| “ | Hello followers. Gossip Girl here. Your one and only source for the truth behind the scandalous lies of New York's elite. Been a minute. Did you miss me? I know I've missed you. | ” |
— Gossip Girl makes her return
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Gossip Girl is the anonymous, unseen narrator of the Gossip Girl television series and novels. In both the novels and the television adaption, Gossip Girl is a blogger whose true identity is never fully revealed. Her true identity is revealed in the television series finale to be Dan Humphrey, however, both Georgina Sparks and Serena van der Woodsen stole the blog at some point. Gossip Girl herself is voiced by Kristen Bell.
Despite the gossip site's shutdown, either years after the first saga it is revealed that a new blogger assumed the mantle of Gossip Girl. In the modern world of 2021, frustrated teacher Kate Keller and her band of colleagues restart Gossip Girl to hold the new generation of socially-powerful pupils accountable. Only this time, she operates using an anonymous Instagram account that spies on the ruling class to ensure everyone knows their secrets.
Overview
Gossip Girl runs a blog documenting the lives of Manhattan's elite, or the wealthy teenagers residing on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Posted on the blog are gossip, a "Spotted" map to keep track of frequently mentioned people, photos, and party invitations. Like most major gossip sites, Gossip Girl relies on tips sent in by people who have any information to give. In The Goodbye Gossip Girl, Jonathan Whitney hacks into the server and is able to find who has been sending what tips in. Later on, Nate Archibald creates a website where people can look up Gossip Girl's sources, although it gets taken down quickly (All the Pretty Sources).
Until the finale, the only other character to know the identity of Gossip Girl was Jenny Humphrey.
In the revival series, "Gossip Girl" is an anonymous Instagram account used to spy on the ruling class of Constance Billard St. Jude's School. She seeks to spill all their secrets.
Novel Series
In the novels, Gossip Girl was very similar to how she is portrayed in the television adaptation. The main difference is her identity is never revealed.
Identity: 2007 TV Series
Seasons 1-4
- “Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite... And who am I? That's one secret I'll never tell. You know you love me. XOXO, Gossip Girl.”
During the first five seasons, Gossip Girl's identity is never identified. In the season two finale The Goodbye Gossip Girl, Serena attempts to track her down on the night of graduation. However, Gossip Girl outplays her and has everyone from Constance Billard/St. Jude's meet, where she reveals in a blast that they are truly Gossip Girl; as she wouldn't have anything to write about if people didn't send in tips.
Season Five
In Riding in Town Cars With Boys, Gossip Girl sends a blast revealing that Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass are together; despite Blair being engaged to Louis Grimaldi. That night, Blair and Chuck are involved in a horrific car accident, which leads to Chuck nearly dying and Blair losing her unborn baby. After this, Gossip Girl abandons her site, only to have it picked up by a new user.
In G.G., it's revealed that Georgina has taken over the site and is posting as Gossip Girl herself. Soon after, in Crazy Cupid Love, Dan figures out that Georgina is Gossip Girl and threatens to expose her. Not wanting to be exposed, she agrees to not release a photo of Dan kissing Blair. In The Princess Dowry, Dan outs Georgina to Blair and Chuck, and she does each of them favors to earn one in return in case the secret ever got out. Afterwards, Georgina sends the laptop with the admin site access to Serena, along with a note encouraging her to take over.
Serena then takes over the site and begins to enjoy running it. However, her cousin, Lola Rhodes, suspects that she is Gossip Girl and attempts to out her. In Salon of the Dead, she realizes that Serena is Gossip Girl but keeps the secret to herself. She eventually tells Nate, who doesn't say anything either. Meanwhile, Diana Payne agrees to help Serena blackmail the real Gossip Girl into letting her keep the site. However, this doesn't work and Nate and Lola help the real Gossip Girl get the laptop back after seeing Serena ruin her friendships while running the site. In The Fugitives, the real Gossip Girl begins posting again.
Season Six
In the series finale, New York, I Love You XOXO, Dan reveals that he was Gossip Girl all along. He reasons that he did so in an attempt to write himself into the world of the Upper East Side. After he explains everything, he confesses that Gossip Girl is now dead and they can all move on with their lives.
In the time jump, it's revealed that a new high school student that bears a resemblance to Dan has taken over as the "new" Gossip Girl.
Identity: 2021 TV Series
Season One
Seeking to teach the students of Constance Billard St. Jude's School how to respect others and to be better people, four teachers band together to revive the moniker of Gossip Girl - Kate Keller, Jordan Glassberg, Wendy, and Rima. Under the direction of a former Constance student, Rebecca, who witnessed the rise of the original Gossip Girl Dan Humphrey, the teachers work together to craft the perfect account. They initially start as a Twitter account under the handle "Gossip Girl2.0", but later decide to take their mission to the students more popular platform of Instagram. It is here that Gossip Girl breaks her first blast, written by Kate Keller. Their antics are known by Rafa Caparros. By the end of the school week, the DMs for potential posts are pouring in, with the teachers having their pick of what to post next.
When the parents of the students become annoyed with the anonymous account, they threaten to pull their donations. Headmistress Burton applies pressure by hiring a black cube company to seek out the perpetrator of the account. The teachers hatch a plan for a scape goat to take the fall, and ultimately land on Rima. She takes their bait by posting an obvious blast to the account that points back to her, and is fired from her teaching position. She assures her co-conspirators that she didn't crack under interrogation. The remaining teachers turn back on their firewall so they're safe from anyone else that tries to out them. They also begin to receive tips from surrounding schools, and agree to occasionally post the other tips, as to avoid suspicion.
The remaining trio alternates their posts so Kate, the main person behind the account, could rest when she needs too. After a student from a neighboring school brought a gun to school because of the intense bullying he was getting both online and in real life, Kate declares they are doing more harm then good and ultimately deactivates the account. She later reactivates it after realizing it is forcing people to actually communicate. She also hides the previous posts and deactivates the comments - because GG's voice is the only one that matters.
After receiving a scandalous sex tape from Max Wolfe outing Rafa Caparros as a sexual predator, Kate and Jordan are surprised when Rafa deletes the tip from the accounts DM's. Rafa then usurps the account, only willing to give it back when they find incriminating evidence on Max. With the clock ticking down and Thanksgiving bringing all sorts of juicy tips, Kate and Jordan work overtime to meet Rafa's demands. When they send a video of Max admitting that he went after Rafa first because he wanted someone to want him, Rafa concedes. He realizes his toxic behavior and resigns from Constance. He also warns them that the tips that have been coming in are getting more intense, with their little experiment no longer working to punish the privileged teens. Kate has become just as bad as the teens. To gain extra security following the breach, Jordan makes fabs with alternating codes for the login of the account, so only someone with the code can access the account.
When debating whether or not to post a tip about Davis Calloway's sexual misconduct allegation, the group faces inner turmoil over the moral dilemma. Jordan and Wendy believe the tip is worth posting as it was sent and Gossip Girl was made to punish the privileged. However, Kate worries how it could implicate Julien or Zoya. In a meeting with an newfound "council" of other teachers, they all vote to not only post the tip, but remove Kate from the account altogether. Scott Kavacs takes over the account as the sole writer, and seeks to not hold people accountable, but expose them for his own entertainment. He doubles-down on Julien's destruction, creates a war between two school basketball teams, all in an attempt to spread only gossip. Kate, Jordan, and eventually Wendy, work together to win the account back by discrediting each of the "council" members.
Season Two
Kate becomes enthralled with the power that being GG has, and begins to misuse it. She is caught by Georgina Sparks who tries to blackmail Kate into using the account for more salacious material by creating a fight between Julien and Audrey. Kate escapes Georgina's clutches by posting about herself and Jordan, forever tainting the image of GG in Georgina's mind. Kate decides to use GG to take down Camille de Haan, putting a target on her back. She convinces the rest of the teachers to let her take over the account solor for a month while she follows through with her plans to punish the parents. She targets Helena Bergmann with Obie's help. The kids decide to rebel against GG and conspire to take her down once and for all at the Met Gala, by having Zoya claim responsibility for the account to lure GG into outing herself.
When Julien's plan doesn't work, Obie decides to leverage the one thing everyone wants - money. They plant a fake story about a million-dollar betting war over GG's story. Kate, unable to resist the urge to tell her story and become a millionaire, betrays Jordan by going to the meeting. She accidentally exposes her identity to Julien, Zoya, Nick, Obie, Andy Cohen, Jonathan Whitney, and the police. She is arrested for cyber stalking, harassment, and has pending charges for libel and defamation. In her final words, Kate proclaims she isn't sorry because she made them better, but Julien and Zoya negate that. In a year, no one will remember GG.
Three months later, Roger Menzies summons Jordan to Europe with a proposal to turn GG into the app for teenagers to turn on each other all over the country.
Trivia
- Gossip Girl is arguably the true main antagonist of the series.
- In an interview, Penn Badgley admitted he didn't know he was Gossip Girl until he read the finale script.
- In the original cut of Pilot, an audience who got an early screening says it was too obvious that Dan was Gossip Girl. As a result, the editors worked to change how it came across.
- Kristen Bell voices Gossip Girl during every episode of the series, including the ones where the identity of Gossip Girl changes characters.
- In season four, Gossip Girl added the ability to livestream on the site.
- There are only a few episodes in which Gossip Girl doesn't provide an opening voiceover.
- In "Pilot", Gossip Girl thanks Melanie91 for sending in a tip but after this episode, it becomes important to keep the identity of tip senders hidden.
- Nate Archibald, Lily van der Woodsen, and Rufus Humphrey are the only main characters to never send a tip to the blog.
- Gossip Girl previously reported on the other major private schools in the area but mainly focused on Constance/St. Jude's.
- The original blog is still alive in 2021, able to be read in archives. There are dead links but some articles are still available to read.
- The Gossip Girl Instagram account was flagged for review by fans of Julien Calloway, which resulted in the account being suspended. However, the group recovered that account and were officially verified in "She's Having a Maybe". This was made possible when Julien Calloway used her influence to help.
Photos
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