, that Serena may have killed someone and that’s what evil Georgina is holding over her head. Whatever. The reason to watch last night was to finally see, once and for all, which character was going to come out of the closet. We’ve known for weeks that it was going to be Serena’s lil’ bro, but it was a nice added touch that he’s been snogging Jenny’s posh boyfriend. Also, Jenny is really falling from grace in our eyes, by actually going along with the dork’s plan to pretend the two are sleeping together—which would “raise” her social status and keep his gayness quiet. Anyway, here’s a clip from the episode when that infamous gay bomb is dropped.

We knew it wouldn’t take long before someone complained about the OMFG ads for Gossip Girl—only it’s not the implied curse words that has got the Parents Television Council pissed off. The ads feature “cleavage kissing”, which the PTC considers inappropriate marketing for teens 12-17. Gotta say, there are far more worrisome messages being sent on Gossip Girl (like encouraging shallow consumerism!) that I’m not so sure I’d be psyched about my impressionable teen watching the show. Gossip Girl is for adults, darnit! [WND.com]

“If I were you, I would have rode me a little harder.”—Leighton Meester, aka Blair Waldorf, ad-libbing lines on the set of Gossip Girl. (This was the episode in which Blair finds out she’s not pregnant.)

Best Show Ever, indeed. Gossip Girl is back on tonight, in a new time slot (8pm) on The CW (Catherine is still pissed). The show has a lot to live up to, considering this cover, those super horny OMFG ads, and that gay rumor. No pressure! XOXO! [New York Magazine]

UPDATE: And now even Vanity Fair is obsessed. What is going on with the world? [Vanity Fair]

The Gossip Girl folks are certainly working hard to get us all hot and bothered about the show’s upcoming episodes, but they’re also doing a really good job of annoying us. Not only did The CW move the show’s air day and time from Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST to Mondays at 8 p.m. EST, but none of the new episodes will be available on CWTV.com. It looks like so many of us watch streaming episodes on The CW’s website that they’ve decided it would be better (read: generate more money) if they only allowed the purchase of episodes on iTunes. It looks like I’ll have to clear my calendar every Monday so I get home in time to hear those glorious words, “xoxo, Gossip Girl.” [Reuters]

Last night when we were walking home, we came across a wall of posters advertising the return of Gossip Girl. Guess that

Check out the new print ad for Gossip Girl. I’m not entirely convinced this particular one is real, because I saw a similar version in my Us Weekly yesterday that only said “OMG” not “OMFG”, but whatever, I can’t find that one online. And this one has CHUCK, who’s hot. [Jossip]

Ever since Gossip Girl Serena van der Woodsen sexily draped herself over a pool table in a black studded Catherine Malandrino shift dress while on her first date with the loveable Dan Humphrey, I had to stop and reassess my opinion of the mini dress as date wear. Off to Bloomingdales I went where I purchased my first ever mini dress, which had me asking: ‘where have you been all my life’ the second I slipped it on.

The magic of a mini dress, like the one worn by Serena, is that it strikes the perfect balance between revealing and reserved. The daring length is countered by the absence of cleavage and an ultra formfitting silhouette for a look that still leaves much to be desired. I wouldn’t recommend this look if you’re, say, going bowling, but for a dinner date or drinks, whip it out and work it.

The young guys of Gossip Girl, the hit CW show about Manhattan’s elite teens, are so sexy they make us feel like cougars. The barely legal boys, Penn Badgley (nice guy Dan), Chace Crawford (tortured prepster Nate), and Ed Westwick (bad-boy Chuck), are getting even closer than the steamy scripts permit in this month’s Out magazine.  It’s a three for the price of one issue, since the gay men’s mag has found a way to fit them all into one frame and made the Gossip Guys cover boys with a full spread inside. The three were photographed wrestling, playing with Nerf guns, and crossing swords—not like that, you pervs! We’re talking fencing here! Whether or not they’re gay, straight, or taken (Crawford has been linked to country star Carrie Underwood), we can all get some hot prep school boy action without having to wait until Wednesday’s episode. Now that’s something we can all get behind. [Out Magazine]

Saying that last night’s episode of Gossip Girl was drama-filled is like declaring that shoes will get wet when it rains. Duh. Along with the Serena/Blair pregnancy scare and Nate and Chuck duking it out, there was the somewhat less climactic storyline in which Dan says, “I love you” to Serena. The first time he says it is when he wants to show support in case she’s carrying a little Dan. But he really means it and wants her to know that it isn’t solely because of this. He spends the rest of the episode trying to tell her again.

The interesting part of this story is not that they exchange those three words, but that they do it after they have sex! Maybe things have changed since we were in high school, but back then, couples “went out” for months and months, said “I love you,” and then did the deed. Of course the order may have changed once college and the real world arrived, but high school sex is supposed to be a little more innocent. Maybe wearing Chanel and being driven around in a Town Car really do make you grow up faster. [The CW]