As they say, it’s more fun in Rio with a friend…or boyfriend?!

Kidding, nobody says that. BUT- Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester does seem to be having a splendid time on her vacation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.   Meester, who turned 26 on April 9, visited the famous Christ the Redeemer at the top of the Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park. There and hand-in-hand with her man, she took pictures and video with other tourists.

Who is this dude? Is he from Rio? America? We’ve got to know more, Miss Meester!

Photo: Fame/Flynet

Leighton Meester covers Marie Claire’s April issue. The interview that follows is incredibly interesting!

Meester is one of those rare children born with both full-blown ambition and the determination to avoid even the slightest derailment, Meester has been aiming at big game since grade school. Part of this is a rejoinder to circumstance. Meester’s mother, Constance, gave birth to her while serving federal prison time for drug trafficking. Meester was not, she has oft clarified, born in jail. She was delivered in a hospital, then transferred to a halfway house for three months, after which she was sent to live with her grandmother until Constance’s release. Her father, Doug, also served time for drug-related offenses. He and Constance would later divorce. The difficult facts of her childhood provided Meester with matchless perspective. Also, an ineffaceable blueprint of what not to do.

On her childhood:

“My family has a crazy history,” she acknowledges. “Probably the craziest I’ve heard of.”

But it was not, she is quick to point out, Dickensian in its misery. “I look back now and I see it in a nice light,” Meester says of her youth in Marco Island, Florida. “It wasn’t uncomplicated. But I played outside. I went to the beach. There were happy, fun times.”

Meester, like many hard-knock kids, has little use for self-pity. “You can take what is handed to you and use it as an excuse to mess up. But I’ve always handled what was given to me by life. I consider myself lucky. I was never lied to. And I was loved.”

When Meester was 10, she attended a modeling convention in Atlanta during her Christmas break. An agent snapped her up on sight and took her to New York City. “I ended up staying. I never went back to Florida,” she explains. “That was that.”

She lived with her mother in dodgy rentals in the West Village, then in Inwood, at the northernmost tip of Manhattan. Meester booked commercials for Bloomingdale’s, Stern’s, the Limited Too. She flourished under pressure.

“I worked a lot, even though I was just a kid. It seemed normal to me,” she shrugs.

When Leighton was 14, she left New York for Los Angeles, to pursue acting. She took acting classes alongside adults, not other children. ”I couldn’t relate to kid stuff. ‘Jimmy doesn’t like me!’ Who cares? I was worried we didn’t have gas money or food. Those were my concerns.”

She was determined to be successful. She opted to work – over having a boyfriend, or attending prom.  ”It was a lot of money for a ticket. And I just didn’t care that much,” she says.

“When you see how you react when you suffer,” she explains, “that’s when you know what you are made of.”

For several years, she was a prolific bit player, landing gigs on Law & Order, House, 24, and Entourage. The game changer came in 2006, when she landed Gossip Girl, an audacious, soapy drama adapted from the series of young-adult novels about the salacious lives of spoiled New York City prep schoolers. The show, a breakout hit, is now in its fifth season.

Meester is broadening her scope to film. This summer, she will appear in the Adam Sandler comedy That’s My Boy, in which she plays a neurotic bride who “starts out sweet, then gets crazier and crazier.” It is a familiar refrain. From her spoiled Machiavellian princess in Gossip Girl to the upstart underminer in Country Strong to the sapphic stalker in The Roommate, Meester specializes in elevating unsavory women above the “crazy bitch” stereotype. She doesn’t play the girl you love to hate. She does something far trickier: She makes you love the hateable girl. A quicksilver hybrid of Sharon Stone and Drew Barrymore, Meester has created something entirely new: the beyotch with a heart of gold.

Source

Leighton Meester’s character Blair Waldorf isn’t the only one obsessed with fashion!  Leighton was in a great mood as she was seen entering the Vera Wang show for New York Fashion Week.

Did you watch ‘Gossip Girl‘ last night? I started watching the show (all four seasons) right before the fifth season began and I’m completely addicted.  I resisted it for years, but now I know what I was missing out on! I hope it goes for at least few more seasons.

Photo Fameflynet

Chace Crawford and Ella Rae Peck film a kissing scene on the set of ‘Gossip Girl’. Just around the corner, Penn Badgley and Leighton Meester also films a kissing scene.

Who’s still watching this show? I can’t handle it, but I know there are still fans of the show. Speak now or forever hold your peace!

Photos: Fame/Flynet

Blake Lively turned heads on Saturday when she showed up at the ‘Gossip Girl’ 100th episode party wearing a see-through gown, by Marchesa. (Are you as surprised as I am that ‘Gossip Girl’ has lasted this long!?)

I’m kind of surprised she didn’t wear Chanel, since she’s the face of the clothing line.

Leighton Meester looks pretty – but Blake certainly steels the show. Even if you’re not a fan of Blake’s dress, it’s certainly more interesting that Leightons.

Also pictured: the boys of ‘Gossip Girl’, Penn Badgley, Ed Westwick and Chase Crawford. Costars Kelly Rutherford & Michelle Trachtenberg were also on hand.

Photos: Fame

Looks like Blair Waldorf isn’t getting her happily ever after!

Leighton Meester’s character was set to wed in a highly-anticipated fairytale royal wedding on ‘Gossip Girl’.

But while filming in NYC yesterday, it’s clear she doesn’t go through with it! The 25-year-old was spotted running down the streets making her escape!

This Upper East Side princess’ nuptials to Prince Louis of Monaco will form two sides of a love triangle.

The socialite will essentially have to pick between the love of her life, Chuck Bass, and her prince of Monaco, Louis.

Gossip Girl’s executive producer, Josh Safran, has reportedly said of the show’s milestone that it will be ‘big and lavish and twisty and juicy.’

The episode will also be the 100th for the CW show.

I’m not watching the show anymore (it’s just too much), how about you? Still invested in the show?

Photos: Fame, Source

Celebs were in large supply at the Dior fashion show held at the Musee Rodin in Paris, France on Friday. Designer Rachel Zoe and actress Leighton Meester sat front row with Orlando Bloom. Models Miranda Kerr and Karolina Kurkova walked the runway where Kerr’s hubby Bloom flashed pics and beamed with pride!