On her character, Blair Waldorf:

“I loved the character and the script,” says Leighton, “I just understood Blair – she’s seemingly flawless but has the same problems and the same issues as anybody else has at that age. I feel like that’s why people find her so intriguing.”

On how she and her castmates are all BFFs:

"Everybody lives within a five-block radius” of one another. “Work is how I meet people,” she explains. “When you’re friends with somebody who does what you do, it’s easier. It’s the same thing when you’re dating somebody.

She also claims that Ed "I'm Chuck Bass" Westwick is her "favorite actor to work with" and that she and him have "really good chemistry." Leighton, you seem like a nice girl, but you might want to shy away from saying you have "chemistry" from a guy who comes off as a bit of a self-obsessed sleeze in interviews where he repeatedly calls the interviewer "baby."

On headbands:

I don't wear headbands, ever.

ZOMG. We can think of a few Blair-worshipping gals who will be a little upset to hear that.

It is also claimed that she is "totally comfortable" with the photo-snapping crowds that swarm around the GG cast while they are filming in NYC. Funny, we remember her being a wee bit camera shy.

Safe interview aside, we're still fans. What can we say? She/Blair Waldorf are the best part of Gossip Girl.

Cover Girl Leighton Meester [Teen Vogue]

Researchers studied the television viewing habits of 718 adolescents ages 12-17. Among those 718, 58 girls became pregnant over the course of the three-year study, and 33 boys were responsible for getting someone pregnant. "About 25 percent of those who watched the most [sexually explicit shows] were involved in a pregnancy, compared with about 12 percent of those who watched the least," the Post notes.

Researchers would not call out specific shows for particularly salacious episodes, but they did say that Sex and the City, Friends, and That 70s Show were among the programs watched by the teens involved in the study. Anita Chandra, one of the behavioral scientists who conducted the research, tells the AP, "We're not saying we're establishing causation, but we are saying this is one factor that we were able to prospectively link to the teen pregnancy outcome." Chandra also stresses that the sex on many television shows is problematic for teens because it is shown without consequences. "If teens are getting any information about sex" on these programs, Chandra says, "they're rarely getting information about pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases."

Laura Lindberg of the Guttmacher Institute finds the study overly simplistic. "It may be the kids who have an interest in sex watch shows with sexual content," Lindberg says. "I'm concerned this makes it seem like if we just shut off the TV we'd dramatically reduce the teen pregnancy rate."

All the experts concur that parental involvement helps reduce the risk of pregnancy in teens, regardless of whether or not those teens are watching high schoolers give each other BJ's on the new 90210. But Chandra did find that TV has become significantly more sexually explicit in the last few years. Simultaneously, after almost 2 decades of decline, teen pregnancy rates increased in 2006. Is there a chance that those horny Gossip Girl teens really are influencing real life adolescents negatively?

Study First to Link TV Sex To Real Teen Pregnancies [Washington Post]
Study Links Teen Pregnancy To Sexy TV Shows [AP via Yahoo]
Sex on TV Increases Teen Pregnancy, Says Report [Time]

Earlier: Teenage Pregnancies On The Upswing. Is Angelina To Blame?