What the Gossip Girls do on their summer vacation

Earlier this week when the New York Times reported that The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art has taken to shooing away visitors from their steps because of some indefinable construction project, my first reaction was: but where will the Constance Billiard social hierarchy sort itself out? Where will Upper East Side teens go to grope one another? For God's sake, where will Blair and Serena eat their breakfast?!

Then I realized I was being ridiculous: Blair and Serena aren't in Manhattan right now. Serena is in the Hamptons recovering from her murder confession, and Blair is in France sharpening her talons for an impending death match with a couple of Humphreys. They don't need those steps in front of the Met this summer!

Serena and Blair's alter-egos — Blake Lively and Leighton Meester — have busy summers ahead of them as well. Lively will be starring in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 alongside America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel. The movie was originally slated for release on August 8th, but Warner Brothers announced this week that they'll be moving it up two days to August 6th, hoping to generate some good buzz because the film has been getting great reviews in pre-release screenings. Ann Brashares wrote four books in the best-selling Traveling Pants series, and this movie covers the last three. So in addition to the the things the trailer promises — laughter, tears, and that generally awesome feeling that comes from just being a girl — there should be plenty of story to go around.

Lively also finished filming New York, I Love You earlier this summer, a movie from the producers of the critically-acclaimed Paris, je t'aime. New York, I Love You will be a collective work of 12 short films woven into one big treatise on love in New York City. If the premise of Paris, je t'aime is any indication, New York, I Love You is going to invite us to fall in love 12 times. With lead actresses like Natalie Portman, Christina Ricci, Rachel Bilson, Robin Wright Penn and Blake Lively, I don't think that is going to be a problem for me.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is also set to begin production this summer, with Lively playing the young Pippa Lee. Information about the movie is pretty scant at the moment, with the exception of a single paragraphs on Pippa Lee's web page. The first sentence of that paragraph? "Getting naked was the easy part." Hrmph. Easy for you to say, Lively, with your never-ending, perfect, perfect legs.

But, as I'm sure Blair's thinking, enough about Serena! Queen B learned the hard way not to compete with her best friend, and Leighton Meester seems to have taken it to heart: she's not filming anything at all this summer. No, she's working on her first album! Meester told People back in February that she was writing songs for her album during the writer's strike. Word on the street (Gossip Girl Blogs) is that she's putting the finishing touches on the album this summer. "[On] some of them I just talk," Meester said. "I do a little – not rapping – but talking, sort of spoken word. It's a little Fergie, a little like Gwen Stefani and M.I.A."

Now, I'm not a huge fan of rap or "spoken word," but I am an absolute sucker for big, brown eyes. So if Leighton Meester looks at me and asks me to buy her Fergie-meets-Gwen Stefani rap album, I am sure to say yes. Besides, who says no to Blair Waldorf? (See "talons" above.)

Blair and Serena's collective awesomeness threatens to take over our iPods and movie theaters this summer; we already surrendered our televisions last fall. The only question that remains: when will these Blair and Serena realize they have better chemistry together than either of them have with their priggish, drug-addled, UES ex-boyfriends? I predict it will happen in the standard season two ratings slump.

Until then, you know you love them. XOXO.