Duck and cover, Los Angelenos: it's just been announced that the long-rumored Gossip Girl spinoff will be set here. In the eighties.

Says THR:

After months of gossip and speculation, "Gossip" creators/exec producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage are proceeding with a spinoff that will serve as a prequel to the hot sophomore drama and chronicle the wild teen years of Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford) in Los Angeles in the 1980s.

The network has ordered a backdoor pilot for the project, which will air as a "Gossip" episode May 11.

Written by Schwartz and Savage, the spinoff will center on young Lily Rhodes (her maiden name) who, after a falling-out with her parents, is forced to move in with her sister, the black sheep of the Rhodes family. Overnight, Lily has to transition from a life of luxury and schooling at a wealthy Montecito boarding school to living deep in the Valley she once made fun of and going to public school. Caught between two worlds, Lily dives into the fast-paced Sunset Strip and the Hollywood lifestyle of the '80s, journeying over the hill to a world of wealth and excess that used to be her own.

Thank goodness Schwartz and Savage have finally found a time period and setting where they can chronicle spoiled teens snorting cocaine and living lives full of excess! We eagerly look forward to Lily's run-ins with scene rival Angelyne, with whom she tussles for the affection of strangely distant KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer.