The Sets on Gossip Girl: Where the Young & Fabulous Live

“Whoever said money doesn’t buy happiness doesn’t know where to shop.” -Blair Waldorf

Gossip Girl is a popular series on The CW that I got hooked on this year. The clothes and sets are fabulous, so today I’m showing you some of them for “Movie (& TV Show) Monday.” The camera could simply follow these characters around from set to set and I’d still be glued to the TV every week.

“Gossip Girl” is the name of an anonymous blogger who dishes dirt about the teens at an elite private school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Frequent targets of the blog include the kids shown above: Serena (Blake Lively), Chuck (Ed Westwick), Nate (Chace Crawford), Dan (Penn Badgley), Blair (Leighton Meester), and Jenny (Taylor Momsen). It turns out that being young, gorgeous, and filthy rich isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Rufus Humphrey (Matthew Settle) is a single dad raising his son Dan and daughter Jenny in this Brooklyn loft:

I love the loft set with these double doors and all of the exposed brick walls. It’s a stretch to believe that these are the “poor kids from the wrong side of town” who live here. Oh, to be this underprivileged!

Rufus and daughter Jenny in the kitchen:

Behind Jenny, who is sitting at the kitchen counter, you can see the dining room, which is separated by a wall of shelves holding old record albums (Rufus used to be a musician who had a big hit or two):

A juke box in the dining room and more evidence of Rufus’s musical past (he now owns an art gallery):

The dining room:

Serena and Dan in Dan’s room. You can see the exposed-brick wall behind them and the built-in bookshelves:

There’s a garage door that divides Dan’s room from Jenny’s:

Jenny’s room has a kimono hanging over her bed. Jenny wants to be a fashion designer and sews most of her own clothes:

Nate Archibald, played by Chace Crawford, has a much more prestigious address on the Upper East Side:

Check out the staircase in this place:

Looking from the library into the main hall:

Thanksgiving with the family is a little tense because his mom found his dad’s stash of coke, but his dad let her think that it was Nate’s. Oh, and then Nate’s dad was arrested for embezzling money, which made things even more unpleasant in the house. Don’t you hate when that happens?

The Palace Hotel is owned by Bart Bass, tycoon father of the entertainingly wicked Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick, who reminds me of a young J.R. Ewing in this role). The Bass men live here with Bart’s new wife Lily van der Woodsen and her children Serena and Eric (in Season One, that is):

The Bass penthouse in the hotel:

Blair Waldorf (played by Leighton Meester) at home, where she spends more time with her housekeeper Dorota than with her parents:

Overhead view of Blair’s bedroom:

Blair’s mom, fashion designer Eleanor Waldorf (played by Margaret Colin), in the kitchen:

A production shot of filming in progress:

There’s an amazing 360-degree virtual tour of some of the sets on the InStyle website if you want to see more. The interesting thing is how closely each of the houses reflects the personalities of the characters who live in them. Do you have a favorite character–or house?

Gossip Girl gossip:

• Leighton Meester, who plays scheming brunette Blair, is actually a blonde whose hair is dyed dark for the show.
• Ed Westwick, who play the dastardly Chuck Bass, is British. He’s reportedly dating the actress who plays Vanessa on the show (Jessica Szohr).
• Kristen Bell (from “Veronica Mars”) is the voice of Gossip Girl who is never seen.
• A spin-off is coming that will cover Lily van der Woodsen’s teenage years in California.
• The show is based on the best-selling YA book series by Cecily von Ziegesar.

If you’re hooked on seeing the houses from movies and TV shows, check out last week’s post about Brothers & Sisters, or click here to see the full list of Onscreen Houses I’ve featured. I also write about Celebrity Houses–check to see if I’ve covered any of your favorites!

Tagged as: Blake Lively, books, Brooklyn, Cecily von Ziegesar, Chace Crawford, entertainment, Gossip Girl, manhattan, New York City, Real Estate, TV