The Daily News reports that Leighton Meester has sued her mother for misappropriation of funds intended for the care of Ms. Meester’s ill brother (Ms. Meester’s mother allegedly used the money for plastic surgery). While this is a grave matter if Ms. Meester’s claims are accurate, our understanding of Ms. Meester as the perpetual striver on the Gossip Girl set–constantly going the extra mile in her line readings; posing for sad Seventeen covers while Blake Lively gets Vogue, W, and Vanity Fair; trying for a novelty music career while Ms. Lively is a Lagerfeld muse; singing her heart out in the flopulous Country Strong while Ms. Lively lands huge movie roles with a bat of her movie-star eyes… Ms. Meester’s turbulent home life and humble beginnings (it had previously been reported that she had been born in jail) add an extratextual element to the seasons-long narrative of femmes fighting for social dominance. Ms. Meester has always had a bit more for which to fight than the blonde California gurl.
Of a plot twist on The Simpsons, precocious Lisa once remarked, “This is like something out of Dickens–or Melrose Place!” Of Ms. Meester’s rise, ever thwarted by demons from the past and her own understandably try-hard nature, we might paraphrase: it’s like something out of Thackeray–or Gossip Girl.
Ms. Meester’s country single “Words I Couldn’t Say,” below.
ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_
