It wasn’t rare for Serena van der Woodsen, Blair Waldorf and co. to run into A-list stars over six seasons of The CW’s Gossip Girl, but some cameos from the original series were more “blink and you’ll miss it” than others.
Gossip Girl, which starred Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick, Taylor Momsen and Jessica Szohr, ran from 2007 to 2012 and welcomed many famous faces over the years. In addition to Armie Hammer playing Gabriel, one of Serena’s many love interests during season 2, and Hilary Duff’s character Olivia’s memorable threesome with Dan (Badgley) and Vanessa (Szohr) during season 3, Marvel star Sebastian Stan recurred as Carter Baizen on the drama.
Several other celebs, however, played themselves and made cameos on Gossip Girl. After a diss from Blair (Meester) during season 1 — “Right now Gossip Girl’s credibility is like Tinsley Mortimer‘s after a few martinis” — the future Real Housewives of New York City star appeared on the season 2 premiere at a party in the Hamptons. During the series finale in 2012, Kristen Bell, who narrated the show, appeared as herself alongside pal Rachel Bilson.
After Tim Gunn’s appearance during season 4, he labeled Momsen a “diva” during an interview with E! News.
“She was pathetic, she couldn’t remember her lines, and she didn’t even have that many. I thought to myself, ‘Why are we all being held hostage by this brat?'” the Project Runway star said in 2010.
News broke in 2019 that creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage were bringing back the Upper East Side universe through a continuation of the series for HBO Max with showrunner Joshua Safran. While some fans hoped to see Lively, Meester, Badgley, Crawford or Westwick return in some capacity, the execs ruled out season 1 cameos.
“We made a decision early on — and I was nervous about this decision, but definitely came to believe it was right — that the audience would never accept these characters if they were in the shadow of the original characters. They’re already in the shadow of the original characters, but if the original characters were there with them in some way, why would you want to briefly get to know Zoya if you suddenly can see Nate?” Safran told The Wrap ahead of the July 2021 premiere. “If Blair showed up for two scenes, you’d say, ‘I want more Blair.’ The decision was: Let’s get season 1 under our belt, and should we get season 2, we’ll have the chance to bring in cameos that are more than glorified cameos but actually give them story lines.”
Safran added, “Hopefully, we’ll get there and will reach out to the cast if that time comes and see if they’ll want to come. There are some cameos in season 1 from people on the original show, but not the series regulars.”
Scroll through to revisit the celebrity cameos from the OG series you may have forgotten about:
