Following reports of tension between Blake Lively and her It Ends with Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni, Dailymail.com investigates a previous professional relationship the A-list actress had with her Gossip Girl co-star Leighton Meester.
Lively, 36, and Meester, 38, were the main characters on the CW series for its six-season run from 2007 to 2012, which ran for 121 episodes.
Lively and Meester played the roles of Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf, respectively, in the series, which also starred Penn Badgley, Ed Westwick, Chace Crawford and Kelly Rutherford.
“Blake and Leighton were not friends,” Joshua Safran said Vanity Fair in August 2017 to commemorate the show’s anniversary.
He compared the actresses to their characters, saying, “They were friendly, but they weren’t friends like Serena and Blair.”
Amid reports of tensions between Blake Lively and her It Ends with Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni, Dailymail.com investigates a previous professional relationship the 36-year-old A-list actress had with her Gossip Girl co-star Leighton Meester, 38.
Lively and Meester headlined the CW series for its six-season, 121-episode run from 2007 to 2012. Pictured in NYC in 2009
The artists had very different personalities, Safran told the publication: “Blake is very much in the moment. Blake knows what’s happening.
“You’re talking to Blake on a very contemporary level, and she’d say something like, ‘I’m going to do this tonight. Have you been to this restaurant?’”
Meester, on the other hand, had a “very distant and very quiet” demeanor and “after her scenes were over, she would walk across the stage,” Safran said.
An April 2008 report from New York magazine sources said that Lively and Meester tended to “avoid each other like the plague” while filming the series.
The rivalry escalated to the point that others involved in the case were effectively forced to choose sides.
In recent headlines about Lively, a number of Twitter users referenced Lively and Meester’s relationship.
“Watching all this Blake Lively drama while promoting ‘It Ends With Us,’” one user wrote, “makes me feel like we all owe an apology to Leighton Meester…”
Lively and Meester tended to avoid each other “like the plague” during the filming of the series, according to a 2008 report. Pictured in June 2008 in Port Washington, New York
The rivalry escalated to the point that other members of the business essentially had to ‘take sides’ in the matter
Meester, Lively and Taylor Momsen pictured in a publicity photo for the series in 2008
Amidst the recent headlines about Lively, a number of Twitter users referred back to Lively and Meester’s relationship
One user asked, “Why is everyone acting like Leighton Meester didn’t tell us about Blake Lively years ago?”
Another said: ‘Blake Lively acts like she’s better than everyone, she’s not even a great actress. She was overshadowed by a supporting character, Leighton Meester, on her show #gossipgirl.’
One user suggested: ‘Real people know Blake Lively has always been unlikable and that’s why she was never friends with the angel on earth Leighton Meester.’