The Ad is a Shakespearean themed Ad a la Rome and Juliet with the beautiful TV star standing on a balcony wearing an amazing gown by Vera herself, while her “Romeo” climbs up the ladder trying to get to her, in his James Deanesque attire.

Lovestruck, will be available in Europe in June and will be released in the US sometime in August. The designer describes the perfume as being about the feelings of  someone who is “overwhelmed, inexplicably, hopelessly in love,” said Vera Wang.

The shoot for the Ad was done far in advance of the product’s release and thus was shot in the dead of winter in NYC. Leighton described the shoot as excruciatingly painful and that she felt as though she was going to freeze to death. But from the image that was recently released, you would never know it, as the consummate professional not only pulls it off, but also played it off as though it was nothing in a recent interview.

Amazing job Leighton!

Find out what Leighton has to say about boys and love, Behind Closed Doors. It’s no suprise that she believes in “undeniable chemistry”–how else would she nail the part of Queen B and Chuck Bass’ lover on the CW’s best show?

Buzznet: Do you have a morning bathroom routine? If so what does it entail from when you get out of bed until you are dressed for the day?

Leighton: I do exactly what everyone does, my butler brings me breakfast in bed, and I get up when my massage is over. Obviously not the case, I wake up early usually but occasionally get days when I can sleep in, so by that time, it’s unfortunate to say, I check my phone and emails. Then I shower, clean my face with la roche posay and dr haushka products, chanel also makes a great foaming cleanser, brush my teeth, I decide what to wear, which is really fun because I have a huge, fairly organized closet, my apartment’s best feature. If I have time I make a coffee. But I’m usually out the door within 30.

Buzznet: Who was your first kiss? Details … How old were you? Where were you?

Leighton: I was 16, a guy I knew through friends from school, he was walking me home from the movies, and I honestly was so nervous and couldn’t believe I was getting my first kiss, so I don’t remember much else but turning around and running home. People would always play spin the bottle and truth or dare but I never went through with it when it was my turn because I didn’t want that to be my first kiss. My friend from middle school and I were talking about that recently, we were pretty much not interested in guys at that age.

Buzznet: What do you have hanging on your walls in your bedroom? Posters? Artwork?

Leighton: I have a beautiful oil painting my best friend/boyfriend had made for me. He told the artist about me, my favorite colors and poetry and she painted a large very special abstract work I have hanging in my dining room. It came with a disc of the music she listened to while painting it.

Buzznet: Do you have any fetishes? Any pet-peeves?

Leighton: I don’t like when people bite their nails, or have dirty fingernails. Fetishes? I have things I love like fresh flowers and chocolate always on hand, as well as my obsession with True Blood.

Buzznet: What is the first quality you look for in the opposite sex?

Leighton: It’s usually when I’m not looking, something about someone will catch me off guard. I love talent and intelligence. I believe in undeniable chemistry, it’s the strongest, most inexplicable attraction.

Buzznet: What do you wear to sleep at night?

Leighton: Nothing

Buzznet: Do you have a nickname?

Leighton: Lei, Lil Lei, Lei-Lei, Meenster, Meest, Mom…

Buzznet: What was your first job? What was your worst job?

Leighton: My first job was when I was eleven! I was in the newspaper in a Bloomingdale’s ad. It was when I first moved to New York, I had no idea what I was doing. I’ve been acting since then, and working non-stop since I was about 18, so I can’t complain. I’ve been writing and recording music for almost four years, and that’s been the outlet that’s caused so much growth in me. I babysat a lot as a teenager too.

Buzznet: What song do you know every word to, but are totally embarrassed that you know so well?

Leighton: ‘Without You’ by Mariah Carey, but I have no shame, I’ve listened to it to find emotion for scenes.

Buzznet: Which era do you most wish you lived in and why?

Leighton: I love ancient Roman history, my mom read us books about it when we were kids. The Roman Republic was so advanced scientifically. I love living now. People live similarly in every era. Wake up in the morning, eat, work, love, entertain yourself. I like the essence of the beat movement, I love love, and admire the movement of equality, freedom of expression, and change.

Buzznet: Do you have any scars? If so what happened? If not name one imperfection on your body?

Leighton: I have a scar on my forehead from falling off the bed when I was a baby, my big brother has it too.

Buzznet: When you hear the word “oatmeal” what is the very first thing that comes to your mind?

Leighton: Raisin.

Source: Buzznet


JJ: Your stylist Logan Horne boy was featured on tastemaster Scott Schuman’s fashion blog The Sartorialist.

LM: Yeah, he showed me! It’s cute. He’s a cutie pie.

JJ: You’ve been attending a few fashion shows this week. When you see a look you like, do you put in a request?

LM: Well, the other night, someone asked me how I dressed myself and I was, like, “My stylist dresses me” but I’d say it’s, like, 80-90% him and the rest is me because I’m very open-minded and we’re always on the same page – just very open-minded and it’s fun.

JJ: You went to a fashion show with Rachel McAdams – how was that?

LM: Altuzarra! Yeah, I met her there and she was nice – [photographers] are always, like, “Can we take a picture together?” but I can’t even describe it. She’s so beautiful in person! Very nice, too.

JJ: How was your Fashion’s Night Out at Bergdorf Goodman?

LM: Yeah, I was working all day long and Alexandre Birman, the shoe designer, I’ve been wearing his shoes a lot – [Logan and I] discovered them and they’re really, really good! I’ve actually been wearing them on the show a lot also. He’s Brazilian and he’s so funny because he and his whole group are Brazilians are so warm and so nice and very sassy. And my stepmother and stepsisters are Brazilian – my dad’s married to a Brazilian woman.

JJ: Do they speak Portuguese?

LM: They speak Portuguese – I know, like, two words because my brother’s baby – he has three children and they’re highly encouraged to speak Spanish, so if I’m going to know any language, it’s going to be Spanish, not Portuguese… and Portuguese is difficult.

JJ: What was it like presenting with Jack Black at the 2009 MTV VMAs?

LM: Lots of fun! He’s really funny. They told me that he was going to be dressed like his character, but… (laughs)

JJ: Where are you with your new album?

LM: It’s hard to say because I’m still working on it so much. I could stop now because I think I have enough material but I’ve come to a point where I’m slowing down. I’m still in the studio all the time working and writing and tweaking but it’s really, really fun.

JJ: Do you have an album title yet?

LM: Yeah, I think I figured it out but I can’t tell you yet. (laughs). Soon!

JJ: If you could encapsulate the essence of your album in one word, what would the word be?

LM: I think that the music itself is very, very fun for the most part. I have a few more ballady, emotional songs. But lyrically, it’s a little more docile – the music is very fun. I guess it’s dance music – it’s electro-driven but it’s still soft.

JJ: Is your leaked song Body Control going to be on the album?

LM: I’m not sure now because obviously somebody leaked it. It kind of sucks, but what can you do? But I was really happy because everyone loves it and I have a Twitter and everybody was always, like, “we love that song!” so it was nice to hear. It kinda did suck that I didn’t have any control over that. I did not have body control over that.

JJ: The next song you leak should be leaked to JustJared.com.

LM: If I ever leaked the music! I don’t know who did it. I think somebody hacked the producer who made the track. It happens all the time, which really sucks, but what are you going to do?

Gossip Girl‘s Jessica Szohr (Vanessa) is investigating.

Watch the clips below to get Ed Westwick and Leighton Meester’s take on the relationship as it stands this fall.

Related Gallery Links
Seventeen Magazine: Photoshoot
Seventeen Magazine: Magazine Scans

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Teen Vogue (2009) Outtakes
Teen Vogue (2009) Captures
Teen Vogue (2009) Behind Footage

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Teen Vogue (2009)

LOCATION, LOCATION: She may play one of Gossip Girl’s most infamous Upper East Siders, but Teen Vogue decided to capture Leighton in the city’s edgier downtown haunts. We snapped her at neighborhood spots like the Keith Haring Pop Art mural and the ax shop Ludlow Guitars. Before she was cast as Blair Waldorf, the Florida-raised actress actually spent part of her childhood in Manhattan. “I love this place,” she says.

TOP DOG: The star brought her terrier, Jack, to the shoot. The pooch, who frequently accompanies her to the set of Gossip Girl, has—like Leighton—become a fixture in the celebrity weeklies.

GAWKER STALKER: The Teen Vogue team was overwhelmed by the swarming crowd and their camera phones, but this was nothing new to Leighton. She has grown totally comfortable with shooting on the New York City streets—and with being Blair. “I don’t want to stop playing the character,” she says. “It would be like part of me going away.”

LEIGHTON, ON HER PARENTS’ HIGHLY PUBLICIZED PRISON PAST: “I wouldn’t have volunteered that information, but I’ve never kept it a secret either. It’s just not my past; it’s not my story to tell.”

LEIGHTON, ON HER CHILDHOOD: “I wasn’t born in jail; I was born in a hospital. I lived with my mother for a few months in a halfway house, and then I went to stay with my grandmother for a few more before my mom got out. But I had a normal life.”

LEIGHTON, ON CO-STAR ED WESTWICK: “He’s my favorite actor to work with. We have really good chemistry.”

LEIGHTON, ON HER DEBUT ALBUM SHE HOPES TO RELEASE THIS SPRING: “The music is very fun. It’s edgy, like electropop rather than bubblegum and you can dance to it.”

Related Gallery Links
Seventeen Magazine Captures
Seventeen Magazine (2008)

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Seventeen Magazine (2008)

Year of 2007
“The Sopranos” Final Season World Premiere
2007 The CW UpFront
2007 Los Angeles Film Festival – “The Beautiful Ordinary” Screening
Mosci 2nd Anniversary Party
The CW Network Upfront
David Yurman Celebrates Summer
Gossip Girl Premiere Party
Cast of “Gossip Girl” Visit MTV’s “TRL”
“Gossip Girl” stars visit “RENT” on Broadway
Tiffany & Co. Hosts The Launch of The 2008 Blue Book Collection
T-Mobile Debuts New T-Mobile Shadow
Roberto Cavalli Vodka and Giuseppe Cipriani Celebrate Halloween
Michel Gaubert Collaboration at La Maison Unique
2007-2008 New York City Ballet Opening Night Gala
The HELP Group’s 11th Annual Teddy Bear Ball
A Diamond is Forever and Laura Wasserman Host Neil Lane Holiday Diamond Preview

Gallery Links:
Interviews: the Tyra Banks Show

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Interviews: the Tyra Banks Show

She has fab style!Leighton Meester has exploded on the pop culture scene with the charge from her fan obsessed television hit, “Gossip Girl.” Maxim named her one of the Top 100 Most Beautiful Women of 2008, but it is her acting skill grabbing all the notice as she plays Blair Waldorf, the dethroned queen bee of the New York City teen scene.

In this new season watch for Blair to reassert her grip on her social scene supremacy, although Meester was expectedly coy on details. For a star heading into the new season of a show whose return could send its entire cast into superstardom, suspense in the future of the “Gossip Girl” storyline is the show’s best weapon.

There is no one on television who wields it better than “Gossip Girl.”

With only hours before boarding a plane at LAX to begin shooting the new season of “Gossip Girl,” Meester called SheKnows from her home in Los Angeles. She could not have been more thrilled to return to the part she calls, “the character of a lifetime.’

In a New York state of mind
SheKnows: Hello, Leighton, how are you?

Leighton Meester: I’m wonderful. I’m going back to New York today. I can’t wait to start shooting “Gossip Girl” again.

SheKnows: For you as an actress, who has participated in her fair share of pilots, to participate in one and have it take off like “Gossip Girl,” what are you feeling now as you’re heading to New York to start season two?

Leighton Meester: I’m just taking as it comes because, over time, you kind of get a little bit pessimistic about those types of things. Even though I don’t want to be, and of course, this is the one thing that I really attached to. (laughs) I love my character. I love the show. I love everybody on it. I certainly don’t want it to end. But, I take it a day at a time.

SheKnows: I’ve seen your work across the years and you know what goes into putting together a TV show, much less one that you are so involved with as a star.

Leighton Meester: Yeah, it’s a lot of work. And shooting in New York is work in itself. But, it’s the most fun I’ve ever had.

Leighton and Chase share a moment on SheKnows: How is it that shooting in New York in the sense that New York City is so intertwined in the “Gossip Girl” persona? Yet, you have also became a part of the fabric of the city, people taking pride that “Gossip Girl” is set in New York.

Leighton Meester: I’m really proud to be a part of that, something that actually shoots there. I think it would take away from the impact of the show if were shot anywhere else. The fact that we do go onto locations across the city is a huge part of it. It’s kind of a cycle, because the characters on the show are parts of the city and, in turn, we become part of the city because of the show…mostly, because we get to live there! I think everyone that came from L.A. to do the show, really fell in the love with the city.

Long live Gossip
SheKnows: When the strike happened, you must have felt as if you were on a rollercoaster. The show was flying on incredible buzz and word-of-mouth with many saying, ‘this is the show that saved the CW.’ Was the strike a weird time to frankly, stop?

Leighton Meester: It was. I think, for us, we were going to stop for a little while then anyway. I don’t think we were planning to stop for that long. (laughs) So when we came back, we could only do a few episodes to finish the season. It broke everything up a little bit. It was interesting because it gave us a minute to breathe. I think it gave time for audiences to catch the show. They re-aired the show during that time, and the audience grew. I think in the end it was good for us.

SheKnows: It’s one of the freshest things on TV and plays to so many age groups, when you first got the script, was it an overwhelming desire to be a part of this no matter what?

Leighton Meester: Yeah, actually. That’s exactly what it was to put it very well. I had heard about it. Somebody told me that I have to read this script. I was just in love with the character from the very beginning. I couldn’t play anything else and it’s proven to be quite wonderful.

SheKnows: I’ve seen the television work you’ve done before. You’ve been alongside some pretty big names whether it’s James Woods on “Shark,” or Kiefer Sutherland on “24.” What is it like to be a part of that legendary “24” lore?

Leighton Meester: I loved being on that show. That was one of the best shows I’ve ever worked on. Everyone is so awesome on that show. It was so exciting. It’s very mathematical when you get there, because of the timing, the continuity. They’re very specific about so many things. Of course, I died. (laughs) It was a very dramatic death.

SheKnows: You’ve joined a distinguished list of performers who have died spectacularly on “24.”

Leighton Meester: Yes, I’m part of that great perished list…

Leighton at a recent Chanel event
Dishing on Gossip
SheKnows: As you’re heading into the new season of “Gossip Girl,” I don’t want to keep you from your plane, but I have to ask, can you tell us any secrets? Do you have your hands on any of next season’s scripts?

Leighton Meester: I just got the first script and I’m going to read it on the plane, actually.

SheKnows: It’s such a show that has a fan base demanding answers. In this world of instant texting, also central to the show, is that an issue on the set that the scripts are under tight security?

Leighton Meester: Sometimes they make a point about it, usually because they are going to reveal something really big. But, you know what? They tend to be OK with it. Once everything comes out it is kind of surprise for everybody still anyhow. It’s even a surprise for me, like when they were revealing that Serena’s younger brother was gay, they told us, ‘don’t tell anybody.’

SheKnows: That was quite a moment and there was Michelle Trachtenberg at her evil worst. How has the addition of Michelle added to the cast? On many TV shows, new cast members can cause problems.

Leighton Meester: It’s actually not been awkward. I really like her a lot. I can’t imagine that being like that. We’re such a family and anyone who comes on the show. We are pulling them into that family saying ‘be part of the family, come on!’ She’s awesome and I really admire her. And she’s a really cool girl. She fits in quite nicely.