[Gossip Girl Blake Lively in Miami. That little tuft of hair on the right is Chace Crawford. Ooooo! Image via Bauer-Griffin]

This week, Gossip Girl will film at Columbia's Morningside Heights campus. This morning, three coyotes ranged the university's stately grounds. Coincidence, or dark omen?

[The former president of the Lemoncake Stupid Society goes to work as the chairman of the Darkstink Frowning Coalition in New York today; image via Bauer-Griffin]

Nick McDonell was 17 when he wrote 2002's Twelve, about New York's richkids experimenting with new superdrugs. Now it's a Sundance movie, by Joel Schumacher, starring Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts, Keifer Sutherland, and 50 Cent. And it sucks. Terribly.

["Gossiping Girls" actress Chance Cranford filming in Newark City yesterday; image via Bauer-Griffin]

We were busy watching all the jokes about Leno last night to make it to Gossip Girl costume designer Eric Daman's book launch party. Luckily fictional freelancer Betsey Morgenstern never lets us down. Here's her report.

Now that Leno's move back to 11:30 is official, all eyes are Conan: Will he suck it up and helm the "Tonight Show" at midnight or make the move to another network? Variety says he is 'not happy'. Duh.

[Gossip Girl stars Jenny Momsen and Nate Crawford filming in New York today; image via INF]

The 2000s were not so great for James Van Der Beek, career-wise. Maybe the 2010s will be better? He's just landed a role on the NBC medical drama 'Mercy' which could become a series regular if the character 'clicks'.

• Did Hugh Hefner abandon a deal to sell Playboy because he insisted he be allowed to live at the Playboy Mansion until he dies? That's the rumor. [PC]
• CNN will finish 2009 behind MSNBC, which is a first. How is it that CNN chief Jon Klein still has a job? Ask Jeff Bewkes if you bump into him, please. [NYT]
• Daily Intel has a list of the latest layoffs at the New York Times. [NYM]
• Roy Disney, nephew of Walt and former top Disney exec, is dead at 79. [NYT]
• The war between the Times and Wall Street Journal continues apace. [NYO]
• The Journal is boosting circulation of its glossy quarterly, WSJ. [WWD]
• Pressure's on! Jim Cameron's $300 mil. Avatar debuts this weekend. [THR]
• Two of Hollywood's big PR firms, BNC and PMK, have joined forces. [AdAge]
• Teen Vogue editor Amy Astley is making a cameo on Gossip Girl. [WWD]
• Painful truths: Your boyfriend secretly loves soft-rock, Celine Dion. [NYT]
• Time's 2009 "Person of the Year" is Fed chair Ben Bernanke. Yawn. [Time]

The Smashing Pumpkins frontman can now add Jessica Simpson as another notch in his rather unfortunate bedpost. Billy, it's time to stop dating below you and get back to work doing something great. We have suggestions.

There is cheap stunt cheaper than putting a lead character in automotive peril. It's so cheap it makes Serena's wardrobe look wholesome. Why, oh, why can't she die in a car wreck? Teasing us makes us powerless.

[Leighton Meester, Ed Westwick, and Laura Herring all take a look at Serena van der Woodsen's latest inappropriate attire on the set of Gossip Girl yesterday. Image via INF]

Gather a bunch of snobby socialites around a restaurant-prepared turkey and the results are just as boozy, screamy, and terror-y as all of yours. Maybe the rich aren't so different after all. But they're more powerful!

Even the best television shows run out of creative juice if they stay on the air long enough. But, when is the right time to give up hope a show will improve and abandon it forever? Finally, a handy calculation!

[Taylor Momsen predictably wore black (but an unpredictably long skirt) at the The Cinema Society screening of The Twilight Saga: New Moon in New York last night. Image via Getty]

Lady Gaga stopped by for a superfluous visit to badly lip sync "Bad Romance." There were plenty of bad romantic decisions as totally yucky couples started to come together and ruin the power dynamics on the Upper East Side.

[Blake Lively completes her transformation into Serena Van Der Woodsen by wearing inappropriate cleavage, a too-short skirt, and a clueless expression to the The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee premiere afterparty in New York last night. Image via Getty]

Click to viewThere was a manage á boring last night between Dan, Vanessa, and Lizzy McGuire. Watch the video if you're a perv. We care more about how it shifted the power dynamics on the show. But we don't mind pervs.

[Taylor Momsen is lucky she doesn't run into something dangerous with all that hair in her face on the set of Gossip Girl today. Image via Pacific Coast News]