Gossip Girl: An Oral History

Leighton Meester and Blake Lively filming a scene for Gossip Girl in New York City, 2008.

In a new book, Blake Lively, Chace Crawford, Sebastian Stan, and other members of the cast and crew recall the fan-frenzy surrounding the aughts-defining show

By Lindsay Denninger

“When we first started filming, people would walk by and ask, ‘What are you filming?’,” Leighton Meester, who played Blair, told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012. “Once we aired [in 2007], the whole mania started.”

It wasn’t long before Gossip Girl ’s New York City sets were mobbed with fans trying to get a glimpse of their favorite char­acters. “We were shooting on the Upper East Side one afternoon and must have been outside three all-girl schools. Within an hour, ten girls multiplied to 300. I mean, we weren’t the Beatles,” Chace Crawford, who played Nate, added. “Ed Westwick, [READ ON