January 12: Gossip girls and preppy fanboys flock to Henri Bendel where Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick toast the release of “Gossip Girl” costume designer Eric Daman’s new book “You Know You Want It.”

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According to the Associated Press Leighton and costar Blake Lively have been added to the list of Emmy presenters for Sunday’s telecast.

NEW YORK — The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences says Tina Fey, Kiefer Sutherland and Simon Baker will be among the presenters at this Sunday’s primetime Emmy Awards.

Each is a nominee. Baker’s freshman hit “The Mentalist” earned him a nomination for best actor in a drama. Sutherland won that award in 2006, and is nominated this year for his role in a special “24″ movie. Fey is up for best actress in a comedy, the award she won last year.

The live telecast is scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday.

The academy says other presenters include Jon Hamm of “Mad Men” and the “Gossip Girl” twosome of Blake Lively and Leighton Meester.

Also taking the stage to hand out trophies will be Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segel of “How I Met Your Mother,” Stephen Moyer of “True Blood,” NBC late-night host Jimmy Fallon, Dana Delany of “Desperate Housewives” and Chandra Wilson of “Grey’s Anatomy,” the academy said Monday.

The nominees for the 2009 VMA awards have been announced and our congratulations go to Corba Starship’s Good Girls Go Bad featuring Leighton Meester for best Pop Video. For a full list of the nominations see here. The VMAs will be handed out on September 13 2009.

Also we have learned that Leighton will be attending the Teen Choice Awards next week. The awards will air on Fox on August 10th.

#92 Leighton Meester
Miss Meester’s life has all the hallmarks of a classic episode of Jerry Springer:

Mom & Dad in major drugs smuggling ring? Check. Mom gives birth to you whilst in jail? Check. Big brother involved in Army Air Force scandal of 2003? Check.

Texan Leighton has certainly turned her fortunes around – landing herself a lead role in top TV show, Gossip Girl, as the high-class teenage socialite, Blair Waldorf. Add to this a budding music career, with an album set for release this fall and a starring role in the upcoming Steve Carell/Tina Fey movie collaboration, Date Night and there’s no denying, 23 year-old Leighton’s not the black sheep of the family!

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The 2009 Teen Choice Award nominations came out the other day. Leighton and Gossip Girl made the list!

Choice TV Show : Drama : Gossip Girl; Choice TV Actress Drama: Leighton Meester
You can vote for Leighton, Gossip Girl and all your Teen Choice faves here. The Teen Choice Awards will air August 10th on Fox.

Looks like our favorite Upper East Siders are moving…but not far.

The CW confirms word of a schedule changeup: One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl are switching time slots on Monday nights, with OTH launching at 8 p.m. and Gossip Girl moving to 9 p.m.

Could the move mean our graduating Gossip Girl characters are growing up and need a later hour for more adult storylines? Read on for the scoop, plus the official list of fall premiere dates for all your CW faves!

According to a network rep, it’s not the aging up of the GG characters that’s causing the move, but rather the swap is because (a) “OTH has always been a self-starter” (meaning that its success is not lead-in dependent) and (b) because 9 p.m. is a “less competitive” time period for CW crown jewel Gossip Girl.

For the record, at 9 p.m. on Mondays this fall, GG will be facing off against Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory on CBS, Trauma on NBC, Dancing with the Stars on ABC and Lie to Me on Fox. The 8 p.m. competition would have been House on Fox, HIMYM and the new Jenna Elfman comedy Accidentally on Purpose on CBS, Heroes on NBC and, yep, Dancing with the Stars on ABC. (The 9 p.m. hour does sound less brutal!)

Gossip Girl Season 3 starts on Monday September 14 at 9pm/8c. You can get the full CW run down here

Will Ferrell, Cameron Diaz, Vanessa Hudgens and Ryan Reynolds are among the high-wattage stars kicking off their summer plans by presenting at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards.

Also set to hand out the Golden Popcorn trophies are Denzel Washington, Leighton Meester, Jonah Hill and Lil Wayne, MTV announced Monday.

This year, the vampire blockbuster Twilight had the most nominations but faces off against best picture Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire.

Saturday Night Live star Andy Samberg hosts the live extravaganza with rapper Eminem performing at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, Calif., on Sunday, May 31, at 9 p.m. To vote for your chocies, click here.

Ryan world premiered Cobra Starship’s highly anticipated new single “Good Girls Go Bad” on his radio show Friday. The song features actor turned recording artist Leighton Meester of Gossip Girl fame and was co-written by American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi.
On Thursday, Cobra Starship lead singer Gabe Saporta, Meester and DioGuardi jammed in a Los Angeles studio working on a remix of the song.

Leighton will be finding time in her busy recording schedule to appear at 102.7 KIIS-FM’s annual summer concert Wango Tango Saturday.

You can listen to the song here

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.”

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Leighton’s gone back to her natural hair color! People wants to know if you prefer her as a blonde or a brunette – voice your opinion here.