Leighton Meester doesn’t have to give her mother anything but coal this Christmas.

Constance Meester has dropped her $3 million lawsuit against her daughter, in which she stated that she “sacrificed her happiness” to help Leighton pursue acting and that the Gossip Girl star is legally bound to support her, E! News has confirmed.

But Leighton isn’t ready to stand down just yet…

The actress’ attorney tells E! that she is still seeking a judgment against Constance that will state, in black and white, that she does not owe her mother parental support.

“Leighton is still seeking declaratory relief from the court, which we hope to have wrapped up in the very near future,” says lawyer James Spertus. Leighton’s personal rep has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Constance’s now-former attorney, Robert Silverman, would only confirm that they decided to drop to their suit in October.

In a previous court filing, Leighton stated that Constance took money that she sent to the family for her sick brother’s care and spent it on plastic surgery and other comparatively frivolous things.

Constance counterfiled, claiming that she ponied up roughly $230,000 on private school and acting classes for Leighton over the years and that her daughter agreed to give her $10,000 a month after she was deemed a “dependant adult” per California’s Welfare and Institutions Code.

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Gossip Girl is #4 on Examiner’s TV’s Most Attractive Casts Currently on TV this year! Check it out below:

There are a lot of good looking people on TV these days (just look at this list!) and these people make up some pretty attractive casts (especially if the show’s on The CW!).

Here’s a look at the 25 best looking casts currently on TV (the parentheses include just some of the most attractive people in the cast) and then be sure to check out the slideshow to your left to see all of the pretty people:

1. The Vampire Diaries (Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, Nina Dobrev, Michael Trevino, Steven R. Mcqueen, Candice Accola, Katerina Graham, Joseph Morgan, Zach Roerig and Matt Davis)

2. Supernatural (Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki)

3. 90210 (Matt Lanter, Jessica Lowndes, AnnaLynne McCord, Trevor Donovan, Tristan Wilds, Jessica Stroup, Michael Steger, Gillian Zinser, and Shenae Grimes)

………..

4. Gossip Girl (Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick, Matthew Settle, Kelly Rutherford, Kaylee Defer, and Penn Badgley)

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Jackie: Got any Gossip Girl goodies for us?
As you can see in the photo, Blair (Leighton Meester) gets into a bit of trouble at her bachelorette party after seemingly joking around with a cop. Yeah, not one of her best ideas. We’re hearing both Chuck (Ed Westwick) and Dan (Penn Badgley) are on the scene to try and help Queen B, but she’s still arrested anyway. We smell major drama! And it smells freaking delicious.

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Leighton Meester moves from the city to the suburbs in ‘The Oranges,’ a new ensemble comedy from veteran TV director Julian Farino, but the drama stays the same. In the film, Meester plays Nina Ostroff, who returns home after a five-year absence and upsets the delicate balance of their quiet New Jersey suburb. Despite Nina’s parents trying to set her up with their neighbors’ and best friends’ eligible son (Adam Brody), Nina instead falls for his father David (Hugh Laurie) — and the feelings are mutual.

Movies about May-December romances aren’t exactly rare, but they’re rarely this funny, and Moviefone sat down with Meester at the Toronto Film Festival to find out her opinion on the film’s unconventional love story and how the cast came together as one big happy family.

How was the premiere?
It was fun, it was very fun!

Was that the first time you’d seen the movie?
No, I have seen it before, but not in a room filled with people. It was very different. It was a very interesting experience, everybody was laughing. It was cool.

Considering most people are probably initially skeptical of the movie’s love story, is it validating to get such a positive response?
Yeah! I mean, it’s a delicate subject and I think it’s very funny, but it’s funny in the way that life is funny. So I think that’s probably why it works. It’s got a lot of tension and awkwardness but then it sort of cools off. But it’s definitely nice to hear people laughing when they’re supposed to laugh. [Laughs]

I think Alia Shawkat’s character reacting so strongly against David and Nina’s relationship helps the audience buy into what’s happening. It almost makes them seem sympathetic.

I think that anybody who watches it will probably have that reaction at first. They at first want to rebel against it, they want to say, ‘No, this is crazy and selfish.’ And then eventually you do root for their love and want it to work, because it’s genuine and it’s real. And I think that it does ask that question of what is morality, what is love, what is being selfish? Is it being selfish to find love and take the opportunity to experience it, or is it selfish for people to not want them to have it because it’s “wrong,” according to other people?

How’d you get attached to the project?
I read the script and I, of course, fell in love with it. Every time I [told people], ‘I did ‘The Oranges,” I got, ‘Oh, I loved that script!’ But then I met with Julian [Farino], who I’d actually known for quite a long time. And he initially told me a few years ago that I was maybe a bit too young for [the part]. Then, of course, two years later when they were actually making it, it was fine. It worked.

I had a very funny audition with Julian. I had it in my dressing room at work. He came to visit me on set, I was working. And they kept on coming and knocking on my door. The director of photography was there, filming me. And he would pan from me, then over to the door, where somebody was knocking, somebody from the set, and then pan back over and we would finish the scene. I’m kind of curious to see it.

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NY based ATO PICTURES proudly announced today that it has acquired all North American rights to THE ORANGES, one of the most buzzed about Toronto titles directed by Julian Farino making his feature film debut.

Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Allison Janney, Alia Shawkat, Adam Brody and Leighton Meester star.

David and Paige Ostroff (Laurie and Keener) and Terry and Cathy Walling (Platt and Janney) are best friends and neighbors living on Orange Drive in suburban New Jersey. Their comfortable existence goes awry when prodigal daughter Nina Ostroff (Meester), newly broken up with her fiancé Ethan (Sam Rosen), returns home for Thanksgiving after a five-year absence. Rather than developing an interest in Toby Walling (Brody), the successful son of her neighbors which would please both families, it’s her parents’ best friend David who captures Nina’s attention. When the connection between Nina and David becomes undeniable, everyone’s lives are thrown into upheaval, particularly Vanessa Walling’s (Shawkat), Nina’s childhood best friend. It’s not long before the ramifications of the affair begin to work on all of the family members in unexpected and hilarious ways, leading everyone to reassess what it means to be happy and how sometimes what looks like a disaster, turns out to be the one thing we need the most.

ATO has slated an aggressive platform release commencing in 2012.
Produced by Olympus Pictures’ Leslie Urdang and Dean Vanech and Likely Story’s Anthony Bregman, THE ORANGES was written by Ian Helfer and Jay Reiss.
According to ATO’s co-founders Johnathan Dorfman and Temple Fennell: “We love this film! Julian has done a terrific job directing a dream cast in what we think is going to be one of the biggest crowd pleasers of 2012.”

Urdang and Bregman go on to say, “ATO pursued THE ORANGES with immense passion, creative thinking and a willingness to commit significant resources towards the release—in other words, they came to us with exactly what we were looking for when we brought the film to Toronto. We are very much looking forward to working with this strong and independent company.”

Sarah Lash, ATO’s Head of Acquisitions negotiated the deal with CAA who brokered it on behalf of Olympus, Likely Story and Jay Reiss.

ATO Pictures currently has the Sundance hit TERRI starring John C. Reilly in release. Additional titles on the company’s slate include: THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH (October 21st) starring Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas which premiered at TIFF last week, THIN ICE (2012) starring Greg Kinnear, Billy Crudup and Alan Arkin which the company acquired out of Sundance and THE MONK (2012), Dominik Moll’s gothic thriller starring Vincent Cassel.

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A gifted ensemble of actors, including Hugh Laurie, Leighton Meester and Catherine Keener, manage to hit a sweet spot despite mediocre material, writes THR film critic David Rooney.

Watching the wryly funny Alia Shawkat roll her eyes and vent with deadpan disdain as two families go into a tailspin because her dad is sleeping with his best friend’s daughter, it’s tempting to wonder what twisted comedy magic the actor’s old TV alma mater, Arrested Development, would have spun out of that plotline. Director Julian Farino and the screenwriters of The Oranges, in which the scenario does unfold, are not in that league.

Apprenticed in British television, Farino has been part of the HBO pool since 2004, directing episodes of Entourage, Big Love, Rome and How to Make It in America. His U.S. feature debut, from a patchy script by Jay Reiss and Ian Helfer, is visually undistinguished and relies too heavily on the music slathered over almost every scene to shape its herky-jerky tone. But Farino is good with actors, and in his corner he does have a gifted ensemble, who often manage to hit a sweet spot even in this mediocre material.

Shawkat’s character, Vanessa, stalled in neutral since graduating from design school, is the voiceover commentator of this twin family meltdown. But sadly, she’s not the center of the story. That would be her one-time best friend and neighbor, Nina (Leighton Meester), who returns home after a five-year absence to lick her wounds following a bust-up with her cheating fiancé (Sam Rosen). Bringing chaos in her wake, Nina is capricious, selfish and unsympathetic, oblivious to the pain she’s causing everyone close to her. Yet, in the screenwriters’ psychologically unsound plan, we’re expected to invest in her.

The two sets of parents are the Ostroffs, David (Hugh Laurie) and Paige (Catherine Keener), and the Wallings, Terry (Oliver Platt) and Cathy (Allison Janney), and when the comedy delivers it’s largely due to the timing of these four pros. Neighbors in West Orange, New Jersey, they are so deeply enmeshed in one another’s lives they virtually belong to the same family.

Their friendship provides a cushion from the ripples of marital discord beneath all the backyard barbecues and shared Sunday dinners. David has been spending more nights in his man cave in the pool shed than with Paige for some time. And Cathy only tolerates Terry and his gadget mania by pretending he’s invisible and inaudible.

While both families quietly (or not so quietly in manipulative Cathy’s case) hope Nina will fall into a relationship with Vanessa’s career-minded brother Toby (Adam Brody), instead she chooses his dad as her fallback guy. Fun as it is to watch the resourceful Laurie torpedoed by a mix of lust, guilt and panic, this mutual attraction is grounded nowhere beyond the necessity to wreak comic havoc. Once that’s in motion, the writers let it sit there and fester, not quite sure what to do with it.

Fortunately, Platt has a limitless arsenal of amusing ways to express helpless shellshock, and Janney has a similarly ample range with appalled and exasperated, yielding a good share of genuine laughs. But none of the characters aside from Vanessa – doubly betrayed by Nina, who dumped her in high school to hang with the pretty, popular girls — is written with any consistency. The most ill-served is Paige, a control freak who starts drilling the neighborhood caroling group in August, and a part for which inherently cool Keener is a poor fit.

The director and writers manage capably enough while the action sticks in light, sitcommy mode, but when it turns serious the movie runs out of juice. Its cathartic moments feel fabricated, notably Paige out of nowhere exorcizing her rage on the Wallings’ elaborate front-yard holiday lights. (The action takes place roughly Thanksgiving through Christmas, though it clearly was shot in warmer months.)

Helfer and Reiss push predictable buttons with their message that out of the messiest situations, fresh self-knowledge and serenity can sometimes be hatched. There’s enough generic feelgood stuff in the proudly nonjudgmental film’s themes of love and forgiveness to make undiscerning audiences believe they’re being fed something nutritious. And the holiday-season setting makes theatrical positioning a no-brainer. But a deluxe cast like this one deserves better.

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Leighton Meester admires her former Gossip Girl costar Taylor Momsen’s career, but she could never quit acting for singing like her castmate did.

“Both is where it’s at,” Leighton told me after her performance at Tiffany’s last night for Fashion’s Night Out. “If I had to choose, I think I’d be very unhappy.”

But it’s clear Leighton is a big fan of Taylor’s music and acting skills…

“She’s so talented, and anyone I know that’s heard her music is a huge fan,” she shared. “You can’t help it. She’s also an incredible actress and just a lovely girl.”

Leighton took the stage last night to a packed house at the Tiffany’s store on 5th Avenue, where she performed an acoustic set of new material and even played guitar.

The aspiring musician says she writes song about things and people near and dear to her.

“I’m inspired by my friends, my family, love, loss of love, fashion, art, traveling, sex, food…everything!” she told me, adding she wants to continue playing shows but is unsure when her actual album will be out.

“If it were up to me, I’d release it today,” she explained. “I do want to continue to perform and let people hear it. I do wanna play other places but until my show is done for the season, I can’t.”

The busy girl is headed to Toronto Film Festival next for the premiere of her new movie, The Oranges, before heading back to work on her CW series, but said she makes family a priority when she gets rare downtime.

“I spend as much time with my family as possible. They live in Florida and I visit them. I try to go down there once a month or so,” she told me.

We’re guessing she probably isn’t referring to her mom, who she’s locked in a nasty legal battle with at the moment.

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We caught up with Leighton Meester at the launch of Vera Wang’s newest perfume, Lovestruck. The trend-setting starlet told us what’s on her Fall shopping list — midi skirts and calf-length booties — and why she has a thing for smaller handbags. And, as we anxiously await the new season of Gossip Girl, Leighton revealed why she admires the style of her character, Blair Waldorf. Plus, find out Blair’s most daring outfit this season — hint, she’s taking a cue from Kate Middleton!

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Leighton Meester is looking to put an end to her mama drama.

The Gossip Girl star has filed a petition with Los Angeles Superior Court asking a judge to throw out Constance Meester’s $3 million breach of contract suit against her as a “matter of law” on the grounds that the latter’s allegations are frivolous.

Here’s the gist:

Per court docs filed last week and obtained by E! News, Leighton’s attorneys contend that Constance is suing her daughter over “a non-existent ‘management agreement;” “an alleged ‘support agreement” and “an alleged settlement agreement.”

The very suggestion that the actress had an oral contract to pay her mother $10,000 a month for life is ridiculous, Team Leighton claims.

And just because Leighton gave her mom money before, that doesn’t mean she has to keep paying her, according to her lawyers.

“None of these agreements are valid or enforceable as a matter of law,” the filing states.

The 25-year-old thesp sued her mom in July in order to have a judge declare that there never was any oral agreement between them and was promptly sued right back. In that lawsuit, she claims she voluntarily gave Constance $7,500 a month to help provide medical care for her younger brother, Lex, who underwent brain surgery last May, as well that Constance used the dough for, among other things, cosmetic procedures including “plastic surgery on her face and stomach, Botox injections for her face, fillers for her hands and hair extensions.”

Leighton’s suit maintained that, not only has the Country Strong star endured a “difficult relationship” with her mother, but also that mama Meester is a freeloader who refuses to work, instead opting to live off the generosity of her daughter.

Constance does have criminal history: She has done time in federal prison for her part in a drug smuggling ring (during which time she gave birth to Leighton).

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Oct. 5. A lawyer for Constance as unavailable for comment.

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Elizabeth Hurley’s son is “besotted” with ‘Gossip Girl’ star Leighton Meester.

The model and actress has a recurring role in the US series and has taken her nine-year-old son, Damian, to the sets with her, where he has become very interested in the show’s star, who plays Blair Waldorf.

Elizabeth tweeted: “Blake and Leighton on the set today, both looking beautiful. My son besotted with Leighton…(sic)”

She has previously told how Damian – her son with ex-partner Steve Bing – has been a great help with her learning her lines for the show.

She added: “My 9 year old son is the best at running lines with me-he’s v strict though and allows zero paraphrasing. Concentrate, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth and Damian were confined to their hotel in New York – where the show is filmed – at the end of last week because of the impending threat of hurricane Irene on the US city, which gave them “cabin fever”.

She added: “My son and I just nipped out for a quick march around the block-severe cabin fever in hotel suite. Streets empty-never seen NY like it.”

She later added: “Still confined to barracks, so eating marmite on toast while learning GG lines.”

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