The wait is almost over for Gossip Girl fans!

The show returns to the CW March 8 (9 p.m. EST) — and PEOPLE has an exclusive look from the set of the first new episode in weeks.

Executive producer Stephanie Savage reveals the story behind these two revealing photos (but beware of spoilers!):

“We last saw Nate sleeping on a chair in Serena’s hospital room. Gossip Girl called Serena “Sleeping Beauty” and referred to Nate as her “prince.” Now we get to see this fairy tale for real — Serena and Nate, the golden couple, finally together. It was the reveal of S and N’s fateful coupling that night at the Shepherd wedding that set in motion the dynamics of our entire series, so it’s a big deal to finally have these two pair up. Blake [Lively] and Chace [Crawford] have amazing on-screen chemistry. Their scenes are some of the most fun and sexy we have ever shot.”

“[Our previous episode] “The DeBarted” left audiences wondering, “Who was the mystery woman Chuck saw at Bart’s grave?” Chuck wants to know too, and he spends [our new episode] “The Hurt Locket” tracking her down. Here we are shooting on location in the lobby of the famed Algonquin Hotel, where Chuck confronts our mystery lady (Mulholland Drive’s Laura Harring) and demands the truth about her association with Bart, and any information she might know about Chuck’s mother. This episode kicks off a big emotional Chuck story that brings him and Blair closer than ever. Ed [Westwick] and Leighton [Meester] are at the top of their game in this arc.”

Tell us: Do Nate and Serena make a good couple? What will Chuck find out about his mom?

Source: People.com

CW have officially renewed Gossip Girl!!

The CW Network has given early pickups to five series for next season, including four signature dramas and the reality hit AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL. All five shows will return in Fall 2010.

The series receiving early renewals include this season’s breakout hit THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, The CW’s most-watched show (4.6 million viewers) and the network’s number one show among adults 18-34 (2.5/8). THE VAMPIRE DIARIES premiere generated the largest audience in network history for a series debut (5.7 million total viewers). THE VAMPIRE DIARIES has improved The CW’s performance Thursday at 8:00 p.m. by 114% among women 18-34 this season. The network also renewed fan favorite SUPERNATURAL, which will enter its sixth season next year.  SUPERNATURAL has one of the most loyal audiences of any show on television and does heroic work in a perennially tough time period. It has improved over last season among women and adults 18-34 (29% and 8%, respectively) this season, a remarkable accomplishment for a fifth-year show.

Also given early pickups for next season are The CW’s Monday night sensation GOSSIP GIRL,which is The CW’s number one show among its target demographic of women 18-34, and Tuesday’s trend-setting drama, 90210, which sees some of TV’s largest percent increases from DVR playback, nearly doubling its women 18-34 live-only ratings once live+7 data is included. Wednesday anchor AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL will also be back for cycles 15 and 16 with superstar Tyra Banks and new groups of aspiring models. AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL continues to rank second in the competitive Wednesday 8:00 p.m. hour among young women 18-34 (3.4/10).

Source: Spoiler TV

PARK CITY, UTAH—On the evening of Friday, Jan. 29, Curtis Jackson—better known as the rapper 50 Cent—was milling about the red carpet before the premiere of Twelve, director Joel Schumacher’s adaptation of the 2002 novel of the same name, which wunderkind New York author Nick McDonell penned when he was 17.

It was Mr. Jackson’s third time at Sundance, but his first starring in a closing night film.

“Speedy turnaround, right?” he said.

In Twelve, which sold to Hanover House last week for $2 million, Mr. Jackson portrays a Harlem dealer named Lionel, who supplies a 17-year-old high school dropout—played, quite appropriately, by Gossip Girl’s Chace Crawford—with drugs to sell to all of his privileged former classmates on the Upper East Side. In one scene, Lionel gets killed while a young girl exchanges her virginity for a new super drug.

“I don’t mind dying in films,” said Mr. Jackson, amid an explosion of flashbulbs, “’cause you get up after they say, ‘Cut!’”

Unlike Mr. Jackson, Mr. Schumacher, who is 70, said he had never been to Sundance before, and he was proclaiming over and over that he was “the world’s oldest student filmmaker.” His hair was streaked with gray to the chin, and he was dressed in a denim shirt under a double-breasted black wool blazer, and a hemp necklace a shade lighter than his tan.

Mr. Schumacher, who grew up in Long Island, said he was drawn to the material of Twelve, which has its violent climax inside an Upper East Side palace crammed with 400 Marc Jacobs-clad teens, as soon as he read the galleys back in 2002.

“It smacked of the truth,” he said. “It’s a story where the characters are concerned more with celebrity than accomplishments. It’s really a portrait of bad parenting. It’s the same story in every high school, in every town.” (The film ends with a quote from Camus’s The Plague: “After all…there is more to celebrate in the human being than to denigrate.”)

Twelve is ranked dubiously in a critics’ poll on IndieWire. But at Friday’s premiere, John Cooper, the new programming director of Sundance, introduced the film by proclaiming that its cast was perhaps “the most beautiful in the history of the festival.”
Source

Twelve This teenage drug thriller, compared to Less Than Zero, was this year’s train wreck. (Last year it was The Informers and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.) Directed by Joel Schumacher, it prompted howls of unintended laughter at the press screening … so hey, why not pay $2 million for theatrical rights? That’s what Hannover House did, before it had even played to a festival audience presumably banking on the teen-friendly cast, which includes Chace Crawford, Emma Stone, 50 Cent and Kiefer Sutherland. Hannover says they’ll do a major theatrical roll-out sometime this year.
Source

Joel Shumacher, the man who famously put nipples on the Dark Knight’s costume in “Batman Forever,” isn’t known as a lion of the independent cinema. Still the director of “The Client” and “A Time to Kill” insists that he’s always had a penchant for mixing in low-budget personal projects like “Tigerland” with more mainstream fare.

“Twelve,” the story of a high-school dropout (“Gossip Girl”s’ Chace Crawford) who peddles designer drugs to spoiled Upper East Side teens is very much a passion project. Based on a novel by Nick McDonell, penned when he was just 17, it also involves a brutal murder, a false arrest and a lot of strung-out kids.

The movie, which stars newcomers like Crawford and more established actors like Kiefer Sutherland and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, has been tapped to be the closing night film at this year’s festival.

Schumacher, a Park City newbie, talked with TheWrap about branching into independent cinema at an age when many of his contemporaries are thinking about retirement.

How did you become interested in “Twelve”?
I was in the Taorimina Film Festival getting ready to premiere “Phone Booth,” when my agent at CAA sent me the galleys to Nick’s book. I tried to get the rights, but someone had already bought them and they didn’t want me for the project. So it came out, was a huge sensation and bestseller and time passes.

Nobody, though was able to get it made until [producer] Charlie Corwin got his hands on it and offered me the job. Can’t say it came back to me, because I never had it to begin with, but I always wanted it. Through various incarnations it strayed very, very far from the book. We threw that all out and just pasted Nick’s novel back in.

Is this your first time at Sundance?
Yes, I’ve never been here before. I’m the oldest living student filmmaker. I’ve made some low-budget films before like “Tigerland” and “Phone Booth,” but they were always backed by studios. I started off as a $200 a week costume designer and worked my way up into directing. So I really came through the studio system.

It’s really a thrill for me to be at Sundance at this point in my career. It feels like I’m expanding and not shrinking. I’m not just sitting around Hollywood trying to make a buck.

Has the independent filmmaking been a big adjustment?
There’s always been a misconception about my career, because I’ve been fortunate enough to have some really successful films. I think when “Car Wash” and “St. Elmo’s Fire” hit the zeitgeist there was this tendency to think of them as huge Hollywood films. That’s not true. I’m not a maverick independent director, but we made those movies on the outer edges of the system. The studios didn’t know what we were doing.

People see the [John] Grisham movies and the Batman movies and they think I only do blockbusters, but I made “Phone Booth” in 12 days with an unknown Irish actor — Colin Farrell — so I had pretty good preparation for doing a movie like “Twelve” when we only had 23 days to shoot the whole thing.
Read more here!

And check out this clip from the movie!

Are you ready to watch avid football fan Taylor Lautner throw around some pigskin Feb 6? If so, book your flights to Miami now, because DirectTV has confirmed to HollywoodLife.com that Twilight’s gorgeous wereboy is leading a pack of Hollywood’s most gorgeous men in a game of flag football in Miami Feb. 6.

The other beautiful boys competing (hopefully alongside and not against Taylor – his muscles are things to be both envied and feared!) are Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford, Entourage’s Kevin Dillon and Christian Slater, as well as a handful of pro NFL players.

But playing with the greats isn’t Taylor’s only reason for wanting to hit the Bowl. HollywoodLife.com overheard Wolf Boy predicting to Glee star Matthew Morrison at Summit’s Golden Globes party Jan. 17 that he’s confident whichever team brings home the NFC championship this weekend will be the ones to walk away with the Super Bowl ring.

As much as we want to trust your opinion Taylor, how about we make this more interesting? Shall we wager a little bet?
Source: HollywoodLife.com

Slipped into their announcement of the Coen’s newest feature film release date, Paramount took “Footloose” off their release schedule, Variety reported. In light of Kenny Ortega and Zac Efron both leaving the project, this announcement seemed a bit inevitable.

While we mourn this loss of a chance to see Chace Crawford (he signed on to the movie after Zac bowed out) shaking his booty in true Kevin Bacon style, we would like to propose some other potential musical films for Paramount’s consideration (and for Chace to also star in, of course!). Check out our pitches after the jump!

FLASHDANCE
Same generation, different dance movie. Sure it’s not a musical per se, but the story of a woman down on her luck and struggling to make a living would be especially potent in today’s harsh economic climate. And wouldn’t it be great to give Jenna Dewan a chance to dance on screen again in Jennifer Beals’ classic role?

WICKED
Why hasn’t this been made into a movie already? The Broadway smash hit based on Gregory Maguire’s best selling novel about the life of the Wicked Witch of the West is one of the best modern musicals and stories. Tim Burton at least took notice when he announced his upcoming film about Maleficent, so maybe Hollywood should take notice and adapt this amazing musical.

A “GLEE” MOVIE
Sure it’s only been out for a season, but “Glee” proved its chops by being awarded a Golden Globe for Best Television Series — Comedy or Musical (it’s both!) has proved it’s got the stuff. We’re sure the creators could easily whip up a movie story line, and it might help move the show to an even bigger following beyond just Gleeks.

SOMETHING BRAND-SPANKIN’ NEW
Instead of this incessant run of remakes, why doesn’t Paramount — or any studio, for that matter — try their hand at making a new musical to become a classic? It’s a new decade and a new chance to make history, so why not pick up some budding Broadway and Hollywood talent, throw Chace, Lea Michele, Hugh Jackman and Neil Patrick Harris in the mix, and make some box office gold.

What musicals would you like to see be made in a movie? Would you want Chace Crawford to star?
Source: MTV.com

Meanwhile, some bad news for Chace Crawford fans: Paramount has removed the remake of ‘Footloose’ from its release schedule.

Originally slated to open on June 18th, the film has been a troubled production since director Kenny Ortega dropped out over creative differences. No word yet on whether the production has been completely canceled or is just on hold until a new director can be found.

It was previously announced that Crawford, who can currently be seen on the CW hit ‘Gossip Girl,’ would reprise the role of Ren McCormack, a role that Kevin Bacon originated in the 1984 classic.

What “creative differences” the director of ‘High School Musical’ would have regarding a remake of ‘Footloose’ is beyond us.
Source: MovieFone.com

Chace Crawford has no hard feelings toward his ex, Carrie Underwood, who just got engaged to Mike Fisher.
When asked at the Golden Globes by UsMagazine.com if he had well wishes for the couple, Crawford, 24, said, “Absolutely! I wish her the best.”
Underwood, 26, was dumped by the Gossip Girl star via text message in March 2008.
“It was completely mutual,” she told Extra the following month. “We’re both fine…We broke up over text so… It’s like ‘peace out.’”
The American Idol winner got engaged to Fisher, 29, the Ottawa Senators center, last December. So far, they have “no date” set, Underwood said in a radio interview earlier this month.
“Our schedules don’t provide us too much time to get married and have time to really enjoy being married,” she said. “We’re trying to really work it out and move some stuff around.”
Source: USMagazine.com

From MTV.com
We already told you about the ladies to watch in 2010, but there are a few dudes you should keep your eye on as well. Whether it’s in TV, movies or music (or all three), these guys are ready to make some noise.

Chace Crawford
Age: 24

Hails From: Plano, Texas

In 2009: Crawford continued his TV reign as the adorable Nate Archibald on “Gossip Girl.” He also made headlines when he was cast in “Footloose,” replacing fellow heartthrob Zac Efron in the role.

Why He’ll Be Huge in 2010: “Gossip Girl” is set to return in March, and the TV stud is about to get edgy alongside 50 Cent in the Joel Schumacher flick “Twelve,” in which he’ll play an NYC drug dealer to the city’s wealthiest kids. He’s also looking to be this generation’s Kevin Bacon as he dances his way onto the big screen in “Footloose,” set to begin filming this year.

Choice Quote: “I’m a clean, sober drug dealer,” he said about his role in “Twelve.” “It was different. It really turned out well, and it was great working with 50.”