This weekend’s Times magazine features a fashion layout with Leighton Meester, the former child model turned actress who is best known for playing the spoiled Upper East Side princess Blair Waldorf on “Gossip Girl.” I caught up for breakfast with the 23-year-old Meester, who showed up wearing a mannish Ruth Reichl-meets-Annie Hall disguise, including a hat and respectable spectacles.

I had lunch with Jason Wu recently, who told me you were his date to an event. This is how rumors start.

He’s such a sweetheart. We actually went to Anna Wintour’s house for dinner. It was very cool and quite the fashion baptism by fire.I’d say. It’s amazing how popular he’s become. Every few minutes people kept coming up to the table to say hello to him — mostly to congratulate him on his work with Michelle Obama. Does that happen to you much?

No, no one really congratulates me on my work with Michelle Obama. [Laughs.] People are pretty respectful for the most part. I went to a Britney Spears concert recently and spent the first part trying to shield myself because I thought it would be madness, but the truth is that everyone was very cool and left me alone. But it really depends on where I am.

What about the paparazzi? Do they stalk you to the point that you have to wear full makeup when you take out the trash?

I would never do that! Take out the trash, I mean. [Laughs.] You know, I never really had a problem with them but recently there have been a couple of incidents that have made me say, “What?” I was getting in a car after an event — where I had been photographed all night, by the way — and I was done posing and just wanted to go home. When I refused to take any more pictures, one of the photographers outside actually said, “We know where you live.” That was creepy. But you know they don’t bother me on a daily basis. I can pretty much go anywhere.

Your character, Blair, is very carnal and knowing for an 18-year-old. Were you a precocious teen?

I actually find Blair naïve. I look at young girls like her who are obsessed with guys and with being the most popular and the prettiest, and I just want to shake them. Maybe you just grow up a little faster when you’re a young performer, but I was definitely never like that.

To what extent has your personal style influenced what Blair wears on the show?

Not at all. If anything, it’s the opposite. Her style is a little expensive for my taste but it loudly communicates that she is who she is and that she does what she does. I find that admirable. And she’s always dressed appropriately, which I can’t always say about myself.

Describe the look that your character has popularized.

It’s kind of this updated Japanese schoolgirl look. Every other outfit is larger than life — even when it’s prim and proper — and heavily accessorized. I wear ties, bows, colored tights, heels and stuff that you could never get away with at school. But I think that the most important part of Blair’s look is her headband, which is like her crown.

The references on the show are surprisingly mature, from “Berlin Alexanderplatz” to Sarkozy’s being a bad kisser and Kirsten Dunst’s stint in rehab.

It’s definitely a crash course in pop culture and global affairs. We just mentioned Madoff the other day. But remember, we’re talking about the kind of privileged kids who by age 10 already have 12 stamps in their passport. They’re very wordly.

Your character graduates from high school next season. What’s going to happen to your look?

It’s yet to be decided, but I’m definitely going to college — to N.Y.U. — and not wearing any more school uniforms. Thank god we’re not pretending we all get held back and just continue with high school like all those other high school shows. I guess I’ll wear magnificent clothes every day that don’t have anything to do with school.

You are working on a CD. What kind of music is it and can we expect a Lady Gaga makeover?

Absolutely. I’m determined to no longer wear pants. The music is electric pop, with a little bit of rock element to it. It’s not like bubble gum — it’s actually very edgy.

You’re also working on a couple of movies, no?

Well, first I’m going on a much-deserved vacation. Then I’m starting work on a comedy called “Date Night,” with Steve Carell and Tina Fey. I play the babysitter and they go out for a date one night and everything goes awry. After that I’m starring in this crazy movie called “The Roommate,” which is directed by Christian Christiansen and is sort of a retelling of “Single White Female.” I’m the emotionally detached narcissist, but it’s early days and I still don’t know who’s playing the psycho opposite me.

As long as it’s not Miley Cyrus. Lastly, I have to ask about a story that follows you everywhere. When it was revealed in the tabloids that your parents had been in jail for drugs when you were born, did you regret being on a show about gossip?

This is the type of thing that you can’t be too sensitive about — it’s not like I did anything that’s worth talking about. I love my parents very much, but people either continue or break the patterns of what their life should be and I just want to completely break whatever patterns would lead me to the same life choices that they made.

Source: NY Times Blog