Gossip Girl: Dan de Fluerette
Dan de Fleurette is all about dual identities, self doubt and finding your true self, and of course scheming and power struggles. Starting off with Nate telling Dan Humphrey about the famous, hot actress newly enrolled at NYU it is only a mater of moments before Dan Humphrey has a meet cute with shiny celebrity guest Hillary Duff. Of course she is not the normal, sweet girl named Kate Dan Humphrey is looking for, no, no, no she is Olivia Burke the breakout actress, and Vanessa’s roommate (and somebody who eats at the same restaurants as Serena). I am really not a Hillary Duff fan, and here she proves herself equally incapable of playing a regular coffee drinking coed and a teen starlet about to make the A list. We’re supposed to care about Olivia’s need to have a normal college experience, but since she isn’t convincing as a star it’s hard to imagine what she’s escaping.
Hilary Duff isn’t the only celebrity guest, also preposterously playing a serious actress is Tyra Banks. After Lily finally returns. Serena is determined to get her approval on her decision to find herself instead of going to Brown, so she sets out to find a job. After a brief montage Serena manages to snag herself a publicists job after impressing Olivia’s rep at a restaurant. Soon she is tending to the diva ways of an emotional actress played by Tyra, somehow though Tyra just doesn’t pull off being a diva when she’s acting, ah sweet irony. Serena’s PR job get really ridiculous really fast and I found it pretty hilarious. Being a publicist means being able to have a slumber party one night, and then make tough ethical decisions the next, it’s a really good fit for Serena who likes talking about trying to do better more than actually working at it. Serena manages to loose the job by being too ethical but Tyra gets it back for her because they forged such a strong bond in those two crazy days.
Little J and Blaire both also struggle with their identity this week as one queen bee fades away and another starts to rise. Jenny and Eric finally go back to school and are shocked to find a bunch of raccoon eyed Jenny wannabes with punked up uniforms (though none as punk as Jenny who has a skirt about an inch long and leather vest over a wife-beater and tie! LOL). Blair still can’t win over NYU so she decides to meddle in high school business again, I’m glad Chuck agreed with me that this was really pathetic on her part. Chuck pulls off a mini-coup, taking Jenny to Olivia’s movie premier and getting Blair good and pissed off. I was really happy to see this wind up so well with Blair starting up a new monarchy of her own, NYU is a huge school she just had to look harder for her followers. Jenny didn’t fare as well as the raccoon pack was back, but at least they’re not wearing headbands! Like Serena last week Chuck really shines with very little screen time. He manages to light a fire under Blair and Jenny’s asses and get them to take back what’s theirs. Bonus points for his hilarious Dumbo metaphor.
And also, Scott makes an appearance at the end talking to Vanessa on the phone when he gets an incoming call…from Georgina. Dun dun dun!