Lights, camera, action.

Lights, camera, action.  The spotlight seemed to be on all this week.  And you can be sure everyone had a moment to shine.  Or fade…

The NYU campus was abuzz upon learning that a certain Hollywood actress was enrolling.  Endless Knights superstar Olivia Burke was about to start her freshman year at the college.  OMG!  A famous person among the average masses?  Amazing!  Everyone was incredibly excited for the starlet to arrive.  Everyone except Dan.  He had no idea who Olivia Burke was or what the Endless Knights movie franchise was.  Snob!  So it was no big deal to him when a cute blonde gave him some money to buy his coffee after he forgot his wallet.  She introduced herself as Kate and Dan assumed she was just your average liberal arts student at NYU.  But he was way wrong.  This was no regular student.  This was Olivia Burke!  Guess Olivia wanted to act like a normal, college student (and you can’t much more normal than Dan Humphrey).  Of course, Dan liked Kate/Olivia.  She was cool, funny and really beautiful.  And unlike Serena, she was out of the limelight.  Or so he thought…

Not only did Olivia bond right away with Dan, but it turned out she was also Vanessa’s roommate!  2nd time in my life I’m jealous of Vanessa (1st was when she dated Nate, obvi).  Vanessa could not believe her luck.  THE Olivia Burke was her roommate?  Pretty lucky for a homeschool girl from Brooklyn.  The only problem was Olivia had a totally obnoxious publicist named KC.  She tried to hijack their room and was very controlling of Olivia’s actions.  KC even made all the kids on the floor sign confidentiality waivers.  Rude!  Olivia was extremely embarrassed.  This was not the way she wanted to come across to the students at school, especially her roommate and floormates.  KC decided to make it up to them by inviting everyone on Olivia’s floor to the premiere of her new movie Fleur.  Nothing says “sorry, I made you swear to keep your mouth shut” like a movie premiere, right?

Meanwhile, it was the first day of school at Constance.  Jenny was queen bee. Though unlike queen bees in the past, she didn’t want to rule the school with an iron fist.  Instead Jenny wanted everyone to be equal.  Um gross.  But that was not the way Constance worked.  Someone had to be in charge.  The new mean girls, Carmen, Jane and Celeste, were not buying what Jenny was selling.  So they revolted.  Constance was going back to the old days.  And there was no way Jenny could stop it.  Bye bye queen bee status.  Looked like Jenny was a Brooklyn wannabee once again.

Of course, the mean girls were not smart enough nor did they have the resources to revolt alone.  They had backing from a higher power: Blair Waldorf.  Blair still hated college.  She missed high school and the laws of Constance.  She felt it was the one place where she belonged and truly knew how to navigate.  Plus B wasn’t going to let all she worked for be completely thrown away by little Jenny Humphrey.  No way.  No how.  Something had to be done.

All the while, Serena had to deal with the return of her mother.  Unfortunately for S, her mom had no idea that she had bailed on Brown.  When Lily returned she was not too happy to see Serena.  Serena was supposed to be partying it up with Hermione in Providence, not lounging around the UES getting her picture taken.  Serena promised her mother she would do something to keep busy.  And that’s when Serena decided to get a job.  I know, I know.  Serena van der Woodsen working?  The girl had never worked a day in her life.  But Serena was dead set on proving to her mother that if she worked she’d be making good use of her “gap year.”  In typical SVDW style she met with the best of the best in the fashion and art world.  Tory Burch, Georgina Chapman and Todd Diciurcio.  Unfortunately, all they wanted from Serena was for her to attend their parties.  But work at them?  No thanks.  Looked like Serena’s future was as bright as Lindsay’s leggings line

Luckily for Serena, she was at the right place at the right time.  While dining at Hundred Acres, Serena ran into Olivia Burke arguing with her publicist.  KC was doing everything wrong!  Olivia didn’t want to be seen as a difficult movie star.  She wanted to be seen as a down to earth college freshman.  Things only got worse when Olivia noticed paparazzi hanging outside the restaurant.  Ugh!  Serena overheard the conversation and let Olivia in on a tip about how to make it out of the restaurant unseen.  Olivia was extremely grateful.  KC liked what she saw in Serena.  She was like a diva whisperer.  Maybe Serena could go and work for KC?  Ooh.  A publicity job?  Just what Serena was looking for…

Or not.  Turned out the job was actually to wrangle actress Ursula Nydquist (and Olivia’s co-star in Fleur).  A fading star, Ursula was in a need of a comeback.  And she was hoping Fleur would be the thing to get her back in the public eye.  Ursula took a special liking to Serena.  She was easy to talk to and Ursula felt she could trust her.  She told Serena all about her part of Josephine Baker in Fleur.  Ursula was so proud of her work in it.  There was one scene in particular that Ursula especially loved.  It was when she sang for the Nazis in order to distract them while Mercedes (played by Olivia) escaped.  From the sound of that it looked like Ursula was on her way to an Oscar (or at least a Golden Globe).  Sadly for Ursula, KC let Serena in on a little problem.  Ursula’s favorite scene got left on the cutting room floor.  KC told Serena they should keep it quiet.  If Ursula knew she wouldn’t show up to the premiere and that would destroy her career.  Serena felt terrible but had to comply.  Getting fired her second day would not be very good for her resume.

Dan and Kate/Olivia were having an amazing time together.  Dan still had no idea who she was and Olivia loved that.  She even blew off work to hang with him (work was actually doing an interview on Larry King Live – okay, maybe even I would pick hanging with Dan over that million year old).  But then Olivia started feeling bad.  She didn’t want to drag Dan into her complicated life.  So they, or rather Olivia, decided to break it off.  Dan was heartbroken.  He finally met a non-crazy girl (i.e. Georgina) and that had to happen?  Bummer!  Dan called Vanessa up.  She was not in a good place either. Vanessa hadn’t heard from Scott all week.  Dan thought he and Vanessa needed to get out and cheer each other up.  Then Vanessa remembered.  She had been invited to her roommate’s movie premiere that night.  They could go to that.  And well, you know what meant…

Back in Constance drama, Blair decided to throw her annual sleepover party and invited all the mean girls.  How utterly high school of her.  Chuck did not like how Blair was behaving.  Constance was beneath her.  Blair needed to start acting like a college student.  He enlisted Jenny for help.  The two decided to attend the Fleur film premiere together.  Of course, they notified me and I sent out a blast about them being spotted there together.  When Blair received the blast, she was livid.  What the hell was Jenny Humphrey doing with her boyfriend at a movie premiere?  Watch out, J.  Blair was on her way…
When Blair arrived at the premiere, she was ready to rip out J’s blonde hair.  But before she could do that Chuck intervened.  He had sent in the tip in order to get Blair to wake up.  She was in college now.  High school was in the past.  There was no reason she had to stoop so low in meddling with a bunch of girls who couldn’t even vote.  Blair realized Chuck was right.  If she was able to make Chuck Bass finally say he loved her, then she could certainly win over a bunch of impressionable college freshmen.  Aww love!!  A photographer even asked her for a picture.  Blair was taken aback, but of course, quickly smized.

Dan inevitably ran into Olivia at the Ziegfeld.  He was confused.  What?  Huh?  Olivia had to explain herself.  Dan was beyond shocked.  As much as the two of them liked one another, it just seemed like it could never work out.  Dan couldn’t date another high profile girl and Olivia couldn’t stop being Olivia.  Kind of sad, if you ask me…

Ursula was so excited for her big moment.  But when the scene never came she was devastated.  All of her hard work was gone.  So long Oscar, hello Central Ohio Film Critics Award (if she was lucky).  Serena wanted to comfort Ursula but KC had a different idea of how to handle her.  KC wanted Ursula to go out in front of the cameras and cause a scene.  Serena was confused.  Is that why KC didn’t tell Ursula to begin with?  Did KC want her to have a nervous breakdown?  And the answer was “Hell yeah!”  KC said an actress throwing a temper tantrum made headlines.  Maybe it’d even be good for Ursula’s career.  But Serena stepped in.  She couldn’t let Ursula do that to herself.  And with that, S was fired.  Seemed like her gap year was falling apart right in front of her eyes.

But fortunately for Serena, Ursula had her back.  She told KC that if Serena didn’t work for her firm then she didn’t want to be a client anymore.  KC had to hire S back.  Serena was now a publicist.  Welcome to the real world, S.  It sucks.
Okay, okay so Chuck Bass might have hired that photographer to take a picture of Blair.  But whatever.  Blair now had a burst of confidence.  And with that confidence, B decided it was her time to do what she was born to do: rule NYU.  Yessss!

Olivia couldn’t shake Dan.  She really did like him.  And with the help of Vanessa, Olivia decided to get him back.  She asked Dan if he could give her another chance.  Maybe they could have something special together despite their differences.  Dan agreed.  Out of all the guys in the world that Olivia could have, she picked Dan Humphrey???  I’m going to need to reevaluate my thoughts on the kid…

And you’re probably wondering where Georgina was during all of this?  She was in Boston.  With Scott Rosson.  Um…You have no idea how worried I am about this news.  Georgina’s sole purpose of being is to ruin people’s lives.  I have a feeling a storm is brewing.  Hold on to your hats, kids.  Hurricane Georgina is on the horizon.  Xoxo Gossip Girl.

xo xo Gossip Girl