Chace Crawford

Chef David Bouley forced his maitre'd to turn Lou Reed away from his new restaurant because he was wearing jeans and sneakers. [Eater]

Now that Taylor Momsen and Chace Crawford have been spotted making out, we're starting to think all these Gossip Girl hook-ups are some kind of PR ploy. [P6]

Jeremy Piven is getting a little sick of people confusing him with Ari Gold. [Gatecrasher]

Giuseppe Cipriani is hiding out abroad until his family's legal troubles blow over; the Ciprianis allegedly tried to use recently fired Gov. Paterson aide Carl Andrews to strongarm the State Liquor Authority into reinstating their restaurants' liquor licenses. [P6] 

La Cave des Fondus, which opens tomorrow in Nolita, will serve its guests wine and beer in baby bottles. [Down By The Hipster]

Before Penn Badgely acquired his sarcastic smirk, before Leighton Meester had a stylist, before Blake Lively's breasts became the lead characters on Gossip Girl, before Taylor Momsen's '80s glam hair, and before Ed Westwick mastered the Chuck Face, the young actors on the CW show were, shall we say, not quite as polished.

Digging through old photos of the cast, the Daily Transom discovered that the group of twentysomething lead actors--or teenage actors in Ms. Momsen's case--that have become the beautiful young fixtures on red carpets over the past year were once just goofy teenagers with bad skin and terrible fashion sense.  read more »

In an ideal world, if Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick, the young actors who play the evil but secretly good Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass on Gossip Girl, were to appear in an ad campaign, it would be for Marc Jacobs or Miu Miu or even Chanel; those are just the kind of labels we imagine Chuck and Blair promoting. 

But somehow, Mr. Westwick's and Ms. Meester's agents don't seem to get all of this. And instead of a high-end, Chuck-and-Blair-appropriate ad campaign, both Ms. Meester and Mr. Westwick are promoting sneakers. Sneakers!  read more »

The country might be in the midst of the worst recession in ages, but things are looking positively Clintonian at the box office. Last weekend High School Musical 3 and Saw V grossed a combined $73 million. Yowsers! While there are only three wide releases coming to theaters this weekend (one being Changeling, which opened here in New York last week), expect the surge to continue. Here's a handy guide to the weekends new releases.

The Haunting of Molly Hartley

What's the story: Just in time for Halloween comes the tale of a teenage girl who finds out that her parents sold her soul to the Devil.  read more »

Michelle Obama wore J. Crew for her appearance on Jay Leno last night. Regarding Sarah Palin's new wardrobe, Ms. Obama told Mr. Leno that "our policy has been whatever you wear, you buy." [People]

Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford told a reporter that his show's "racy undertone" is a "weight on [his] conscience." [US Weekly]

Model Carol Alt is suing ex-husband and former New York Ranger Ron Greschner over $1 million he allegedly owes her. [NYDN]

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Scarlett Johansson informed a photo-seeking bouncer at Lower East Side bar National Underground that she is "not the Statue of Liberty." [P6]

Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford brought a girl back to his apartment and she reported that the bathroom is covered in "crusty toothpaste and self-tanner." [Full Disclosure] 

Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM, both of whom were badly injured in a plane crash on Friday, are expected to make a full recovery. [US Weekly]  read more »

Chace Crawford is no East Coast elitist! The Gossip Girl star told reporters that Sarah Palin is "quite attractive" before refusing to "talk politics." [US Weekly]

Lydia Hearst is expected to continue with Fashion Week, despite being sent to the hospital for kidney stones on Tuesday. [P6] 

Reality show queen Lauren Conrad will be writing a series of three young adult novels for HarperCollins about "a girl who moves to LA and stars in a reality show." Hopefully the kids don't take it too seriously. [People]   read more »

Columbia students have been harassing James Franco, who's enrolled in an MFA program in writing. [P6]

Mary-Kate Olsen forced organizers of at the Rock and Republic show to re-seat her in between Gossip Girl stars Chace Crawford and Jessica Szohr, though she later obliged them by "[smiling] in the front row." [NYDN]

Sean 'Diddy' Combs totally lied about having a private jet!  [Palm Beach Post]

For those who don't know their Hamish Bowles from their Michael Roberts: The good people at Cityfile have put together an illustrated guide to prominent fashion week faces. [Cityfile]    read more »

Barack Obama's campaign managers are focused on keeping celebrities off the stage and out of sight of cameras in order to prevent further "celebrity" attacks from the McCain camp. [NY Daily News]  

That's not stopping them from coming to Denver, though. Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba, Eva Longoria, Fat Joe, Wilmer Valderrama and Sofia Vergara will reportedly party tonight at the Voto Latino DNC event in Denver. [P6] 

Richard Price, author of Lush Life and Clockers, compared his creative process to the way that a woman "of a certain age" feels when she has not yet had a child and her biological clock is ticking. [P6]  read more »

As our fascination with Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick continues, we direct you to a Page Six Magazine profile of the British actor, in which Mr. Westwick has a few things he'd like to clear up.

For one thing, while he may go out quite a bit, it's for fun--not tabloid mentions.

“If I want to go out and drink and throw a glass in the street, I’ll do it," he told the magazine. "As long as the reason is that I want to have fun and not that I want to create some sort of tension around me. Then I’d be a d--k. But I’m not.”

And secondly, he's not gay, people! (Even we felt the straight vibes just standing next to him the other evening.)  read more »

When actor Chace Crawford worked as a valet in New York, pre-Gossip Girl days, he was terrified when Suge Knight came in with his car (Mr. Crawford made one of the other valets move it!). [Us Weekly] 

Eleanor Wohl will reportedly throw a party on Sunday at her Meadow Lane Estate in honor of Prudential Douglas Elliman chairman Howard Lorber to thank him for helping the Chabad of Southampton in its zoning dispute. [P6] 

Gwen Stefani gave birth to her second son, named Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale--"Afrikan" is very in these days--on Thursday in L.A. [Us Weekly] 

George Steinbrenner and his son Hank are reportedly in talks to put on a show at Yankee Stadium featuring Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney that will rival the farewell shows performed at Shea by Billy Joel.  read more »

Paris Hilton has filmed a mock campaign ad responding to John McCain's references to her in his latest campaign ad. In it, she calls the Republican candidate "the oldest celebrity in the world. [NY Daily News]

Writer Jay McInerney says John Edwards's reported mistress, Rielle Hunter, is "a nice girl"; she was the inspiration for the character of Alison Poole in Mr. McInerney's 1988 novel Story of My Life. [P6]  read more »