A 2008 query about Penn Badgley, Blake Lively’s co-star on Gossip Girl and reported lover, had her yelling at another reporter, calling him “unclassy.” This was during the controversy surrounding It Ends With Us, and Lively was embroiled in a conflict with the film’s director. Blake, who is now 36, discussed her impending movie The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, in which she filmed a kissing scene with Alan Arkin, at the time in an interview with New York magazine.
When a reporter in 2008 brought up Gossip Girl co-star and reported lover Penn Badgley, Blake Lively became enraged and called the question “unclassy” because of the turmoil surrounding the movie It Ends With Us and her “feud” with the director.
She said: ‘He’s a little bit of an upgrade from Chace [Crawford] and Penn [Badgley]. So I’m looking forward to that.’
This led to journalists Jessica Pressler and Chris Rovzar asking about her relationship with Badgley which led to a rather snippy response.
Lively responded at the time by saying: ‘I thought this was New York magazine. I thought you were supposed to be classy.’
The two co-stars had dated during the peak of the drama series from 2007 to 2010.
This comes a few days after it was discovered that Lively had surprisingly called her fellow Gossip Girl cast members “monkeys” in a since-retrieved video. She may be seen participating in a panel discussion at Paleyfest 2008 among the other cast members of The CW, including Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick, in a now-viral TikTok. Lively delivered the scathing comment while disclosing the “promises” that the Gossip Girl creators gave to her in exchange for her accepting the role of “It girl,” Serena van der Woodsen, in the teen drama.
‘Another promise was no pet monkey,’ she revealed. Lively was referring to Westwick’s character Chuck Bass, who, in the books, has a pet monkey.
‘Chuck has a pet monkey with coordinating outfits. And I was like, “I would love to be part of the show but I can’t act with a monkey,”‘ Lively recalled with a laugh.
She then turned and quickly gestured to her left to her co-stars as she quipped: ‘Well, I got a few of them.’
Journalists Jessica Pressler and Chris Rovzar questioned her about her relationship with Badgley (whom she was spotted with in May 2008) in a 2008 New York magazine piece, to which she responded with a fairly caustic remark. At the time, Lively replied, “I thought this was New York magazine.” I assumed you were expected to be refined.
The remark earned immediate laughter from the audience and Lively insisted she was ‘just joking.’
Meester, who was wearing a bright yellow dress, twisted her face at Lively, seemingly unamused by the joke. Stars of Gossip Girl, Penn Badgley and Chace Crawford, avoided smiling and instead directed their gaze downward at the stage area.
@thedisasterguru Probably not a good idea to call your coworkers monkeys and look at #leightonmeester lol. #blakelively #gossipgirl #thisisus For context – she is talking about things they made the creators of Gossip Girl promise her if she agreed to do a tv show. One of them was no monkeys.
‘C’mon it was a joke! Lord have mercy!’ exclaimed Lively as the awkward clip came to a close.
‘Probably not a good idea to call your co-workers monkeys,’ wrote TikTok user thedisasterguru, who helped recirculate the awkward panel interview on Wednesday.
Fans in the comments slammed Lively’s joke as ‘gross’ and felt it was more evidence of her alleged ‘mean girl’ behavior.
‘Since day on, Blake has been a mean girl,’ read one angry comment.
Another wrote: ‘Ew! She is so terrible’
This occurs a few days after it was discovered that Lively had reportedly called her Gossip Girl co-stars “monkeys” in a previously unreleased video that was viewed on August 8. Many believed Lively was unjustly targeting Meester in particular.
‘I always wondered why they weren’t besties in real life because Leighton is the sweetest but now I see why…’ one TikTok user wrote.
Another fan speculated in the comments: ‘The pause before she quickly groups everyone because she wanted to single out Leighton.’
There have long been rumors that during the six seasons of Gossip Girl that aired from 2007 to 2012, Lively and Meester experienced significant conflict behind the scenes. Created by Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz, the teen romance drama followed a group of affluent teenagers on the Upper East Side of New York City, with a gossip blogger (Kristen Bell) describing the events. Penn Badgley, Ed Westwick, Chace Crawford, and Kelly Rutherford were among the cast members of the series in which Lively and Meester portrayed Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf, respectively.
In a now-viral TikTok, she is seen partaking in a panel discussion with the rest of the Gossip Girl cast, including Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick, at Paleyfest in 2008
Lively made the barbed remark after revealing that Gossip Girls ‘promised’ she wouldn’t have to ‘act with a monkey’ if she agreed to star on the hit CW show
Fans have taken a renewed interested in Lively and Meester’s rumored feud as Lively comes under fire for her rumored rift with It Ends With Us director/co-star Justin Baldoni.
‘Blake and Leighton were not friends,’ executive producer Joshua Safran told Vanity Fair in an August 2017 article commemorating the 10th anniversary of the show.
He compared the actresses to their respective characters, saying, ‘They were friendly, but they were not friends like Serena and Blair.’
The performers had very different personalities, Safran told the publication: ‘Blake is very much in the moment. Blake knows what’s happening.
‘You talk to Blake on a very contemporary level, and she would be like, “I’m doing this thing tonight. Have you been to this restaurant?”‘
Meester, in contrast, had a ‘very removed and very quiet’ demeanor, and that ‘after her scenes were done, she would wander the stage,’ Safran said.
Amid reports detailing Blake Lively ‘s tension with her It Ends with Us director and costar Justin Baldoni, Dailymail.com is taking a closer look at a past professional relationship the A-list actress, 36, had with her costar on Gossip Girl, Leighton Meester, 38
Lively and Meester headlined the CW series over its six-season run, 121-episode run from 2007-2012. Pictured in 2009 in NYC
Amid the recent headlines about Lively, a number of Twitter users referred back to the relationship between Lively and Meester.
‘Watching all the Blake Lively drama while promoting “It ends With Us,”‘ said one user, ‘makes me feel like we all owe Leighton Meester an apology…’
One user asked, ‘Why is everyone acting like Leighton Meester didn’t already tell us about Blake Lively years ago?’ while another said, ‘Blake lively acts like she’s better than everyone she isn’t even a great actress she was outshined by a side character aka leighton meester in her show #gossipgirl.’
One user suggested, ‘Real ones know Blake Lively has always been unlikable which is why she wasn’t friends with angel on earth Leighton Meester.’
Also noteworthy in the alleged rift between the former costars are the Instagram accounts Penn Badgley, who plated Dan Humphrey on Gossip Girl, are following. Meester, Badgley and Lively pictured in 2007 in NYC
Lively and Meester had a tendency to ‘avoid each other like the plague’ while filming the series, according to a 2008 report. Pictured in June 2008 in Port Washington, New York
Meester has steadily worked in both TV and film in the 12 years since Gossip Girl went off the air.
She has appeared in motion pictures such as 2023’s EXmas, 2023’s River Wild, 2022’s The Weekend Away, 2014’s Life Partners, 2014’s The Judge and 2014’s Mice and Men.
Among the TV roles she has had include on shows such as Single Parents, How I Met Your Father, The Orville and Making History.
Multiple users said in social media posts that Meester is more worthy of professional success than Lively, whose career is soaring amid her starring role in It Ends With Us and cameo in her spouse Reynolds’ summer blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine.
Said one user: ‘My Friday morning Ted Talk is that Leighton Meester is a far better actress with significantly better comedic s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s and timing than Blake Lively, and she should be the more famous one. Thank you.’
Another said, ‘It’s funny how everyone says Leighton Meester deserved Blake Lively’s success cuz Blake’s acting career is honestly nothing to write home about.’
One user posted the popular ‘Disaster Girl’ meme, saying, ‘leighton meester seeing the 2024 exposé of blake lively.’
Lively’s heavy promotion of It Ends With Us, which was released in theaters last Friday, has resulted in a whirlwind of backlash for the once beloved actress.
The romantic drama, based on Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name, follows Lily Bloom (played by Lively) as she becomes embroiled in an abusive relationship with Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni).
Lively’s career is soaring amid her starring role in It Ends With Us and cameo in her spouse Ryan Reynolds’ summer blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine. Pictured earlier this month in NYC
It Ends With Us is already a $93 million box office hit but has been plagued by rumors of on-set tensions, a bitter feud between Blake and co-star/director Justin Baldoni (pictured on August 6) and her lighthearted handling of the film’s serious subject matter
Despite the film being about a domestic violence victim, fans have accused Lively of trying to ‘play this movie off as a fun romcom’ in her press tour interviews; seen with co-star/director Justin Baldoni in It Ends With Us (2024)
Although the film has already made $93 million at the box office, there have been tales of set conflicts, a sour animosity between Blake and Justin, the co-star and director, and Blake’s carefree approach to the weighty subject matter of the picture. The off-screen drama has divided fans; some call Blake a “diva” and “tone deaf,” while others support her. However, Lively’s situation drastically changed when fans started closely examining her press tour interviews, many of which minimized or neglected to mention the domestic abuse in the movie. Rather, she was charged with attempting to “play this movie off as a fun rom-com” and urging viewers to dress like flowers for their screening of the film. A number of Lively’s previous interviews were made public as a result of the drama, and many people condemned her for being “rude” and “dismissive” to journalists in those interviews.
