"Gossip Girl": The Genius Of The "Best. Show. Ever."

Before you see them, you can hear them. The sound is low but insistent, a hum that gradually develops into something recognizable. OmigodOmigodOmigod. Dan DanDanDanDan. Gotalktohimgotalktohimgotalktohim! Samantha Ahern and a group of her girlfriends, in from Smithtown, Long Island, for Samantha's 16th birthday, are scurrying down 51st Street all at once, their legs moving quickly and purposefully, as if they were one big millipede in True Religion jeans. Their eyes are glassy, their camera phones outstretched. DanDanDanDanDan. It's the Ultimate Sighting. Penn Badgley, who plays sensitive and wise Dan Humphrey on the CW's teen soap opera Gossip Girl, is standing outside the Palace Hotel, where much of the Gossip Girl action takes place. It is there that, later today, Penn's character will take his girlfriend Serena's porcelain face into his hands after she has missed the SAT for reasons unknown. He will gaze deeply into her eyes as he says tenderly, "I'm not mad, Serena. I'm worried. Please help ... (link)