Though primarily known as Blair Waldorf on the CW’s Gossip Girl, Meester is hoping to become recognized as a singer – having been a part of Cobra Starship’s hit song “Good Girls Go Bad.” And she already has one big musical mentor.

“Recently I’ve spent a lot of time with Cyndi Lauper, and she’s a legend,” says Meester. “She gave me the advice: Never sell your publishing, so I’ll take that.”

The thrill of the stage has Meester – who’s worked with Lil Wayne, Robin Thicke and Adam Lambert – hooked.

“I get more excited than nervous, and I feel like that’s the best kind of energy to have,” the TV actress, 23, told PEOPLE Saturday before a 15-minute gig at Venetian’s Tao Las Vegas. The performance, she says, is “cute, sexy … I’m just having the time of my life, and I hope it continues.” (See her video with Thicke here.)

Meester began her electro-pop set with the Cobra Starship song “Good Girls Go Bad,” then followed with “Somebody to Love,” “Playing Games” and “Your Love’s a Drug.”

After the performance, she headed to a sky box table in the moat overlooking the entire club, to celebrate her last night before heading back to the Gossip Girl set. Earlier in the evening, Meester, the band, dancers and crew dined at LAVO for an Italian feast.

And since performing live doesn’t frighten her, what does give Meester pause? Her brother’s driving.

“He’s 16, so I get worried,” she said.

(Source)

Thanks to Britt we have HQ scans from September’s issue of Harper’s Bazaar with Leighton on the cover.

[007] Harper’s Bazaar (September)

Last night, Cobra Starship invaded the screening room at the Tribeca Grand hotel for the video premiere of “Good Girls Go Bad,” their new single that features Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester.I spoke to the actress (and two-time NYLON cover girl!) for about sixty seconds before she was whisked away by photographers. And here’s what we said:

You have a great look in the Good Girls Go Bad video. Did you pick your own clothes? “I did! I loved the clothes in that video… I wore a beautiful Bally dress, and I ended up keeping a few pieces from set – I kept this great dress from Kim Ovitz with a belted waist that I love. She makes amazing stuff. And do you know my friends were in the video?”

No way. “There’s a lyric in the song about five best friends, so it was me and Vicky [Cobra Starship’s keytarist], plus three of my girlfriends. They all got styled for the shoot, too… hey, you look really familiar… I met you at a Longchamp party…”

Like two years ago. “I have a really good memory. You’re a writer and you told me I had to meet Olivia Palermo, because you thought she was the real life Blair Waldorf.”

And now she’s on The City! “I haven’t seen that show, but I did ask Cecily [von Ziegesar, the Gossip Girl author] if Blair was based on Olivia, and she said she wrote the books way before Olivia was in New York City, and she basically made Blair up. But people do say I look like Olivia Palermo. And also, that I look like Minka Kelly from Friday Night Lights.”

Oh, that show is amazing. “It’s an incredible TV show, isn’t it? And I just did a movie with Minka, that’s a little bit like Fatal Attraction. It’s called The Roommate… I guess you could say I play her stalker, so it was odd also looking like her. But I was blonde in the movie, so it wasn’t so obvious.”

Back to your shoes; I’m obsessed with them. “I bought them at Barneys, they’re Roger Vivier.”

They’re so classic, but also very sparkly. “Exactly!”

(Source)

Sorry this took so long to get up. Here’s the screencaps and clip from Leighton’s appearance on Ellen last month.

[185] Screencaps || [001] Clip

EW recently caught up with Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester in the recording studio, where she’s working on her still-unnamed debut album, due this fall (her first single is slated for July). The actress, who’s best known for her bitchy-one liners as Blair Waldorf, says the album will have an electro-pop sound, and she’s working with producers like Kenna (Lupe Fiasco, JoJo) and Polow da Don (The Pussycat Dolls, Fergie). “It’s very pop,” she says. “You can listen to it on the radio. You can listen to it in your car. You can dance to it.”

Meester offered us an exclusive listen to three of the album’s potential tracks. “Push and Pull” is an elegant anthem about making a relationship work; she says the song “takes my breath away.” On “Almost Perfect,” she takes a break from electro-pop for a stripped-down ballad lamenting a lover’s lies. The song ends with Meester bluntly spitting, “F— you.” “That was what we call an adlib,” she says. Then there’s the pulsing “Lights Out,” produced by J.R. Rotem (Britney Spears), which has her singing very un-CW things like, “Don’t turn the lights out/I bet you like to watch.” Meester plays coy when it comes to the subject matter. “Who knows what I’m talking about? Everything is kinda in metaphors.” Maybe, we ask, she simply wants someone to spoon with? “Or fork.” Even so, “there is somewhat of a sexual undertone to a lot of songs,” she says. “I’m a grown woman [laughs].”

The 23-year-old actress actually began recording her music without a major-label deal. Some of her early tracks, like a cover of “Bette Davis Eyes,” leaked onto the web, but Meester isn’t sure if they’ll make the album. “I’m still figuring it out,” she says. “I loved the song and I loved the feel of it. That’s what the feel of the rest of the album is gonna be.” One thing’s for certain: it will reveal some intimate details of Meester’s love life. “I’ve been through a lot as far as love,” she says. “When I’m singing a song, I picture somebody in particular. A lot of it is to a guy.” Which guy? Nice try: Meester won’t spill (the actress had reportedly been dating her GG co-star Sebastian Stan).

It turns out Meester has loved music from a very young age. “I remember I was in the grocery store with my mom when I was little and I heard ‘I Will Always Love You,’ ” she says. “I must have been 3 or 4, and I went, ‘Mom, that made my back tingle.’ She was like, “That’s what music is supposed to do.’ I loved it.”

Meester, who will also spend her summer hiatus shooting the Single White Female-esque thriller The Roommate, has been inspired by some musical giants. “I really love Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and Debbie Harry,” says the actress. “Gwen Stefani and Fergie, too. They’re very strong women and have a completely unique sound.” Meester also says she’s been grooving to Ladyhawke and Australian band Empire of the Sun. “I was in Paris and I listened to [their single 'Walking on a Dream'] like 40 times a day. I love them.” Cobra Starship is another band that Meester enjoys, and she actually recorded a song, co-written by American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi, with the rockers (they’re also shooting a video together). One other person she really wants to work with? Her GG co-star Ed Westwick. “I would love that. I’ve thought about it a lot, so we’ll see. He’s very talented.”

[Source]

Thanks to the girls over at Blair Waldorfs @ livejournal we have added some amazing scans of Leighton’s feature in the June issue of Cosmopolitan.

[05] Cosmopolitan June 2009

Leighton recently did a fashion spread and interview with New York Times Magazine. I have added the photos to the gallery and the interview is below.

[06] New York Times Magazine

This weekend’s Times magazine features a fashion layout with Leighton Meester, the former child model turned actress who is best known for playing the spoiled Upper East Side princess Blair Waldorf on “Gossip Girl.” I caught up for breakfast with the 23-year-old Meester, who showed up wearing a mannish Ruth Reichl-meets-Annie Hall disguise, including a hat and respectable spectacles.

Question: I had lunch with Jason Wu recently, who told me you were his date to an event. This is how rumors start.
Answer: He’s such a sweetheart. We actually went to Anna Wintour’s house for dinner. It was very cool and quite the fashion baptism by fire.

Question: I’d say. It’s amazing how popular he’s become. Every few minutes people kept coming up to the table to say hello to him — mostly to congratulate him on his work with Michelle Obama. Does that happen to you much?

Answer: No, no one really congratulates me on my work with Michelle Obama. [Laughs.] People are pretty respectful for the most part. I went to a Britney Spears concert recently and spent the first part trying to shield myself because I thought it would be madness, but the truth is that everyone was very cool and left me alone. But it really depends on where I am.

Question: What about the paparazzi? Do they stalk you to the point that you have to wear full makeup when you take out the trash?

Answer: I would never do that! Take out the trash, I mean. [Laughs.] You know, I never really had a problem with them but recently there have been a couple of incidents that have made me say, “What?” I was getting in a car after an event — where I had been photographed all night, by the way — and I was done posing and just wanted to go home. When I refused to take any more pictures, one of the photographers outside actually said, “We know where you live.” That was creepy. But you know they don’t bother me on a daily basis. I can pretty much go anywhere.

Question: Your character, Blair, is very carnal and knowing for an 18-year-old. Were you a precocious teen?

Answer: I actually find Blair naïve. I look at young girls like her who are obsessed with guys and with being the most popular and the prettiest, and I just want to shake them. Maybe you just grow up a little faster when you’re a young performer, but I was definitely never like that.

Question: To what extent has your personal style influenced what Blair wears on the show?

Answer: Not at all. If anything, it’s the opposite. Her style is a little expensive for my taste but it loudly communicates that she is who she is and that she does what she does. I find that admirable. And she’s always dressed appropriately, which I can’t always say about myself.

Question: Describe the look that your character has popularized.

Answer: It’s kind of this updated Japanese schoolgirl look. Every other outfit is larger than life — even when it’s prim and proper — and heavily accessorized. I wear ties, bows, colored tights, heels and stuff that you could never get away with at school. But I think that the most important part of Blair’s look is her headband, which is like her crown.

Question: The references on the show are surprisingly mature, from “Berlin Alexanderplatz” to Sarkozy’s being a bad kisser and Kirsten Dunst’s stint in rehab.

Answer: It’s definitely a crash course in pop culture and global affairs. We just mentioned Madoff the other day. But remember, we’re talking about the kind of privileged kids who by age 10 already have 12 stamps in their passport. They’re very wordly.

Question: Your character graduates from high school next season. What’s going to happen to your look?

Answer: It’s yet to be decided, but I’m definitely going to college — to N.Y.U. — and not wearing any more school uniforms. Thank god we’re not pretending we all get held back and just continue with high school like all those other high school shows. I guess I’ll wear magnificent clothes every day that don’t have anything to do with school.

The rest of the interview can be read here

[768] Screencaps || [02] clips

I have also added a clip of the behind the scenes tour of the set of Gossip Girl with Seventeen.com back in January here