March 2011: Leighton Meester
Age: 24. Provenance: Fort Worth, Texas. A ways away from the Constance Billard School: After three-plus seasons of Upper East Side bitchery on TV’s Gossip Girl, Meester has let her purty drawl come to the fore in Shana Feste’s feature Country Strong, playing the aw-shucks, boots-and-mini ingénue to Gwyneth Paltrow’s aging, Mindy-McCready-rap-sheeted superstar. “I read the script and I thought it had an All About Eve kind of feel,” Meester says. “She just wants to be close to her idol and be best friends. She never gets that. It’s sad. It’s an endearing thing about her that she’s not a total b*tch—she does mean well.” And further broadening the portfolio with ... lead roles in three new films out this year: a travel comedy called Monte Carlo, a campus thriller called The Roommate, and The Oranges, an indie drama in which her romantic interest is played by House’s Hugh Laurie, 27 years her senior. “They have a real connection and rapport. And Hugh’s a really good kisser,” Meester says. “Just kidding—that’s such a delicate subject.”
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