The Gossip Girl Grapevine

Josh Schwartz left the sunny beaches of O.C. to bring his brand of teen drama to the gritty city. His new show, Gossip Girl, will premiere on the CW September 19th, and it's been filming all over town lately.

The series, which was gabbed about in The Observer recently, is based on the young-adult books of the same name and puts the spotlight on "the struggle for social supremacy among teens from both sides of the tracks in a posh Manhattan prep school." Think Ryan "Chino" Atwood meets Orange County, or Rory Gilmore goes to Chilton.

The NY Post gets the straight talk from producer Amy Kaufman who said “New York City is a character in the story, it’s not just a setting. It figures into the energy of the show and the way the story unfolds. We want to see our characters living and breathing inside of these environments - they are who they are because they grew up here.” New York viewers should feel at home as they also aren't (only) using typical NYC backdrops in their location shots, "but local haunts like the Front Room gallery and Communitea are stand-ins for characters’ shops and breakfast spots." The Post has a location map here.

Photo via tadekk's flickr.