Now that heriess/socialite (so many of them these days) Lydia Hearst has had her debut role on Gossip Girl, tumblrers are wondering which Manhattan media celebs could possibly turn up on the show next. Oh that's kind of fun! Let's see, you'd have to have dating columnist Julia Allison, of course. Socialite Leven Rambin, for sure. (Plus, she's already an "actress"). Men's Vogue writer and man-about-town Hud Morgan could turn up somewhere, along with a few other notable friends/foes of this here blog. Read our seven casting ideas, after the jump.

Well, that's that, eh? Gossip Girl's dizzying, dismaying, frustrating, and fabulous first season came to a breezy, sun-soaked end last night. I thought it was pretty good. Sure the last ten or so minutes may have been a bit overstuffed with plot developments, but that was kind of refreshing for a show that can be a bit slack, plus it was the finale. They're allowed to set up cliffhangers and new possibilities for next season. As we look down the barrel of a summer TV landscape populated by American Gladiators and Last Comic Standing, let's take a look at where our fakest New York friends ended up, and where they might be headed.

We already showed you the remixed opening titles for Gossip Girl in the 90210 style. Here it is in styles of Smallville and Veronica Mars.

(Also: finale y'all! Someone I did theatre with in college is on the show tonight. Go Zack!)

The Times' Alessandra Stanley weighs in on the frightening phenomenon: "'Gossip Girl' goes further than most shows in depicting the excesses of the rich and under-age (in this fantasy teenagers are never carded), but most of all it represents the next evolutionary stage of girl power television after 'Sex and the City.' That pioneering HBO series, and the movie version that comes out later this month, celebrates girlish women who joined forces - 'Us against the world'- in the pursuit of success and happiness."

Okay, I don't know who these people are or what on earth they're talking about, but apparently even adults watch Gossip Girl on the CW network. Hell, I still watch Smallville! So here's a clip from tomorrow's show.

Teenagers fucking does not a network make, or so the CW is grudgingly realizing as its ratings plummet to a point where even The Wall Street Journal can't help but scoop the world on its obituary. To wit: Nearly 28% of its target 18-34 demo has disappeared this season! Ratings are down 22% during May sweeps! Young viewers are flocking to the Web! "Writers strike" this, "skittish advertisers" that, co-owners CBS and WB are ready to drop their joint endeavor faster than a pair of Gossip Girl heroine Serena van der Woodsen's panties, etc. etc. In short: Divest all ye sinners, the end is nigh — as in "a year" nigh, give or take a month or two.

[Blake "Serena van der Woodsen" Lively at CW up-fronts at Lincoln Center yesterday; image via Splash]

The CW network, home to teen drama Gossip Girl, may be closed next year thanks to you, a Web-surfing pop culture consumer, possibly between the ages of 18 and 34. If you actually sat and watched network television at the appointed time instead of flitting around the mediascape like a monkey, streaming things here and TiVOing things there, maybe the network could actually get some Nielsen ratings for its shows. Instead, ratings are down 28 percent among 18 to 34 year olds so far this year. Other networks' ratings are down in the wake of the writers' strike, but apparently things are worse at CW, because according to the Wall Street Journal, "the network's hopes of surviving are looking increasingly bleak," and at least one of the CW's owners, CBS and Time Warner, may abandon the network next year if ratings don't improve. And it's hard to see how they will:

It's always cute when newbie stars brush off rumors about their love lives by calling them "silly" and saying "we're just good friends!" Fresh faces like Gossip Girl's blonde bombshell Blake Lively have yet to learn that making public denials like these mean only one thing: the rumors are true. Back in January, Lively said just that regarding tabloid stories linking her to on-screen make-out partner Penn Badgley (he's the hot-but-nerdy one, a la Seth Cohen on The OC). And shockingly (!), pictures released today prove not only that Blake and Penn have been fooling around poolside - in an uncanny rendition of Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer's beachy-keen gallery last week - but that they may actually make it after all.

Two sad gay dudes and a lady nerd talk to a Canadian about Gossip Girl.

["Gossip Girl" stars Taylor "I'm 14" Momsen and Connor "I'm a Gay" Paolo at the EW up-fronts party in New York last night; image via Bauer-Griffin]

So, sigh. I could focus on how dismayingly anticlimactic last night's Gossip Girl was. I mean, we had the whizbang cliff-hanger about murder from last week's episode. The show was on the up! Things were happening! And then, like the rushing downturn ("wunnnh") of music that came as Serena uttered her immortal line, we (or at least I) saw all that energy deflate last night. It was... just a drug overdose. Everyone knows about it now and Serena was totes not to blame. Plus mama Lily managed to, um, get in touch with the family of the dead guy on the same night that Serena told her and cart her over to their house to apologize. How exactly did that conversation go? "Hi there, I have the girl who left your son to die here with me. Yeah, she's my daughter. We're in the car, can we swing by? Great. See you in ten." That just felt terribly rushed and silly. OK. So. That's that. That was the bad (well, some of it). But in the spirit of absolutely everyone's forgiving natures last night, I'll instead point out some positives, after the jump.

· There are 27 different movies in this Indy-themed swingstravaganza. (And at least one classic Activision Atari 2600 title.) How many can you name? [Black20]
· Dennis Farina was so preoccupied worrying about gels and liquids, he had a total brainfart about the .22 he was carrying through LAX security. [LAT]
· It seems a certain Chace Crawford is getting invited to George Clooney after-parties and mobbed by the Cruises, and Penn Badgley isn't. XOXO, Defamer Girl [NY Daily News]
· Isaiah Washington filed a complaint with SAG over Grey's Anatomy's use of his photo in a newspaper article about his character on last week's episode. [Reuters]
· Hey—unicorns!

Last week's Gossip Girl blew everyone's face off because, um, Serena confessed to being a murderess. So what will happen tonight, besides me squealing like an idiot for an hour straight? Well, of course, there's more to her stabby (I hope) secret, and, judging by a little teaser clip, Serena may tell more people than just Blair. Suddenly "best friends," Nate and Chuck are also there to help out, talking the blond off a (metaphorical, sadly) ledge. There's some other secret she won't tell them, and it leads one to wonder: what could possibly be worse than killing a person? My guess? Serena van der Woodsen did 9/11. Political! Or, you know, this clip is just a little bait and switch and doesn't have to do with killing people at all. Maybe she's a hooker! [From Us] Watch the "tantalizing" clip after the jump and judge for yourself.

[Photo Credit: INF Daily]

Do you really like the grownups on Gossip Girl? Specifically, the soon-to-be-wed Bart Bass and Lily van der Woodsen (she of the murderous daughter and sodomite son)? Then check out their wedding website. It's bizarrely thorough for a website about non-major characters from a little-watched television show.

["Gossip Girl"'s Chace Crawford and "Sex and the City"'s Jason Lewis at the opening of the Stoli Hotel in SoHo yesterday; image via Splash]

It's amazing to watch a show wildly redeem and practically reinvent itself in one night. The episode, written brilliantly by Paul Sciarrotta (seems to be his first episode!), was funny and suspenseful and, um, downright shocking at the end. (Well, as shocking as a network television show about dopey teenagers can get). The jokes! The Waverly Inn! Page Six! Tinsley Mortimer! Sciarrotta, a Georgetown alum, seems to know his pop-ish topical New York stuff, something the show was sorely missing. And what else? Gays! Bitchiness! And, um, murder?

23-year-old socialite-model Lydia Hearst's influence is diffused throughout the zeitgeist like a fine Evian mist. Did we know, for example, that she's "been called the real-life inspiration for Gossip Girl? (She just filmed a small role for the show.) Anyway, that's what she tells us that a magazine told her, via her Page Six magazine column. Then she makes us sit through an item about musician Joe Barney, who just "happens to be my boyfriend."