Gossip Girl was a revolution for TV series about high school drama, and it made teenagers everywhere want to attend high school in New York. Instead of the average drama about pretentious teens who look like models and have unrealistic high school experiences (*cough Riverdale *cough*), Gossip Girl was about pretentious teens who looked like models and had somewhat realistic high school experiences, and they did it with style. The Upper East Siders seemed to have it all: money, looks, fashion, and a lot of power. Not to be cliche here, but with great power comes great... downfalls. Yep, all throughout the series we watched Serena, Blair, Chuck, and Nate (okay, and Dan, too) have great lows throughout their high school and college careers.

It all turned out well in the end, as the final episode of the show that aired in 2012 showed us that all their lives turned out perfectly; because money can't buy happiness, but it sure helps. This list isn't just about our favorite characters from the show. This list is what happened behind the scenes, and about the outrageous lives of the actors who made our favorite bratty teens come to life. Read on as we discuss 25 things that went on behind the scenes of Gossip Girl, and some of them may shock you. Beware, as this is the final notice for spoilers! We will be talking about who Gossip Girl is, so if you're six years late on watching this, you better stop here.

24 All The Real-Life Romances

https://hollywoodspotlight.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/leighton-meester-and-sebastian-stan-breakup-what-the-hell-is-in-the-water-at-gossip-girl/gallery_enlarged-leighton-meester-sebastian-stan-photos-04092010-05/

Yeah, this one shouldn't really be a shock. A bunch of beautiful actors in their early 20s all working together for long hours, and on weekends. Yeah. It's normal, and sometimes even exciting when we hear that our favorite actors are dating in real life. Hold onto your seats, though, because the GG cast of who's dated who is pretty much everyone and everyone. First of all, Serena and Dan in real life! Yep, this was probably the most known of the relationships. Blake Lively and Penn Badgley dated for three years during the run of the show. Leighton Meester (Blair) dated Sebastian Stan for two years while she was on the show. For those of you thinking 'Bucky Barnes was on Gossip Girl?!' Yes, Seb Stan played villain Carter Baizen for a few episodes.

Ed Westwick (Chuck) and Jessica Szohr (Vanessa) had quite the long relationship through the run of the show, and we know that actors aren't their characters, but still. Chuck and Vanessa... no. Even the parents were in on it, with Lily and Rufus' real life actors Kelly Rutherford and Matthew Settle apparently being involved for a while. Blake Lively had this to say to Vanity Fair, "I remember there was one point where we were just afraid of how our personal lives overlapping our work life could be perceived by our bosses, but then we were like ‘oh no, that’s exactly what they want.' They wanted us all to date."

23 Penn Badgley Hated Gossip Girl

https://www.self.com/story/penn-badgley-blond

We have a feeling the reason why Penn Badgley played cynical, proud, Ross Geller-like alter-ego Dan Humphrey so well, is because that's how he felt about being on the show. Out of all the cast members, Penn Badgley was the one who didn't enjoy the fame and million dollar paychecks... yeah, we see how horrible it was, Penn. The 31-year-old actor is still doing acting projects, most recently filming the drama-thriller series You, based on the book of the same name by Caroline Kepnes. Penn will play the lead character of Joe Goldberg, a straight white guy who likes a girl and get angry when she's not immediately his property. Yeah, definitely more to be proud of then, GG.

All sarcasm aside, we are actually excited to watch You because the book was very good. We're just very proud of Gossip Girl and find Penn just the slightest bit ungrateful; come on, it started off your career! Made you a popular name in film and TV (for a while). Maybe we're wrong and Penn's just a method actor, so he was really Dan Humphrey while doing those interviews... either way, we all agree that he is definitely the Ross of the show.

22 Blake And Leighton's Problems

via: eonline.com

We're always fans of when our favorite character otp (your favorite romantic couple)/brotp (your favorite friendship), is true in real life. That's when your favorite character's actors are best friends in real life too. This happens a fair amount in TV shows, most notably how Sam and Dean Winchester's actors Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki are truly best friends. It's very sweet and somehow makes us complete. Sadly, this wasn't the case for our favorite best friends (sometimes enemies) Serena Van Der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf. Their actors, Blake Lively and Leighton Meester, were very good actors because they convinced us they were friends the whole time. Turns out, we were very wrong.

If Blake and Leighton were best friends, we would like to imagine that B & S were real!

Blake and Leighton may not have argued to the end like a lot of tabloid magazines made out at the time, but they were right about the two main stairs not being B&S best friends. Executive producer Joshua Safran told Vogue in an interview, "Blake and Leighton were not friends. They were friendly, but they were not friends like Serena and Blair. Yet the second they'd be on set together, it's as if they were." Since the show's end in 2012, Blake and Lively haven't spoken.

21 Music Feuds... On A TV Show?

http://www.nme.com/news/music/pretty-reckless-announce-2017-uk-tour-1809913

This one sounds surprising. Turns out that the longstanding feud between little Jenny Humphrey and Blair Waldorf made its way to Taylor Momsen and Leighton Meester too. If you weren't aware, Taylor Momsen formed her band The Pretty Reckless while she was still filming Gossip Girl. It turned the sweet young actress into a stunning young woman who liked rock and too much eyeshadow (and still does to this day). What you may not have realized is our very own Blair Waldorf made music too. Leighton's biggest hit would have been featuring on this popular Cobra Starship song. She did have a few other songs, and that started the feud between the two.

On a few different episodes some of Leighton's songs were featured, and Taylor's weren't. Apparently, Taylor Momsen was offended by this. We really don't understand how, as we thought The Pretty Reckless' hard rock, grunge, emo music clearly didn't fit the elegant, high fashion, Upper East Side that was Gossip Girl. Seriously Taylor, if by any chance you're reading this, tell us where you thought one of your songs would fit?! Well, maybe during one of Serena's angry teen phases. Anyway, Taylor eventually won and this scene used one of her band's songs.

20 There Was Only One Serena

https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a18569250/blake-lively-serena-van-der-woodsen-gossip-girl-instagram-reference-2018/

While casting the Gossip Girl cast, there was only ever one option for Serena. Yep, Blake Lively was the only option to play the stunning blonde, long-legged, sunshiney (it's becoming a word!) girl that is Serena Van Der Woodsen. Co-producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage had this to say about Blake: "We didn’t see a lot of other girls for Serena. She has to be somebody that you believe would be sitting in the front row at Fashion Week eventually." And that was definitely Blake, as she's often Instagramming her outfit details, attending the Met Gala (and winning) and sitting in the front row at fashion week.

They sure knew what they were talking about. 

Blake and the producers should also give thanks to the many fans of the Gossip Girl books, as they were the ones who rallied on the internet, and fan cast then 20-year-old Blake as the wonderful Serena Van Der Woodsen. They're like the OG fandom who kicked off what is now a huge phenomenon. Their fan casting attracted producers to Blake, and the rest, as we know, is history. Oh also, here is Blake's audition tape just so you can see how perfect she was for the role from the get-go.

19 Blake Turned Serena Down

https://www.hercampus.com/entertainment/blake-lively-almost-turned-down-her-gossip-girl-role-go-college

Yeah, so, even though she was perfect casting and Gossip Girl worked so well with Blake as Serena, it could've all turned out different, as Blake originally didn't want the role. When she was first offered the role of Serena she told the producers no. "I said, ‘No, I want to go to college. Thank you, though." Thank god she came to her senses and realized that joining the cast was a dream, and with the money she was going to make from the role, college was totally unnecessary (we're joking, college is important, but for us personally, we would have chosen acting in a heartbeat).

"Then they said, 'Okay, you can go to Columbia University one day a week."

With Blake keeping her stance the CW producers tricked her by telling her she could still go: "After the first year of the show, it’ll quiet down. Your life will go back to normal and you can start going to school. We can’t put it in writing, but we promise you can go.' So that’s why I said, 'Okay. You know what? I’ll do this.'"

Of course, GG just got bigger, but by that time Blake was okay (we'd be ecstatic) with her choice. Would college have lead her to her soulmate husband and two beautiful daughters? We don't think so.

18 Blair Waldorf Isn't Really A Brunette

http://www.health.com/beauty/leighton-meester-platinum-blonde-hair

This one might come as a shock to some, as Blair Waldorf and Leighton Meester just work so well as a brunette. The Audrey Hepburn vibes we got for the six seasons of Gossip Girl were amazing, so we can't believe it was all a lie. In real life, Leighton Meester is actually a natural blonde. Yep, even when she went to her Blair audition Leighton was a blonde, and it nearly lost her the role. When she went for her first audition the producers loved her, but they didn't love her hair.

Josh Schwartz had this to say to Vanity Fair in a reflection interview: "She came in and she was really funny, and really smart and played vulnerable. But there was one problem: she was blonde. And Blake was blonde, obviously; Serena had to be blonde. So, Leighton went to the sink and dyed her hair. She wanted it."

That's dedication to a role, and we understand it because it became one of the most popular TV series of all time. Leighton's character Blair Waldorf became an icon for girls everywhere, and the legacy continues today. All that for a hair change? We'd shave ours off! (Kidding. Maybe).

17 Chace Crawford Didn't Agree With Leighton

http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Chace+Crawford/Chace+Crawford+Leighton+Meester+Film/5tILfIcPKex

We haven't had a chance to mention Chace Crawford on our list yet. Sweet Chace played sweet, adorable Nate Archibald. Chace admitted to Vanity Fair in the same interview as the point before this that he didn't think that Leighton was the right actress to play Blair. Chace said, "I thought I just don’t see her as Blair Waldorf. I can’t see it. Then Leighton turned 'slyly in her chair' with Blair’s iconic headband and went into character. I just remember thinking, 'That girl can act. She’s the perfect girl for this.'"

We agree with you, Chace, as we too are in awe of Leighton Meester and Blair Waldorf.

Honestly, throughout the whole series, Nate was nothing but an angel, who seriously never did anything wrong. Ever. He was such an innocent and cute character, and he was played by talented actor Chace Crawford who was much the same personality-wise. After watching a TV show you can never really picture anyone as the character apart from their selected actor, but we can 100% say that no one would ever play the role of the Gossip Girl characters as well as the actors who were cast. You go, casting team, you go.

16 Chuck And Nate Were Really Close

https://www.floor8.com/posts/2080-quiz-who-said-it-chuck-bass-or-nate-archibald

Remember a few points ago when we were talking about how sad we were that Blake and Leighton weren't true best friends like their characters Blair and Serena? Well, be sad no more, because two other cast members were truly best friends. Yep, Chuck and Nate's actors Ed Westwick and Chace Crawford were best friends on and off screen! Woo! During the filming of the series, the two even lived together in a New York apartment.  While the show ended six years ago (we just felt really old all of a sudden) that doesn't mean Chace and Ed's friendship ended. Nope, the two still attend events together and are sometimes featured on each others Instagrams.

To be a fly on the wall in that apartment...

Even though the cast down reunite as often as we like (can we all just live in GG New York forever? No?), we're still glad that a few of the members still see each other. Chace most often sees Gossip Girl and The Covenant co-star Sebastian Stan. They've known each other for over 10 years now and still often meet up, in between Sebastian's busy schedule with Marvel of course. Even if Carter Baizen wasn't a huge part of GG, we're still happy to see him with Chace.

15 Blake And Penn Shocked Everyone

https://medium.com/the-queue/sorry-gossip-girl-fans-but-dan-and-serena-were-always-meant-to-be-75410837be06

When we started off this list we first talked about how nearly everyone in the cast dated at some point. Mainly Blake and Penn, as they had probably the most solid relationship that lasted three years. What the public, the fans, and even their castmates and show producers didn't know was when they broke up. Penn and Blake ended their relationship in 2010, but no one found out for a few months. The two actors were only 23 at the time, but already their professionalism was better than some veteran actors.

Joshua Safran said this to Vanity Fair about his shock upon finding out: "The shocking thing was, I found out on the set of the season 2 finale that Blake and Penn had broken up months before. They kept the breakup hidden from the crew, which you could never do now. I don’t even know how they did it. They kept it from everybody which is a testament to how good they are as actors. Because they did not want their personal drama to relate to the show."

While we were kind of sad about the two, we're happy now as both actors have moved on, gotten married, and are now happy with their lives. It's a reminder that not all endings are sad, sometimes they lead us to the right path. Wow, that was inspirational.

14 A Russian Hack On Gossip Girl?

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/30-reasons-why-dan-humphrey-is-the-worst-character-on-gossip-girl

This sounds strange, but it's true. We weren't lying when we said that Gossip Girl was one of the most popular shows in existence. It was so popular that people literally couldn't wait to find out what happened next. One of the show's producers had an interview with Vanity Fair and spoke about the espionage surrounding GG: “All season, our scripts were ending up online, and we couldn’t figure out how. We hired a private investigator. We didn’t understand what was happening, because everything was getting leaked, every detail… A teenager, I think either from Russia or Bulgaria, had hacked one of the writer’s e-mails and was selling scripts on eBay. But they were underage, so they couldn’t be prosecuted. It was a fucking production nightmare. We would have to ‘X’ out every script. We would have to print on red paper. …It was like there was a ‘Gossip Girl’ in our system."

That's pretty heavy, and we understand the need to find out, as we were obsessed with the show too. But didn't these people realize that Gossip Girl was based on Cecily von Ziegesar's series of books? Maybe if they had just read the books there wouldn't have been the need for international crimes? Just a thought.

13 Never Say Never

https://www.etonline.com/11-things-we-learned-gossip-girl-cast-their-10-year-anniversary-86362

Don't get too excited here, Gossip Girl fans. There's nothing confirmed or even thinking about being confirmed, but, most of the GG cast members have stated that they would be open to a possible reunion. If there's going to be any freaking out, do it now and then wait for the sadness to kick in. Even though we long for it, we don't think there will be a Gossip Girl reunion anytime soon. In an interview with Vanity Fair, executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage said the possibility of a reunion is plausible if there were more stories to tell. Kelly Rutherford (Lily Van Der Woodsen/Bass/should be Humphrey) said she would agree, and Wallace Shaw who played the ever-lovable Cyrus stated he would jump at the opportunity.

Everyone cross your fingers and pray that we get to see our favorite Upper East Siders again.

Now for the really exciting part: Leighton Meester said she's open to it, Blake Lively was excited about the possibility, and Sebastian Stan said he'd be in and could convince Jessica Szohr and Chace Crawford to agree. Sadly, Ed Westwick didn't agree, and it wouldn't be a proper reunion without him. Penn Badgley said no too (surprise surprise), but that's okay. We could just move Dan Humphrey away, and finally, give Lily and Rufus the marriage they DESERVE. Sorry, we're just intense about this stuff.

12 We Could Have Had A Lot Less Gossip Girl

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361467/mediaviewer/rm2967443712

As much as we'd love a reunion, we're glad we had the six seasons we did. In an unauthorized biography of Ed Westwick and Chace Crawford, it was revealed that before Gossip Girl became the series we know and love, it was going to be a feature-length movie. Even worse than only getting two hours of our favorite bratty teens, Lindsay Lohan was attached to the role of Blair?! No offense to Lindsay, but Leighton was and always will be our one and only Blair Waldorf. If Twitter was as popular back when GG first aired as it is now, and Lindsey was cast as Blair we probably would have started a hashtag. #NotMyBlair

Can you imagine trying to fit all the drama, relationships, and storylines into a two-hour movie? We don't know who pitched that idea but we're glad that it was scrapped and the plan for a TV series was put in place (and executed to perfection). To be fair, maybe if they had have thought of a series of movies like Harry Potter, they could have worked it out. But still, we'd rather have the hour of TV every week than the two hours of a movie every couple of years. Well played, CW, well played.

11 Chuck Bass Might Have Been...

via:lifeandstylemag.com

Not Ed Westwick. We'll just wait for your screaming to stop.

Okay, we know right?! Out of everyone on the cast of Gossip Girl, Ed has to have stolen our hearts the most, and his portrayal of bad boy Chuck Bass was everyone's favorite. No other actor could have pulled off the line between infuriating, evil, and attractive. From his voice to the way his eyes were half shut at all times, Ed Westwick made every girl want a Chuck Bass of their own.

We don't want to live in a world where Ed isn't Chuck.

It could have been a very possible option, as Ed Westwick nearly wasn't cast because the producers and casting directors thought quote "he looked more like a [bad person] than a romantic lead." Come on, guys, that was half the appeal of Ed's Chuck! The fact that he was such a nasty, harsh character toward everyone but Blair made us weep. Don't ask us why, but liking the bad boys is just a natural reaction for us girls, okay?! Anyway, we're glad Ed was Chuck and no matter what Ed's up to now, we will always love Chuck and Blair, and appreciate the six years of Chuck Bass we got.

10 Constance Doesn't Exist

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/back-to-school-as-told-by-gossip-girl

As if every teenaged girl who watched Gossip Girl during its run didn't want to go to Constance Billard School for Girls (or the next door St. Jude's School for Boys). Don't lie, aside from the bullying and nasty cliques, Constance was clearly the It School of New York. Even just the look of the school was fancy, albeit super expensive (we bet). In real life though, there is sadly no Constance. The outside courtyard where a lot of fights happened in Gossip Girl, is actually a working museum. The Museum of the City of New York, to be exact, and its front is the filming location for a few different shows.

Constance may not exist, but our memories live on.

Even though we're sad the school doesn't really exist (not that we could afford to attend anyway), we totally understand why the show's creators decided on filming there. It is a beautiful location. For those of you who want to do the Gossip Girl tour of New York, there's no shame in visiting the museum and taking photos out the front while pretending you're at Constance. We'll always remember when Dan ran to Serena asking if she was pregnant based on a Gossip Girl post he saw all the while he was Gossip Girl. #PlotHoles

9 But Chuck's Hotel Does

https://www.spotern.com/en/spot/tv/gossip-girl/77106/the-empire-hotel-chuck-bass-ed-westwick-in-new-york-in-gossip-girl

This is a positive to even out the negative of finding out Constance and St. Jude's don't exist. You may not be able to visit them but you can visit Chuck Bass' Empire Hotel. Yep, it's a real hotel that really exists in New York, and they even hold a piece of Chuck Bass in their heart (don't we all?). The Empire Hotel actually has a Gossip Girl menu for their drink selection. Yep, if you ever feel like tasting S, B, I'm Chuck Bass, Lonely Boy, Georgia's Mind Eraser, Nate's Fickle Flings, Jenny's Tartlet, Eau de Vanessa, or XOXO (with a description of 'find me out,' LOVE IT!) then get to the Empire. We'll take one of each.

If you're not really into drinking but want to know if the Empire is really as lavish as it is when Chuck owns it... the answer is yes, it is. The Empire is a four-star hotel and costs a few hundred per night, and yes the insides are just as fantastic as in the series. Of course, we can't all (or anyone but Ed and Leighton) be Chuck and Blair, but for a few hundred, you can pretend to be for a night or two!

8 Gossip Girl Didn't Even Know They Were Gossip Girl

https://www.glamour.com/story/penn-badgley-blond-hair-dan-humphrey-gossip-girl-photos

Spoiler alert...

If you've somehow made it six years without hearing who Gossip Girl is, then we applaud you. If you've managed to get this far into our list without getting it spoiled, then you've clearly not been paying attention. This is our last spoiler warning. So... Dan Humphrey! It wasn't really a shock for us or many other viewers and fans of the show, but it was certainly quite a shock for his actor Penn Badgley, who didn't even know his Dan was GG until just before they filmed the scene.

Yep, good old lonely, stalking, creepy Dan Humphrey turned out to be GG. How surprising.

Penn later stated in an interview with People that he didn't think it made sense for Dan to be Gossip Girl, and we agree with him. Although when you think about it more, who else could it have been? It wouldn't have been a plot twist if it was Blair or Serena or any of the other main ones. We've gotta admit though, this shock wasn't as huge as the whole storyline about Dan secretly using Serena to get with Blair, and then somehow marrying Serena anyway (she deserved better), but hey, we're not writers... oh, wait.

7 Jenny Humphrey Went From Sweet To Sour

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/4081455882750873/

We're talking about both Jenny and her actress Taylor Momsen here. We haven't read the books, so we're not sure if it was just coincidence that Jenny and Taylor started their dark paths together, or Taylor was just going that way and the writers were like 'well this is what's going to happen now.' By dark path, we're not talking about substances (at least we don't think we are). We're talking about literal darkness. What was once Jenny/Taylor's sweet little face was now covered by two huge dark circles around her eyes. Everyone can have their own taste, and she was ahead of the raccoon game, we admit, but it's been nearly 10 years. Come on, Taylor.

We just wanted season 1 Jenny back.

Back to Jenny: it wasn't just her makeup that changed, it was also her attitude. Dan's little sister took a dark path and became one of the most annoying characters on the show. We were really rooting for her and Nate there for a while, but then she turned from bad to worse. As an actress, eventually Taylor got so bad to work with that she was fired without being fired. She was put on an 'indefinite hiatus' back in 2010 and wasn't seen again until the show's finale in 2012.

6 Gossip Girl Was Based On A True Story... Kind Of

http://www.whowhatwear.com/gossip-girl-stores

This is just what we all want to hear, right? The stories of Gossip Girl being true and there are an S and B out there somewhere?! Well sorry, but that's not the way this true story works. Author of the GG books, Cecily von Ziegesar, actually based the books off of her life growing up in New York City. She's stated that there's no actual experience in Gossip Girl that really happened to her, but she grew up in that life and uses her own experience as an idea, that gives her the inspiration to create a scene out of Serena and Blair's lives.

Obviously, Gossip Girl was pretty far-fetched at some points; like, what kind of seventeen-year-old goes out after school to have fun beverages? Maybe they do, we don't know what rich high school kids get up to these days. In the next life, we'd like to be reborn as a Chuck or Blair. Even if GG itself wasn't based off real life exactly, there are really people like that. Here is a Vanity Fair interview with three Upper East Siders who tell the truth about how accurate Gossip Girl really is (spoiler alert: there probably are Blairs and Serenas running around right now).

5 The Possible Spin-Offs

https://www.etonline.com/tv/152140_13_bits_of_horrible_parenting_advice_blake_lively_should_not_take_from_gossip_girl

While we're really glad that Gossip Girl was a TV series instead of a feature-length movie, we're kind of sad that these potential spin-off ideas never went anywhere. Within the first few seasons of Gossip Girl, there was an idea for a spin-off featuring our favorite (then sweet) little Jenny Humphrey. That never happened though, and we're alright with it because of the way things spun out of control for actress Taylor Momsen. We can't imagine what a huge mess The It Girl would have been.

The second spin-off idea would have been fantastic, but we can see why they didn't go with it. There was going to be a show about a young Lily Rhodes and her mom Carol (Lily, as in Serena's mom... she's had so many name changes it's hard to keep up, we know). This idea never made it anyway and actress Brittany Snow, who was set to star as the young Lily (even though her eyes are bright blue and Kelly Rutherford's are brown?), instead played young Lily in season 2, as the plot was decided on being used for that instead of its own show. Now that we've thought about it, we're pretty glad they decided to only keep Gossip Girl, it should always be the center of attention.