Leighton Meester has revealed further details about her forthcoming solo album.

The Gossip Girl actress plans to release the record in early 2011 and it has the working title of Love Is a Drug – after the recent single Your Love’s a Drug.

Revealing what fans may expect from her first CD, Leighton said: “Right now I’m just writing. I’m working on a lot of acoustic stuff, that’s where my heart is kind of going right now.” • Read full story…

Leighton Meester is nothing like her on-screen character Blair Waldorf. They may both be gorgeous and sweet, but unlike her Upper East Side counterpart, who uses her charm to manipulate others, Meester is the real thing.

We caught up with the actress, popstar, and Herbal Essences ambassador recently to uncover a few more surprising facts.

She’s a hydration addict.
While Leighton lists sunscreen and an eyelash curler on her can’t-live-without beauty products list, it’s water that’s really got a hold on the actress-singer. “[Beauty] is all internal,” she says. “I love spray bottles of water, especially when I’m on the airplane or at work.” The starlet is also big on Herbal Essences Hello Hydration shampoo as the base to her beautiful locks.

She’s a natural blonde.
“My hair is a dark blonde,” the current-brunette admits. “It’s brown for [Gossip Girl]. I’ve gone blonde a few times since I started the show for different movie projects and I got to go red.” • Read full story…

HollywoodNews.com: While she continues her acting career on the hit CW show ‘Gossip Girl’ and her new movie ‘Monte Carlo’ with Selena Gomez, Leighton Meester is also making some time to work on her new solo album.

Leighton’s upcoming album will likely have “a lot of acoustic stuff,” reports OMG, Music!. Her CD with the working title Love Is a Drug is expected to be released in early 2011.

But she’s in no rush to get things done as she wants to take her time getting it right and enjoying “experimenting and having fun” with this new project.

Source: Hollywood News

In a world where prima donna stars are a dime a dozen, it’s nice to see one grateful for what she has. Leighton Meester says she’s still thrilled with her role on Gossip Girl.

The actress, who plays Blair Waldorf, praised the writers for creating the “noble” character: “I am living my dream and having the time of my life!” she told Cosmopolitan.

“I’m so lucky because I get to do that all day long and play a character who has a lot of noble qualities as well. I am really lucky she is such a well-written character.” • Read full story…

She was walking the green carpet at the Teen Choice Awards on Sunday night, but Leighton Meester didn’t have time to party.

In fact the 24-year-old didn’t even have time to sleep – it was straight on the red-eye to New York, a six hour flight, so she could be back at work on the Gossip Girl set.

Showing no sign of tiredness, a bright-eyed Meester was shooting scenes at an Adopt-a-Pet fair, alongside French actress Clemence Poesy, who cradled a dog as they talked.

Meester’s character, Blair Waldorf, doesn’t seem too pleased to see Poesy when she first arrives as the charity event, but then joins her to look at a cage of dogs available for adoption.

Source: Daily Mail

Leighton Meester is the cover girl for Cosmopolitan UK’s September issue, which is on sale Monday. The Gossip Girl star has been busy filming scenes for the show in NYC and Paris, and will be heading to LA this weekend for the Teen Choice Awards. She found time to chat with the magazine about high school, beauty, singing and kissing. Here are the highlights:

• On playing a mean character: “I am living my dream and having the time of my life! I’m lucky because I get to do that all day long and play a character who has a lot of noble qualities as well. I am really lucky she is such a well-written character.”
• On whether people expect she will be like Blair in real life: “Most people just run away, so perhaps that’s what they’re thinking! I think for the most part people understand that it’s just a character.”
• On wherther her high school experience was similar to Gossip Girl: “The complete opposite, to be honest. I had lived in NYC before but not in the Upper East Side – it was in the Upper West Side, which was very different. When I was a teenager I was in a public high school. I certainly was not popular by any means, and I didn’t have a car or a lot of money, so it was very different.”

To find out Leighton’s plans for singing, her beauty regime and icons, how she stays fit, and who is the best kisser on Gossip Girl, just read more.

• On who is the best kisser on the show: “Me, of course.”
• On whether she has plans to do more singing: “Yes, of course… I like to make music – I love to sing and write, and I love to perform, so I’m trying to figure out the release of my album. I have enough songs I feel comfortable putting out, and I want to do it the right way.”
• On her beauty regime: “As far as beauty goes, I never wear makeup when I’m not working. Very rarely I’ll put on a little bit of concealer here and there and maybe some red lipstick just to make it look like I made the effort – it does wonders.”
• On her beauty icon: “I really love Julianne Moore for having fair skin and a really beautiful smile. I love Cate Blanchett because she glows from within. And I love how Helen Mirren has aged so gracefully. She’s gorgeous and quite sexy.”
• On what she does to keep fit and healthy: “Exercise is fun when it doesn’t feel like exercise. Swimming, walking around a new city while travelling and cycling are all great.”

Source: Pop Sugar

‘Gossip Girl’ actress Leighton Meester says she loves experimenting with different fragrances to suit her mood so mixes her own perfume.

Leighton Meester mixes her own perfume.

The ‘Gossip Girl’ actress loves experimenting with different fragrances to suit her mood but prefers to create her own scent from essential oils.

She explained: “I love perfume and I wear all kinds of different types depending on my mood.

“But for the past couple of years I’ve been making my own perfume out of essential oils, so I use that. It’s kind of a vanilla scent.”

Though the brunette beauty takes time to blend her perfume, she admits she doesn’t spend long applying her make-up every day.

She added to Britain’s Cosmopolitan magazine: “I never wear make-up when I’m not working. Very rarely I’ll put on a little bit of concealer here and there and maybe some red lipstick just to make it look like I made the effort – it does wonders.”

The actress also revealed her beauty icons to be actress Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett and Dame Helen Mirren.

She said: “I really love Julianne Moore for having fair skin and a really beautiful smile. I love Cate Blanchett because she glows from within. And I love how Helen Mirren has aged so gracefully. She’s gorgeous and quite sexy.”

Source: Contact Music

NYPOST/ PopWrap has highlighted 25 of the coolest women pop culture has ever created.

14. Blair Waldorf, “Gossip Girl”
Our favorite small screen schemer is currently the cunning, crafty and couture-clad Blair Waldorf.

It’s never a surprise when designers use Gossip Girl as inspiration. After all, Serena and Blaire have become fashion icons in their own right. But sometimes we’re left wondering when the higher end designers get involved — ahem, Matthew Williamson. It’s one thing to offer up clothing to the cast, and quite another to be written into the script.

Gossip Girl will have two episodes next season focused around Anna Wintour’s Fashion’s Night Out event, and for good reason. Last year’s evening consisted of the fashion elite of New York traipsing around Manhattan’s boutiques at all hours of the night shopping, dancing, and drinking — three things the cast of Gossip Girl does frequently.

But Vogue is becoming a little more involved with the Gossip Girl madness than you may think. Hamish Bowles and Lauren Santo Domingo — two prominent Vogue editors — will be making cameo appearances in the episodes.

Do we applaud Vogue for embracing the show’s success? For getting off of their pedestal and having a little fun? Or do we go with our gut and sit back and think, sad is the day that Vogue needs to make appearances on a teen soap opera?

Source: Styleite